depression and anxiety link

Hi

I have suffered from anxiety for many years worrying about things over which I have no control which often led to a viscious cycle effect.I have a stressful job and home life and have often felt completely overwhelmed by everything going on. In the worst times I would go for almost 3 days without sleep until my body would just shut down and sleep would kick in. Ive been prescribed zopiclone and diazepam in the past which certainly helped but  found i did struggle concentrating at work when using diazepam.Anyway I must say that the zopliclone has been great for sleep problems and I have managed to be in control of it rather than it of me. I was concerned about what I read about quickly becomong dependant on zopiclone and the potentiial viscious circle of it becoming less effective with over use and the insomnia rebound effect of trying to come off it,so Ive just been taking one 7.5 mg zopliclone usually on a friday and sat night to "catch up" with lack of sleep for the rest of the week. Ive recenlty had a  bad bout of anxiety however and my doctor has put me on 15mg mirtazapine once a night before bed. Im on my third day now and I must admit it seems to be doing a great job.Sleeping well and anxiety is much better...its almost as though an anxiety switch in my brain has been flicked off. I can put things into perspective now and Im not stressing about things outside my control which would previously overwhelm me and almost stop me being able to function on a day to day basis. The only downsides so far are headaches...not awful but "nagging" although Im told they should hopefully pass after the first week...and also a lack of being as alert as one would normally be. However those seem a small price to pay for the general benefit of feeling far more relaxed and peaceful.Early days but if mirtazapine continues to work like this Im happy to stay on it for years to come. I think that what I thought were anxiety attacks have actually been primariily caused by depresssion although I appreciate the two are linked.

One other odd side effect I shoud comment upon is that mirtazapine seems to have significantly desensitized me to pain and I wondered if anyone else has experience this with this drug? I was training in the gym earlier today and felt far less pain when weight training than previously,my body feeling totally numb,Very odd. Anyway good luck to anyone who starts on this drug.I will report back in a week or so with an update when hopefully the headches will have stopped.You also do feel very sleppy when first taking mirtazapine but again hopefully that should wear off after the first week or so,

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