Mirtazipine losing its effect after a month?

[AndrewCanada]

Hey everyone. I've been taking Mirtazipine for over a month now at 30mg, with clonazepam (to take, according to my doctor, until the antidepressant reaches its full effect and to help with insomnia).... and I'm noticing I'm tailspinning with my thoughts again.

The first two or three weeks were great. I was still feeling anxious but I could actually do stuff. Now I'm sensing the same old thought pattern coming back, and I'm concerned that I might get as bad as I was (where I voluntarily hospitalized myself). My heart is racing, I'm feeling lightheaded a lot, and I also feel as anxious - clonazepam does nothing to help my anxiety - it never has, but it's at least helped me sleep. Now I'm even losing that.

I'm also concerned about dependence on clonazepam. My doctor doesn't seem concerned, but I've heard pretty universally that this drug should not be taken for longer than four weeks.

I'm beginning to lose sleep again and my obsessive talking and thinking about health is coming back with a vengeance... with my normal fears of heart failure and etc. It's been a long time since I have been on an anti-depressant, so I'm not sure how these are supposed to work and how much they are supposed to calm down thoughts.

Questions:

Are these drugs supposed to take away the anxiety? Or is it possible to slip back into old habits, even while medicated?

Experiences with longer-term use of clonazepam?

[venusbluejeans]

mirtazapine as far as I am aware, like many other Anti-D's take up to 8 weeks or so to actually be working in your body properly... so your question of "Mirtazipine losing its effect after a month?" The answer would be that it isn't up to its full 'potency' in your system yet, so maybe the first month was a bit of a Placebo effect... stick with it for longer...... maybe you need to go up a dose too

clonazepam ? no idea sorry

[BikerMatt]

I would agree with Venus plus it's probably more that you're building a tolerance to the Clonazepam.

[lawstars]

Hi Andrew, I’ve been on mirtazapine 15mg for just over 3 weeks and I think I definitely feel that my body has adjusted to it with the result that I don’t have as many of the bad side effects (excessive fatigue, thirst, appetite) but along with this the lift in my mood and motivation seems to have dropped off as well. I wake up feeling both low and anxious and am easily overwhelmed. I’m seeing my GP next week and considering asking to go up to 30mg. The max dose seems to be 45mg so that might be something to consider with your doctor? Although hopefully you are now feeling better as I see this post was back in March! Let me know how you got on as I’m really keen to hear others experiences of Mirt - it’s my first time on it - I’ve had citalopram and duloxetine in the past but this time my GP suggested Mirt as one of my main issues was insomnia which it does seem to have helped with a bit although I still wake up a lot! Hope things have improved for you.