Mirtazapine seemed to be helping but...

[MyNameIsTerry]

Thanks Albert. That works out at £8.66 so it certainly saves me money as I have more than 12 prescriptions a year.

[Shazamataz]

At the risk of sounding like I get commission, do you know if Venlafaxine is available in NZ?

Also is it possible the doc didn't mention Pregabalin because of the cost, either to the health system or to you?

Also just wondering, did you mention on another thread that you came off Temazepam? I don't know much about it but could you be experiencing withdrawal?

And yes, Albert, couldn't agree more about our NHS, battling and beleaguered as it is. All of my children have received hugely expensive life saving care for free and I couldn't be more grateful for my prepayment certificate!

---------- Post added at 22:45 ---------- Previous post was at 22:45 ----------

p.s. realised that's a lot of questions Shaz, if it's a bit overwhelming feel free to ignore x

Hi Is, venlafaxine is available here, practically everyone is on it! I'm not keen to add anything else just yet. I guess this thread was aimed at finding if it was normal to continue having so many ups and downs this far into the medication.

Temazepam, yes I did reduce it but only by half what the dr said. She was pretty insistent that it shouldn't be a problem as it's a low dose, that said she isn't the one taking it! It sure hasn't done much for my sleep lately :(

I don't know about the pregbalin, on the NZ site for meds it is only listed for pain and a couple of other things so maybe not available for anxiety here. To be honest, on thinking about it the idea of adding anything else makes me more anxious so I'm probably best to stick with the Mirt but may try splitting the dose (though that makes me nervous too!)

[Istherehope?]

No, I can understand not wanting to add anything at this stage, and I can also remember being very anxious about doing anything that might make things worse - I cried every day for two weeks telling the crisis team how scared I was when I added Venlafaxine.

As far as normal goes I wish I knew. My experience on Mirt was up for two and a half weeks then a steady decline into the blackest place I've been over the next ten weeks. Yours sounds different though - more changeable, which is why I'm wondering about the Temazepam. Over here they don't recommend taking it for more than 10 nights because of addiction risks, I'm guessing it's similar for you?

Hugs to you Shaz...and wishing I could just take some of the rubbish anxiety away for you x

[Mugs]

Hi
Mirtazapine helped me sleep initially and decreased the morning anxiety but it was short lived, even dose increases never helped. Have just tapered off after being on it for over a year. Still have bad anxiety every day.
Hope it works better for you.