How To Taper Off Lonazep 1 Mg And Mirtazapine 7.5 Mg

I am a 33 year old male. I've been a low self esteem person from childhood. Due to some family tensions before my marriage and after my marriage (around 5 - 6 months from Oct 2015 to Mar 2016) I was under tremendous pressure and was constantly over thinking. That time around I was unaware that this behavior of mine would lead to depression. By the end of Feb 2016 I was feeling some symptoms like fatigue, fast heart beat some times, and reduced sleep (6 -7 hrs per day) and unknown fear. I underwent regular blood tests and other tests like ECG ECHO etc thinking there was some physical problem but every thing was normal in tests.

During last week of march 2016 I lost sleep completely for 3-4 continuous days. I was frightened and consulted a psychiatrist. My doctor also prescribed me the following meds: Lonazep 1 mg, zolfresh 5 mg, nexito 5mg. I took these medications for 6 - 7 weeks and my sleep improved while my other symptoms also reduced. Then for 6-8 days I took the meds on alternate days and then completely stopped taking them. My health and sleep was good without any medicine following 3 months from June 2016 to August 2016). During the 1st week of September I got a fever for 3-4 days followed by diarrhea for 3-4 days. I became very weak and my depression symptoms came back and I was restless and unable to sleep. I again consulted my psychiatrist during Oct 2016; he again put me on the same aforementioned meds for 1 month.

Around that time I was on job trails and got one good job offer which involves pre background checking. Initially I accepted the offer and was about to resign but then suddenly extreme fear came to my mind that "if background checking didn't go well then what will happen?" I didn't want job instability while I was under psychiatric medicine and out of fear I rejected the offer but later I regretted my decision. This whole thing made me more anxious and depressed. I was having poor sleep despite the meds. Then my doctor prescribed me mirtazapine 7.5 instead of zolfresh keeping the other medicines constant. During the next 2 months (Nov & Dec 2016) my health got improved. My Doctor asked me to taper mirtazapine slowly in a 3 week time frame (I was able to do so). Then after 10-15 days in Feb 2016 he asked me to taper lonazep also by 0.25 mg. I tried and was good for a week but then again my depression symptoms came back and I lost sleep. Then he kept lonazep 1mg dose constant and stopped nexito completely. After 1 month in March 2016 he again asked to reduce lonazep by 0.25 mg. But within 2-3 days my insomnia problem came back.

Now for the past 1 month he added mirtazapine 7.5 in addition to lonazep 1mg. And again asked to taper lonazep by 0.25 mg. I tried but again same story. Recently I have read a lot of negative material about benzos like lonazep that they will cause more insomnia problems and it's very difficult to get off of them after prolonged use. I am wondering why my doctor asked me to tapper mirtazapine initially instead tapering lonazep first (I would probably be off lonazep if I tried tapering it during the 1st 2-3 months of treatment). Now I am hooked on lonazep 1mg from the past 8 months and using mirtazapine 7.5 for the past 1 month. My depression is under check now and sleep is also OK. But mirtazapine is causing me constipation. I desperately want to get off this medicine safely. Please someone suggest me any safe alternative to these meds. I am also worried about why I am facing an insomnia problem the moment I try to taper lonazep even by a small amount of 0.25 mg? I am feeling like I developed dependency on lonazep and now even that alone is not giving me good sleep, I have to take mirtazapine 7.5 also. Please someone help me regarding a tapering schedule. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE (June 29th, 2017):

Recently I consulted some other psychiatrist who added buproprion XL 150 mg in the morning and oleanz 2.5 mg at night along with mirtazapine 7.5 at night and lonazep 0.5 mg at night and lonazep 0.25 mg at the morning. He told me that he will completely taper me off lonazep over a 1 month period, but I read lot about the side effects of oleanz 2.5. So I wanted to know whether it's good to switch to oleanz and slowly taper off lonazep as my 2nd doc suggested, or am I shifting from 1 problem to another (may be severe)? Are there other alternative ways to taper off lonazep?

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I am in he same boat, anti-depressants are terrible, and should not be prescribe to people. They do more harm than good, I do know the reason why I am having difficulty with depression is because of outside stressors, unemployment, financial issues, no support which are the reason why I was depressed in the first place. No anti-depressant on the planet is going to fix me until I can find balance. I am weening myself out of them believe me it is extremely hard, I hope to overcome this demon.

Good luck to you,

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