Cross-tapering

[NoPoet]

Hi all.

After nearly 2 years on 30mg mirt, I am coming off it due to the weight gain and tranquilising effects. I am currently cross-tapering onto sertraline 50mg. My doctor has decreased my mirtazapine dose with immediate effect to 15mg.

I am experiencing minor side effects which I believe I am handling well. Mirt has a short half-life, so I think I'd know by now if they were going to get worse.

My doctor has only given me 2 weeks' worth of tablets. This is week 1. He says that next week I should take the mirt on alternating days and then I'll be off it.

This seems a bit of a short timescale to taper off. Has anyone else cross-tapered? Were you given a short timescale to come off the original med?

[nicola1980]

Hi i cross tapered off mirt onto venlafaxine in 2 weeks, i was on 30mg of mirt and went from 30 to 15 then to 0 in the space of 2 weeks, Im not going to lie it was tough especially when i stopped the mirt altogether as that's when the withdrawal kicked in but it passed in a couple of weeks so just hang on in there, good luck x x

[AuntieMoosie]

I cross-tapered from Citalopram to Sertraline last year.

I had a few bumps to begin with as the Sertraline did cause my anxiety to hike a bit, but my doctor gave me some low dose diazepam which helped me loads :)

The worst side effects were over with in probably less than a week if I remember rightly, but it did take a while for me to start to feel the benefit of the Sertraline, but then, I'm one that takes a good time before I ever feel the benefits of antidepressants, with me, I'm looking towards 6-8 weeks being the norm for me. We are all different though, and I know that some feel the benefits much, much sooner :)

[Elen]

I was on 30mg Mirt and 40mg fluoxetine. I was told to stop the Mirt straight away and to increase the fluox.

I was a bit wary of that and to be honest I ended up cross tapering over a course of 2 weeks.

The only side effects I really noticed was trouble getting to and staying asleep but my stress levels had also gone through the roof at the same time so not sure which was to blame.

On the positive side with a combination of stress and stopping Mirt the weight has fallen off me as it really had become an issue in my case.

Good luck.

Elen

[NoPoet]

Elen: Thanks, that is really helpful! I used to weigh about 13st 5lb, now I weigh around 15st6lb. Funny how we hate the way we look when we're young, then we look back and think "How stupid was I, I looked good!" The increased stress seems part and parcel of using SSRIs unfortunately!

Nicola1980: Thanks! That's what my doctor wanted me to do, but I guess if you can tough it out during the withdrawal, you haven't really got that much to fear from anxiety :) How long after stopping did you get the withdrawal effects? Did you get them during the tapering?

AuntieMoose: Thanks! You seem to be on a mission to save everyone at NMP on your own :) Take my advice and use copy-paste for all your best advice as a lot of people come to NMP with similar problems and they won't have read the other threads. Hopefully the sert will give me the boost if I do get proper mirt withdrawal. You know, if you ever want to come off an SSRI or SNRI, speak to your doctor about flouexetine as it has very few withdrawal effects and they might change you onto it to help you come off. Just be aware flouexetine withdrawal effects, if they occur, can come further down the line, so don't think it's a relapse.

[nicola1980]

Hi from what i can remember the withdrawals kicked in a few days after i stopped the mirt completely, i had no real problems doing the tapering it was just when i stopped they hit me, mirt can be a hard med to withdraw from but if you can stick it out you'll be fine x x

[NoPoet]

Hi, how long did the withdrawal effects last?

[nicola1980]

Hi, i think the withdrawals lasted a couple of weeks, i can remember the first week being really tough, hang on in there it gets easier x x

[NoPoet]

I can't wait :scared11:

Lol, I made the stupid mistake of reading horror stories about mirt withdrawal, but I realised something: reading withdrawal stories is effectively pointless. A lot of anxiety and depression depend on the sufferer's perspective: do they see themselves as sliding down a black slope into hell, or do they see it as the final "tunnel of terror" they have to get through to get out into the daylight?

I choose to be the latter, as, it seems, did you. Congratulations :)