Mirtazapine and quetiapine - new prescription - very worried.

[Greycylinder]

Hi All,

I'm new on here having only recently started to suffer from anxiety. I had a break down last summer following a messy and protracted split from my husband. We have now reconciled and we are working very hard on making the marriage work. I have recently begun to suffer from severe anxiety and I am seeing an NHS psychiatrist who seems to be running me through a whole gamut of medication. Citalopram (which I took for years but had stopped working) made my anxiety soar through the roof. I also can't take Venlaflaxine because my pulse and blood pressure went sky high. So, in short, I was on 15mg of Mirtazapine , now increased to 30mg and she now wants me to take Quetiapine too. I am frankly scared. I seemed to be better on nothing at all rather than all of these drugs. Has anyone else had these problems and come through them? Should I just stick to what she's prescribed? I am feeling very despairing and my family are concerned too.

I see a counsellor and that hasn't really helped either and is very expensive.

Thanks to anyone who reads this.

[Benjammin69]

Hi you sound like me in August 2016.. I have been on a combo of various mirtazapine doses and quetiapine doses.... finally ending up on 30mg and 350mg quetiapine. The quetiapine is more for mood stabilisation than anything.. P.S - ask for seroquel extended release (less sedation) also mirtazapine is good especially if you tried others before ... I’m coming off it now and going on to Wellbutrin and quetiapine with buspar... then gonna slow down my quetiapine to only be on Wellbutrin and buspar


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[Greycylinder]

Thank you - so you feel it is worth sticking with this for a while? Mirtazapine had been helping me to sleep - at least the 15mg had but when I went up to 30mg it seemed to make me worse - intrusive thoughts and panic in the night. Horrible adrenaline type feeling in my legs and very scared indeed. The shrink adding in the quetiapine has thrown me a bit. I'm supposed to be going to Prague on Friday and I want to be 'OK' for that.

[Benjammin69]

How much quetiapine? I have found the XL version much better than IR version. Yes it made me mentally stable and I recently went in holiday the only reason I am changing is I feel mentally strong enough to deal with side effects to switch to another one so I can try loose some weight. How long was you on 15mg? Maybe 30 is too much. I just dropped off 30 in 2 weeks by fast but wanted off it


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[Greycylinder]

How much quetiapine? I have found the XL version much better than IR version. Yes it made me mentally stable and I recently went in holiday the only reason I am changing is I feel mentally strong enough to deal with side effects to switch to another one so I can try loose some weight. How long was you on 15mg? Maybe 30 is too much. I just dropped off 30 in 2 weeks by fast but wanted off it


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Thanks for replying. so have been on 30mg mirt for 9 days and I should start the quetapine on Wednesday - initially just 50mg. It's early days and I think maybe some people get worse before they get better?

[Benjammin69]

Thanks for replying. so have been on 30mg mirt for 9 days and I should start the quetapine on Wednesday - initially just 50mg. It's early days and I think maybe some people get worse before they get better?



You are very right! You do get worse before you get better and those worse days seem so long and drawn out. Therapy helps you rationalise things and in the grand scheme of things 4-6 weeks isn’t that long . I switched mine a few weeks back and I’m already on my 13th day on my new one - feel like shit but in the end you just know what your holding on for - does that make sense?? Quetiapine at 50mg will Most likely sedate your anxiety - a lot of psychs on the NHS now prescribe quetiapine instead of a benzo like diazepam/lorazepam as it sedates you.... if you see a private psych they will prescribe you what you need and doesn’t have the nhs guidelines to restrict them from prescribing


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[Greycylinder]

Ah OK - well, in that case I will try it. I have no idea how to see a private person or how much it would cost but I imagine I would start with my GP. Thank you for your advice.

[Benjammin69]

Ah OK - well, in that case I will try it. I have no idea how to see a private person or how much it would cost but I imagine I would start with my GP. Thank you for your advice.



I found mine through the Babylon app and st first consultation cost £49 and then it varies up to £150 but I found therm much better than NHs but I wasn’t in such a crisis at that point if that makes sense? I wasn’t thinking straight and was suicidal so that’s why I went with the NHS now I’m back at work and a bit more with it I can really take control of my health. If our have any questions etc you are more than welcome to message me about that combination of drugs etc


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[Greycylinder]

Thank you for that. I've never heard of the Babylon App. I'll look it up and see if it might help.

[Greycylinder]

Please tell me this gets better. I am on the slow release and so far it's been a lot worse. Tonight I go up to 100mg of Quetiapine with 30mg Mirtazapine. I have to get up at 4.30 in the morning to go to Prague. I feel terrible. Sick, headache, tearful, shaking - just awful I want to die. I don't think I can keep fighting this.

[Benjammin69]

Please tell me this gets better. I am on the slow release and so far it's been a lot worse. Tonight I go up to 100mg of Quetiapine with 30mg Mirtazapine. I have to get up at 4.30 in the morning to go to Prague. I feel terrible. Sick, headache, tearful, shaking - just awful I want to die. I don't think I can keep fighting this.

Hi mate.

Are you new to mirtazapine? I’m about to restart at 30mg after a failed attempt to taper off...

If you are new to it maybe the 30mg is too strong 15mg is normally the starting dosage

[Greycylinder]

Hi. I started on 15mg for a few weeks and then stepped up to ring about 2 weeks ago. So you think 15mg might be better? I did seem to sleep better on 15.