to stop taking my anxiety meds cos of weight gain!! Mirtazapine :(

[MyBeautifulSquid]

I have only been on them a week but Christ I am fucking ravenous all the time I have already gained 2lbs and my clothes are tighter. I am also quite tired and lethargic so feel uninclined to exercise which doesn't help

Has anyone else had this? did it level off at all? And Is there anything else you can take to counteract the hungry-ness ...have googled a bit and have read people say they have been given metformin at the same time as mirtazapine. I think as an anti-anxiety drug its helpful as I am already starting to feel slightly better in myself but fucking hell I don't want a 2 pound weight gain every week :(

If it carries on I will be tempted to not take them as tbh my figure is very important to me and I would rather have the anxiety !

When I was taking it I once had an entire Soreen malt loaf with thick butter for lunch

Also used to crave sugar so badly I'd make buttercream icing if there was nothing else and eat it from a bowl #mirtazfoodregrets

Hi there OP

If i were you i would go straight back to GP and get off mirtazapine and ask to be put on to either sertraline (similar to mirtazepine but without the weight gain) or an SSRI such as citalopram which i found very helpful for anxiety and with zero weight gain.

I am a thin person, always have been, without any effort. But in 6 months on mirtazepine i put on 18lbs, felt constantly sleepy and lethargic and even though i made myself exercise to try and counteract the weight gain it just piled on. Worst of all was the compulsion i felt to devour sugar, i could literally eat it straight from the sugar bowl, or eat entire tubs of haagen daaz in one go, which is sooo unlike me as normally i eat very healthily. On this drug all i wanted to do was eat sweet processed junk and sleep the entire time, also i felt almost drugged for the first few hours of the say afer waking up.

These side effects did not abate after the first few months so after 6 months i came off them gradually with GP help and would never EVER go on them again!!

Yep that's exactly how I am feeling Lilifer

It really is a horrible drug when you think about it :/

Ive been on Mirtazapine for nearly 3 years. Ive gone from a size 10 to a 14...Im only 4ft 10 so very noticeable. No idea how much actual weight Ive put on as I don't own scales.

I have to say it actually saved my life. I literally didn't sleep for 2 years before I was put on it. I had chronic insomnia and would go for days with absolutely no sleep.

3 years on I am sleeping, Im working nearly full time (Im a TA) and have the energy to play with my children. To me putting on weight is a small price to pay for my children to actually have their mum back again.

Really glad it has helped you Iheart

I actually feel a tad envious of the ones who have posted here but don't mind about the weight gain.... I mean it really isn't the end of the world is it fgs

It definitely bothered me...Im so short that it's completely changed my body shape so I look physically very difficult and Ive really struggled coming to terms with that. But I had no life before because I couldn't sleep...it was like being tortured every single day. I was physically so exhausted but just couldn't sleep. I would spend all day every day longing for my bed and then get there and literally lie awake all night.

If it helps my weight stabilised very quickly...once I put on the initial weight I didn't put on anymore. What dose are you on?

God yeah sleep deprivation is horrendous...I wasn't sleeping prior to taking the mirtazapine either.

I am on 15mg

Like iheart it really isn't that I didn't mind about the weight gain. I minded terribly, but I'd been through so many different medications that didn't help and was completely debilitated by my MH problems that my appearance had to come secondary when it came to getting well or I could have ended up size 8 but taking my life. If there are weight neutral Meds that could work, great but for me the pros of taking mirtazapine hugely outweighed the cons.

Weirdly enough, although I lost quite a bit of weight on Trazodone, I put loads on when I had DS (now 2.5), and it bothers me far less than the hunger and the prospect of weight gain on mirtaz did 6 years ago. I think I subconsciously feel that baby weight gain is an 'acceptable' reason to get fat.

Well I didn't take the dose last night and today I feel a whole lot more normal. Just normal levels of hunger although compared to last few days I honeslty felt i could take or leave food. also I was not completely exhausted to the point where every step felt like wading through treacle.

However I did struggle to fall asleep last night though :((( so not looking forward to tonight :/

Trazodone also has that 'zombie' effect the next day, but it does tend to wear off after a while. I recently had to increase my dosage and in the mornings I felt like I was mentally wading through treacle, but after a couple of weeks, that feeling faded away. I still feel pretty tired in the afternoons but I do sleep better at night.

Tbh I could prob handle the zombie feeling with bucketloads of coffee its the weight gain I cant /...will see what my doc says about trazadone

I do understand about the weight gain thing but please don't just stop and not talk to the GP. You've been prescribed this because your gp thought you needed it.

I am a mirtazapine long-timer. Have put on weight but it has sorted out a sleep disorder I have had for 21 fucking years. I now just take 7.5mg at night and am currently losing weight through a normal calorie controlled diet and exercise.

Hi ... I ve been reading a few threads about Mirtazapine & weight gain as that's what I have at the moment..
I have been trying different anti depressants over the last 7 months and just couldn't find one that worked for me ( I suffer with GAD ) Then the Dr suggested Mirtazapine and within 2 weeks I noticed a huge difference in my mood & also in my appetite!! I had recently lost 3 stone through slimming world so really didn't want the weight gain but after 4 weeks I gained a stone 🙈 So I went back to the Dr and we tried something different which did not work .Because it's been so long trying to find a suitable medication I decided to go back on Mirtazapine as I just want to feel "normal " again and I am into week 2 & have the munchies sooo bad but my mood is starting to lift again. For those thinking of stopping taking them because of the weight gain I would say don't because out of all the anti depressants I've tried these ones really do work you just have to really try and kurb the munchies , it will be hard but you can do it !! Sorry for the essay ! I just wanted to share my experience with you 😊

I've gained 3 stone on Venlafaxine, and mind hugely - but it has literally saved my life. I couldn't sleep, work, read or even get out of bed most of the time, and would most likely have ended my life if I hadn't gone on it. So the weight gain is a price to pay - but not too high in my view.

Prozac doesn't cause weight gain as much, not ion some anyway, but is less sedating which is why they maybe used it for anxiety. I get the same with amitryptilline , but it helps me with pain. Difficult. I hear good things about Preglabin for anxiety.