New to mirtazapine

If I were you I would start at 7,5 mg for a couple of weeks and see what that does. I am a father of a baby and a 5 year old. I have used 30 mg in the past and use 7,5mg now.

Hi dog lover 83

I was put on 30mg and it worked brilliantly for me, I'm reducing slowly now but it was very good and helped me a lot

You will put on weight and as you said you don't mind that so go for it

Good luck

Waza gives very sound advice - start on a low dosage. When I first took 7.5 mg I slept like a log for 10-12 hours to begin with, so you may need to be wary given the need to care for your little one. To begin with do not take it until you are ready for bed - at first I found that about 1/2 hr after taking I was so tired I could hardy stay awake to clean my teeth! In my case 7.5 mg was enough and lifted me clear of depression without the need to increase dosage at all.

Hi i started taking 15 mg on fri night it made me so tired i slept all night then had a 3 hour sleep through saturday which i cant be doing due to having 2 children iv still been taking the tablet on an eve an hour before bed i wake up fine but have noticed through the day im tired and zombie like and needing to sleep im thinkinh of only taking half the tablet tonight has any one else been like this

Hi there, I've been taking 30mg mirtazapine for 4 weeks now. They help me get to sleep, (I had been suffering severe insomnia not sleeping for 3 nights in a row) but I am having difficulty with tiredness during the day. Been told by the doc to stick with it a bit longer and the tiredness should go. Apparently mirtazapine is a good medication to give you that get up and go and give you energy to do things. I haven't had that though, pretty much the opposite. Although they do seem to be helping in general to reduce my symptoms of anxiety. Things must be difficult for you with a baby to look after but if your doctor knows about your situation they must have still thought the benefits you would get from mirtazapine would outweigh the side-effects.

Thanks all. I took my first one at 8 last night and had the first full nights sleep in weeks. So far today I've not felt any more tired than usual, though its only been one tablet so maybe that will come. The only thing ive noticed thats different is that I am so thirsty! Dont know if thats related or not though. Will see how I get on.

That's good, I bet you feel great after a full nights sleep. I was amazed at how it works to give me a full nights sleep every night. Especially after previously trying everything from nytol and that type of thing which have no effect on me, to walking 8 miles in an attempt to exhaust myself. And yes it makes me very thirsty too, I will go through drinks like there's no tomorrow!

HI,

i just wondered how ur getting, i will be taking my 7th tablet tonight and having good and not so bad days

lisa

Hi, 7th for me tonight too! I'm not sure how I am tbh! Sleepwise im having great nights sleep and not feeling groggy during the day. Mood wise though I am all over the place. Yesterday was a bad day and I went into a rage over the slightest thing (tin foil kept slipping off the tray so the tray got thrown across the room!) I was told it can take a couple weeks to see improvement so I'll ride it out till then and hopefully I won't have cracked up by then!

im not sleeping that great, but some days i have been alot more energetic, and others (like today) i can hardly move for tiredness!!

how are you managing with the little one? my husband works away, and i have a 2 and 3 year old to look after and get a bit worried i end up not hearing them through the night and stuff like that!

im on 15mg and have to move up to the 30 next week but just taking it a day at a time and will see how i feel by then, so far ive had no rage feelings and everything ive read on hear worries me that i get it, that would just top me off haha!!

I'm finding it hard with the baby. He is a great sleeper and sleeps through anyway but I still worry he is waking and I dont hear him. I feel guilty that im not as good a mum ad he deserves and that I dont do enough with him. I'm really hoping this horrible angry bit is just a phase and it will pass soon. I just keep telling myself that im going through all this to get better and just stick with it+

i feel exactly the same as you, its horrible i feel a complete failure but like you i keep telling myself this may help and to give it time. everytime i look at the comments it puts me off but i keep telling myself it helps loads of people, and to try stop focusing on the negative, which easier said than done x

I'm 2 weeks in to 15mg Mirtazapine and I don't seem to have any side effects whatsoever. I see my doc again next week, unknown for now whether he'll increase the dosage. Here's how I'm getting on with it so far.

So far I think I have a subtle improvement. Subtle's a good word, because the changes I notice are small and are really just absences. I haven't had a visit from what I call "The Claw" - anxiety related feeling like a claw hand grabbing the front centre of my chest - for over a week. I can stay with tasks more easily, and don't feel I need to drop them and run away from them at the slightest problem. There's no way to be sure if this is Mirtaz at work, a placebo effect, the day to day goings on in my life being a less full of perceived urgent demands, or a combination of all these things. I'll tell you though, I couldn't care less if it's placebo from knowing I'm finally taking a treatment - if it works for me, that's all I care about!

To contrast with some previous experience, about a decade ago when I was deeply unhappy I had several months on an SNRI: Venlafaxine. It was bad news. Now, I need to be fair to it, it /did/ work very well at calming me. I lost the ability to sob like a little kid, and I couldn't feel sad or angry about things. Pretty much a Jedi state! All the positive emotions were still in full force though. But that stuff was just too aggressive chemically, a hell of a dependance on it. Miss one and the headache arrived and "bwupple" sounds in my ears. Oh, and it made it almost impossible to reach an, er, "happy ending" in the bedroom. So "sod this", I announced and I got off it.

So far Mirtaz (or the Mirtaz + combo factors mentioned above, to be scientific about it) has calmed me, I can keep my mind on tasks better, I don't feel sad/scared/anxious or get overtly pissed off at even small annoyances. But it's /subtle/. I /can/ still feel anxious etc. if I really think about things that are worrying me. It's just that I don't think about them much at all now unless I deliberately try to. And it's easier to dismiss trivial annoyances as just that - trivial. And unexpectedly, not only are there no ill effects in the bedroom, there's actually been a bit of an enhancement! Again, I stress, this is me, and this may all be placebo in nature.

I'm only two weeks into the course, and I'm far from fully settled depressionwise. But so far I'm a poster-boy for Mirtazapine. I sure hope it only gets better from here!

Hi Dog lover, I hope you're feeling a little better now.

I know you're worried about looking after your bub and feel bad about not being able to care for him in the way you wish to - I'm having similar feeling about my family and my new job. I'm finding it helpful to keep telling myself that I'm sick and it's ok to do less than my best while I'm getting well. In fact I will HAVE to ease up on myself to not drive myself (even more) crazy while the side effects settle. Make haste slowly and all that.

If we had the glandular fever, no-one would blame us for putting ourself first for some weeks or even months. If there's anyone, like your Mum or a good friend, who could help you with your bub on a regular basis then it's ok to ask them for help. This is exactly the time when you should lean on your friends and family. I have to keep reminding myself that, because for some reason I urge my friends to ask for my help when I know they're doing it tough, but feel like I have to soldier on alone however bad things are.