Is it me?

[CareerChange24]

Wondering if anyone else has ever taken Mirtazapine and it ruined their mental health, not improved it. Three years ago I had spinal surgery after an accident and some other surgeries and health issues. I became very depressed. Other people commented and encouraged me, some said I had to, get on medication to get better so I thought this is what I needed to do.

The GP could see my weight and see me and I was not slim but overweight at 11 stone and 5’3. She prescribed mirtazapine. Fast forward three years later and I sleep for twelve hours when I can and feel sedated, I have gained four and a half stone and my mental health has never been so poor. I haven’t been myself in three years. I’m snappy, miserable and just odd in relation to who I was. I have over the past three months halved my dose from 30 to 15 and have had terrible dizziness and started to eat and sleep even more. Please someone tell me they are easy to stop and I can get my life back.

I think I meant - is it me, my fault for gaining all this weight and feeling terrible or have others experienced this on mirtazapine

Mirtaxapine made me gain weight badly. I was craving pasta dinners at midnight even if I’d had a full blown dinner at 7pm! I was one of the lucky ones who easily stopped taking it but I believe it is well known for causing awful withdrawal symptoms.

see your gp and get support to reduce and stop it then try a different antidepressant. Don’t leave it there years again if that one isn’t working. They need a few months to see if thy eyre helpful or not sure but if they’re not helping it’s worth trying another. With anti depressants it’s not a case of this works for one so it will work for all, what works well for me didn’t work for my friend. It can be a bit of trial and error to get a med that actually helps (and keeps helping)

How long did you take it for? To be honest, I’d really like to try no medication and therapy and then see about another one. The reason I’ve got stuck in a rut is I’ve read about the awful withdrawals and I’m terrified of going without sleep
and not being able to function with work etc. I could not believe how ill I was with dizziness when I lowered to 15mg.

No it’s not your fault. The drug is well known for that. I have a history of an eating disorder and have tried pretty much every antidepressant ever. Mirtazapine came up in convo and my psychiatrist said absolutely not because it’s known for causing rapid weight gain and it would just make my mental health worse as it would trigger my ED as I would definitely gain weight. He said it as if it was almost a given it would happen.

As pp said antidepressants are very much trial and error x

Im glad that you are in recovery from your ED and your psychiatrist did the right thing. I do feel rather done over by the GP as she could see I was far from slim so I really didn’t need to add in the way I have. The pharmacist when giving them me said ohhh I’m surprised she’s starting you on something as strong before trying the others as I asked a question about them, but I trusted the GP.