I was on mirtazapine 7.5 and then 3.75 for 18 months prescribed mainly for sleep anxiety and losing weight, related to IBS flareup after I quit a 30 year nicotine habit in June 2017.
My IBS has improved dramatically in the last 2 months since I started diaphragmatic breathing, and going off gluten, sugar and alcohol. I have also been working on my vagal tone, which seems to help with managing anxiety and bloat.
I came off mirtazapine in Feb 2019 since it wasn't helping me sleep as before (getting harder to fall asleep). Since then, my sleep has been erratic - some days I can't sleep for a couple of hours (until 1am), other days I wake up early (3-5am). Over the past week, I consistently wake up at 5:30am and average about 5 hours, and doesn't affect my functioning.
I have a wierd problem on some nights - every time I lie down to sleep, I feel a lot of heat behind the neck, and as I drift off to sleep, I wake up wide awake with body shaking. I did have occasional nights with mirtazapine with similar symptoms without the shaking.
Interestingly, I can fall asleep without any symptoms in the living room couch.
I am wondering if I am still dealing with some ptsd given that I had a panic attack 10 years back that triggered the sleep anxiety, which came back in a milder form as anxiety when I quit smoking.
Right now, I am thinking of one or more of the following options -
1. Supplements (magnesium / others)
2. Anti-histamine / GABA
3. Sleep hypnosis / EMDR therapy to get past any subconscious anxiety.
4. Treat for sibo (going off sugars and alcohol really seemed to help bloating, along with breathing) assuming a gut-brain connection
Thoughts / suggestion?
My IBS has improved dramatically in the last 2 months since I started diaphragmatic breathing, and going off gluten, sugar and alcohol. I have also been working on my vagal tone, which seems to help with managing anxiety and bloat.
I came off mirtazapine in Feb 2019 since it wasn't helping me sleep as before (getting harder to fall asleep). Since then, my sleep has been erratic - some days I can't sleep for a couple of hours (until 1am), other days I wake up early (3-5am). Over the past week, I consistently wake up at 5:30am and average about 5 hours, and doesn't affect my functioning.
I have a wierd problem on some nights - every time I lie down to sleep, I feel a lot of heat behind the neck, and as I drift off to sleep, I wake up wide awake with body shaking. I did have occasional nights with mirtazapine with similar symptoms without the shaking.
Interestingly, I can fall asleep without any symptoms in the living room couch.
I am wondering if I am still dealing with some ptsd given that I had a panic attack 10 years back that triggered the sleep anxiety, which came back in a milder form as anxiety when I quit smoking.
Right now, I am thinking of one or more of the following options -
1. Supplements (magnesium / others)
2. Anti-histamine / GABA
3. Sleep hypnosis / EMDR therapy to get past any subconscious anxiety.
4. Treat for sibo (going off sugars and alcohol really seemed to help bloating, along with breathing) assuming a gut-brain connection
Thoughts / suggestion?