Mirtazapine - Weakness?

Any change in SSRI will have an effect - it should settle down.

It's change which affects one.


Give it a few days and see, once your body has adjusted.

Cheers guys,

Im on 15mg at the moment. Doctor has asked me to come back in 3 weeks and report how its going, at which point he may increase dose.

It's only been 3 days and Ive been feeling so groggy and incredibly hungry all the time. I guess trying to lose weight at the same time is going to be a nightmare lol

I'll go along with that, Citalopram is a SSRI and Mirtazapine a slightly different class so you are having to deal with the switch over at the moment. I found Citalopram an awful drug to be on and Mirtazapine so much better. I had real problems coming of SSRIs(prozac was my last) and it did take me weeks of slowly dropping the dose other wise I felt like I was drunk all the time. We are all different though

It should be taken before bed as the lower doses will make you sleep like a baby. Prepare to be hungry and accept that you will put on some weight. Its just the way that works and as it has been commented on - sometimes other things are more important than an extra stone.

Just sit it out for a few days and you should be ok I did/do find it makes some joints ache at times and then it goes away - odd.

I did really well on Venlafaxine, I swapped to that from Mirtazapine for more alertness and less eating st. I didnt mention it before for 2 reasons; 1) I think you should give whatever you're trying a fair crack and 2) different things work for different people.

I found with Venlafaxine that it didnt change my 'uptime' if you know what I mean. It made me less sleepy and I found a place where I wasnt quite ambivalent as such, but where things that would usually be triggers kind of washed over me, I noticed them but they didnt send me off into a spiral of doom. Also, I could drink more.

The problems you're having I think are coming from the dose level, it'd make sense to go up as quick as you can as the sleepiness will wear off, but if your thing is to lose weight I think it can be done on Mirtazipine, but it'd need a lot of extra work to stay on top of it. I found it too hard so went to another, Venlafaxine was the third after Mirtazapine, I went through a tricyclic and another SNRI before setting on venlafaxine.

It was hard to take on and harder to get off though, had really bad head zaps going on and coming off it, probably like a proper flu rather than a cold. I came off them over a break from work as I thought it'd be hard and wanted a week or so to not have to really think or do much

Hi guys

Cheers for all the info.

Bit of an update. I stopped with the Mirt the day I posted this. Doctor said I should stop (phone call)

I understand it's a better drug but I am having a horrible time with it. Coming off cit wasn't difficult but I was on Mirtaz for a few days and I am NOT joking but within 6 days (1.5 days off it) I have put on FOUR KG. This is really distressing for me because it's made my stomach bulge out and I feel like utter crap now. My anxiety is tenfold worse and I am severely down in the dumps. I have absolutely zero energy still and find myself flipping out at everything.

This isn't good

Hey,
I didn't read everyones posts.
but,

I've been on Mirtazapine since February this year.
about 6 months ago I dropped to half a tablet so 7.5mg a day (well night)

I find i still oversleep (bed at 10 and won't get up till 9:30/10)
my weight gain isn't as bad anymore, when I was on full tablet and not working out i went from 75kg to 95kg
So i went to the gym 3 times a week and got myself down to 7.5mg a day and I've got my weight down to 80kg/85Kg
but i'm having to track all my food and train really hard.

A few weeks ago i tried to go without the tablets, I managed 2 days then got horrific headaches and threw up lots.
I went back on them and for first few days i felt so angry but back to normal now

I think i'll get appointment with Dr to have a look at coming off them as I don't need to sleep all the time and i HATE the issue with weight, i used to be able to eat large dominos every week and never go above 75kg.

Sorry for the ramble!

Just remember it takes 2 weeks to get used to new drugs.

You need to get your sleep pattern right. Buy a loud alarm clock and put it in on the far side of your bedroom, so you can't snooze it without getting up. Set it for 7am. Stick to that and you'll have to go to bed earlier as you'll be so tired.

Going to bed at 4am every night isn't healthy, and IMHO could be contributing to your depression and lack of energy.

Well, thank you people,

I can get going earlier if the need arises (different alarm). However, a rude awakening makes for a ste day without exception. Ì'm impressed with the 15 - minute sleep lag ploy and will try it.

I'm still wondering if halving the dose of Mirtazapine will help.

My 15 year old is on day 5 of this. The appetite is non-stop and this from a child who appeared to live on fresh air and I found it a struggle to get her to eat anything.

She was on sertraline but that kept her awake. She was up all night, most nights and it's taken about 6 weeks of taking nothing anti-depressant-wise to get it out of her system, she was just on phenegan as an aid to get her off to sleep which was helping. She's dropped that now and as said just started mirtazapine and the sleep bit on that has also kicked in. Whereas before any medication she went to bed at about 11pm, I noticed she's crashed out 9.30/10pm.

Too early to see if it is helping her mood yet but I really hope it does.

When I was on it the appetite went down a bit as I went up the dose, but the need for sweet things, mostly biscuits stayed the same.

There's a thought pattern about weight gain. If the feelings and symptoms of the depression are going, then that's more important than gaining weight. It's not worth getting into fat=unhealthy right now because it's less important. It'll be hard to lose the weight, but would you rather have a non-depressed bigger daughter or a depressed thin one?

The balance is finding something to replace or disguise the sweet stuff and appetite. You can get suppressants, more pills or different types of food. I used coffee and Marlboro Lights but that's probably not what you'd give to your daughter