Mirtazapine ...

[blameitonmyjuice]

Has anyone had ? I’ve only been on 15mg since Tuesday night but I’m really struggling . Everything smells and tastes horrible - from handcream which smells nauseatingly sweet, shampoo smells too strong , bread tastes of a horrible baby shampoo type thing ..

That and I can’t stay awake for more than 3-4 hours . Haven’t managed to go out for more than 20 minutes as I’m so sleepy/drowsy ... and to add insult to injury I’ve got pain in my joints I never had before (hip and leg pain - can’t even turn over in bed) .

When I do take it my speech goes slurred and I can’t get up out of bed for 2 hours or so (as my legs go heavy and weak) but I figured maybe that’s normal .. just didn’t expect to still feel so rough the next day . Just unsure how long to persist . I’m seeing GP again in a weeks time but this is horrendous .

Stuff of the devil.

Also makes most people put on weight.

I guess the anti depressant effect is that you're too knackered to think about anything.

I took it when I was rock bottom. First couple of days I couldn’t get out of bed.
The side effects wore off and it did it’s job. Probably took up to a week to calm down, and I always took it at night.

Not my favourite anti depressant but I was in a bad way.

Incidentally, you can be prescribed other ads at the same time for tapering off. Gp refereed me to a specialist to check this.

And good luck, hang in there xxx

nobaggypants it’s hellish ... I’ve had anti depressants before - sertraline , citalopram and Prozac - never felt like this . Absolutely awful - would give anything to stay in bed just now !

Obviously I can’t say for definite for you, but it calmed down a lot for me. It was shit to start with but I’d been on lots of others and nothing helped. I’m on a bigger dose than you at the moment and it does still knock me out, but I take them at night with my tea so the worst of the knock out is at night. If I take them in the morning I’m like a zombie.

I hope things improve for you, stick with it a little while longer 🤞🏻

Thank you KatyN , fingers crossed if I do have to stop it as it’s only been a week withdrawal won’t be too bad .

15mg is a sedative dose
30mg is a more effective anti-depressant but not very sedative.

I take it in conjunction with 200mg of sertraline.

I take the mirtazapine at night and make sure I can stay in bed for about 12 hours or at least make no plans for first thing in the morning.

The side effects do reduce, I have been taking it since June last year, and other than difficulty waking if I take it too late it does its job. The latest I take it is 8pm.

They were great for me because I was also suffering from insomnia so I was finally able to sleep. Funnily enough, 15mg makes you drowsier than higher doses.

I took them for about 6 years, on and off. Although the general drowsiness gets better, I always found it very difficult to wake up when on them.

They do also put you in more of a "dreamy state" which can actually be good if you are suffering from anxiety and your mind is normally racing.

Give yourself time to get used to them. Despite the sleepiness and weight gain, I still found them a lot better that Sertraline which made me anxious and it was hard to relax and sleep. Plus the side effects on Sertraline were much worse, for me personally, but we we're all different...

I've been on 45mg for about 3 years, starting on 15mg and then moving up to 30mg in the interim. The first two weeks were hellish, I was a zombie, but after that the fog cleared and i was much calmer. The panic attacks i had been having at least three times a day dwindled and I firmly believe that without it I couldn't have coped with DH's illness and death. It's the only antidepressant I have stuck with and been compliant with.

I have just stopped taking it 2 days ago. I put on a stone in 3 weeks . I honestly couldn't stop eating. I have social anxiety and have proprananol for that. I have no idea why I was prescribed this considering I have a history of eating dissorders.

I think the thing to bear in mind with all of the different varieties of AD's is that your brain has its own personal way of working, that is broadly similar to other humans but still has individual quirks, hence why my alarm system goes off for a fly and others don't notice a tiger.

It takes a lot of trial and error to get it right, and that part is hellish, loads of side effects as they get a balance between side effects and effectiveness for you. Also, because AD's take a while to build up, it means the initial phase takes longer, and why so many people (myself included) become non-compliant.

Once the medication has stabilised, then is the looking at why you have these symptoms, therapy for underlying history and learning to re-frame thoughts.

There is also the school of thought, that the anxious and depressed amongst us, see the world in a more rational clear way. Which I like to believe even if it is pseudo-science!

The thing is all these things affect people differently. I’m on 15mg a night to help me sleep and even with that I’m lucky if I get 6 hours. I did gain weight with them because everything tasted so much better! But that has stabilised now. I will say they are the one anti-depressant that’s really tackled my underlying suicidal feelings. I was never going to commit suicide but always wanted to die deep down. Now I no longer feel that way. So even if they made me put on 10 stone I wouldn’t have given them up. Sometimes it’s a balance on whether the positives outweighs the negatives. No anti depressant is “perfect”.

It's the only antidepressant I can tolerate. I'm on 60mg, which is higher than the usual maximum dose of 45, but can be prescribed in severe cases. I found it only really started to work for me at this dose.

The sedation was pretty bad when i started at 15mg, but decreased as the dose was increased to 30 and then 45. At 60 it has started to increase again, but I haven't put on any weight.

I didn't have any of the other side effects you mentioned, but we all react to antidepressants differently. Cymbalta gave me palpitations and made my face numb. A small dose of Effexor made me feel like a rabbit caught in headlights and doubled my blood pressure. Yet I have friends for whom those drugs have been a godsend.

The initial side effects should pass, but if not I'd have no hesitation about discussing other options with your GP.

Mirtazaline no doubt saved my life over Xmas. I was so ill.
I’ve gained 1.5 stone on it but I’m getting more than 2 hours sleep a night and i no longer feel like I’m just waiting to die.

I've been on it a year. The lower dose was indeed sedative which I loved as it calmed me right down (I'm far more anxious than depressed) but I was quickly put on 30mg and frankly it's doing sod all but I've heard awful things about withdrawal and even before I started it the medics told me not to stop it unsupervised.

I'm now stuck as Cmht have basically abandoned me because I'm not responding to/engaging with treatment (which is bullshit and a whole other series of threads in itself)

But...different meds work for different people, in the past I've been on meds that are widely hated but worked well for me, unfortunately I can no longer take those for a variety of reasons which is partly how I've ended up on mirtazipine.

shadow that’s the way I feel just now . My mind keeps saying , but what is the point in working/exercising/hobbies/eating well when we will all die anyway ... It’s a horrible conflict as I’m verging between being utterly terrified of dying so much so I don’t go out now , but at the same time feeling it’s almost inevitable ... if I think about it I get a horrible surge of adrenaline and panic .

I’m 21 stone 7 as it is so am not sure about weight gain . But I’ve no real appetite - nothing compared to what I did have . Could eat sweet stuff and probably McDonald’s etc but actual food I’d push away - made beans on toast earlier and it just made me feel sick looking at it .

Sertraline I found hellish , that was the trigger I think for much of this most recent episode to be honest , I took a weeks worth in February and felt suicidal within 48 hours of starting .

I do feel calmer I agree with that . I am just desperate to find ‘me’ again , I laugh a lot , I like the beach, swimming , yoga , I like shopping , sitting in parks - yet suddenly I’m low level sad all he time , constantly terrified and jumpy , hugely overweight and can’t walk around the neighbourhood without worrying that I won’t make it home . That isn’t me at all , but I don’t know how to break away from it !

I started on 15mg, then 30 now 45.
Within about 2 weeks I’d say that just waiting and wanting to die feeling had eased - I wouldn’t say I was hugely happier but I was calmer and comfortably numb which kept me alive.
Over the last few months, the surge of panic and adrenaline (which felt like the floor was actually moving under me so I’d have to grab out for things to hold, v frightening) over the smallest startle has stopped, the lows no longer feel catastrophic and I feel more balanced.
Only you can judge how you feel but I hope that helps a bit.

You poor thing. Been there. Like others have said, the low dose is worse for the sedative effect. Stick with it a little bit longer, it might be that your doctor changes the dose or adds another one into the mix. After years of trying different ADs (citalopram and sertraline being the ones I remember) at the moment I’m on 45mg mirtazapine and 150mg zaluron and it’s the only combination that’s got me anywhere. It’s a really personal thing though, and it’s taken a while to get the right combination. Do you see a psychiatrist or a GP?

Managed to walk round the block on my own - first time in weeks that I’ve gone out alone . Gave myself the excuse of having to stick glass jars in the recycling which is two or three streets away . Don’t feel that’s much of an achievement but it’s better than nothing .

No psychiatrist at the moment , just GP, got the offer of seeing a psych but the same one my mum sees and I’m not sure about that at all .

Well done getting out of the house, that’s great, especially when everything feels like wading through treacle and it would be easier all round to stay at home. Be kind to yourself, in general and in particular while you’re seeing how it goes with the tablets.

I have just started taking Mirtazapine after switching from fluoxetine. The tiredness and fog is dreadful. I feel worse now than I did before I started taking them. I Hope they are working better for you.