Orange Lightning
16-12-13, 14:22
...I'm beginning to count my blessings about the so-called "horrible" symptoms I had BEFORE I began stopping this drug, because things just got a lot worse. I'm on 15mg of Mirtazapine/Remeron a day, which I usually take in the evening, but if I want to deduce the cause of my apparent reflux issues, I need to get them out of my system before a 24 hour pH test takes place in February. I don't want the drugs causing invalid results, whether they are of benefit to me or not, so me and my GP have agreed to do this even though I've only had the drugs for about 3-4 months. Unfortunately upon reducing my dose to 7.5mg a day - which is planned to occur for 4-5 weeks - for 2 days so far, my symptoms have done a U-Turn and become worse than usual as a result.
Before when I was on 15mg of Mirtazapine, I experienced:
- Constant burping and throat gurgling if I moved or ate/drank anything.
- Throat clearing and mucus in the throat.
- A "lump in the throat" feeling; how it feels tended to vary.
- Occasionally heavy bouts of "hunger pains"/indigestion. Not often but more than I used to.
- More depression phases than usual.
And now I'm reducing the dose, I seem to have:
- Palpitations. These don't worry me as I've had my heart checked out, but they are still happening, so...
- Heartburn and occasional nausea. I might add that I NEVER used to get heartburn until my anxiety kicked in a year, so I think they're linked, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
- Shivers/Hot flushes. A good mix of feeling hot and cold.
- Still some burping, but not as often as before.
- A sore throat I just can't get rid of.
- And MOST WORRYING OF ALL the return of my most dreaded symptom in the history of the world. A burning sensation in my throat just above and below my Adam's Apple.
More about the burning, because it worries me so. It occurs randomly. It happens along with a feeling gas move up my throat, although if I burp I don't bring up any burning liquid/goo of any sort. It can happen after eating, or in the case of this morning, almost as soon as I wake up. Even water triggers it sometimes, and the foods I ate before that never caused burning before can cause it too. These include ones from special, reflux diets including fish, vegetables and even gravy... And weirdly enough, changing my body position (e.g. standing up from sitting down, or hunching over from leaning back) can get rid of it.
Now recently I just took a "rapid spit test" which is used to detect LPR reflux. I've sent off a total of 6 samples from 6 different times and events and 5/6 times the test has come back negative. Something of note is that I took the test both when my throat burned and when I needed to clear my throat a lot. The tests - and a specialist who organises them - suggest that my reflux can fall into the normal range, or that random chance caused my single, low-positive result. They also said anxiety/stress can cause my symptoms, but I wonder...
So to summarise, a question. Does anyone else experience the same kind of symptoms I do? And since they're getting worse with the ceasing of my antidepressant, can I conclude anxiety is causing them? Thank you very much for any help you can offer, I really appreciate it.
P.S. Apologies about how much I post; despite the tone of this post, I'm actually seeing this in a more positive light, as it means that anxiety might be causing my troubles, which CAN be fixed forever, where LPR cannot.
Before when I was on 15mg of Mirtazapine, I experienced:
- Constant burping and throat gurgling if I moved or ate/drank anything.
- Throat clearing and mucus in the throat.
- A "lump in the throat" feeling; how it feels tended to vary.
- Occasionally heavy bouts of "hunger pains"/indigestion. Not often but more than I used to.
- More depression phases than usual.
And now I'm reducing the dose, I seem to have:
- Palpitations. These don't worry me as I've had my heart checked out, but they are still happening, so...
- Heartburn and occasional nausea. I might add that I NEVER used to get heartburn until my anxiety kicked in a year, so I think they're linked, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
- Shivers/Hot flushes. A good mix of feeling hot and cold.
- Still some burping, but not as often as before.
- A sore throat I just can't get rid of.
- And MOST WORRYING OF ALL the return of my most dreaded symptom in the history of the world. A burning sensation in my throat just above and below my Adam's Apple.
More about the burning, because it worries me so. It occurs randomly. It happens along with a feeling gas move up my throat, although if I burp I don't bring up any burning liquid/goo of any sort. It can happen after eating, or in the case of this morning, almost as soon as I wake up. Even water triggers it sometimes, and the foods I ate before that never caused burning before can cause it too. These include ones from special, reflux diets including fish, vegetables and even gravy... And weirdly enough, changing my body position (e.g. standing up from sitting down, or hunching over from leaning back) can get rid of it.
Now recently I just took a "rapid spit test" which is used to detect LPR reflux. I've sent off a total of 6 samples from 6 different times and events and 5/6 times the test has come back negative. Something of note is that I took the test both when my throat burned and when I needed to clear my throat a lot. The tests - and a specialist who organises them - suggest that my reflux can fall into the normal range, or that random chance caused my single, low-positive result. They also said anxiety/stress can cause my symptoms, but I wonder...
So to summarise, a question. Does anyone else experience the same kind of symptoms I do? And since they're getting worse with the ceasing of my antidepressant, can I conclude anxiety is causing them? Thank you very much for any help you can offer, I really appreciate it.
P.S. Apologies about how much I post; despite the tone of this post, I'm actually seeing this in a more positive light, as it means that anxiety might be causing my troubles, which CAN be fixed forever, where LPR cannot.