due to introduce mirt tonight

Thank you sheila ♥

Bless you Luis for your lovely post. Can you believ after my first tablet I started to feel better! After six months on cit with zero appetite, mertazipine has brought my appetite back. In fact I am enjoying anything I can get a hold of to eat! I'm not too worried about weight gain as I lost so much weight I cannot recognise my former self! I felt a little tired the first day but I had renewed energy if that makes sense. I am currently taking 15mg mirt at night and 10mg cit in the morning. I did have some strange dreams on the first night but nothing last night which was day.2.

I am feeling so much better I can't believe my luck! But I know it's early days yet. With citalopram I got horrendous side effects with mert a bit more thirsty and a little tired but nothing to complain about.

Please let me know how you get on xxx

Forgot to mention. ..For me i would give this drug a 10 rating! Brilliant. (Hope that don't change down the line lol)

I'm really pleased it seems to be working well for you, Lorraine. I think those people for whom it starts working immediately are the ones it suits the most. Like you, I noticed a difference within a day. I thought it couldn't be that soon, but it was and the good effects just kept coming. I had almost four good years on mirt before it stopped working for me. I hope you get a good run from it too.

Thank you so much evergreen. Cannot believe the improvement! So wish I had been prescribed this in the first instance.

I thought I was imagining it but now you have said the same happened with you....I'm so happy! Hope this continues!

Thank you so much for your support. It has meant so much to me xxxx

That will wear off after a week or so. Then you will feel normal.

What dose are you on, Neverending?  Try halving your tablet and see if that makes any difference.  You may be particularly sensitive.

 

Thank you Evergreen! However one day feeling like this is, is more than I can handle😒

You have another thread that I responded to.  Do you mean it is an appetite stimulant?  

I am worried that being on so many drugs over the years might be part of the problem.  All the switching is very destabilizing to the nervous system, causing more depression and anxiety.  Studies show that long term use of ADs actually makes people MORE PRONE to depression.  I wonder in part if this is because of tolerance withdrawal, since depression and anxiety are withdrawal symptoms.  There are people who were put on ADs for reasons other than A&D but had A&D in withdrawal.  

I hate to say that it may be you are at a point that no medication can help, because you have become very sensitized.  Are you still on any drugs other than mirt?  What was the last drug you were on, how fast did you come off, when was the last dose?

If we can figure out what is really going on, then the next steps will become more clear.  

Yes that is correct Betsy..I did mean to say stimulant!  That is something I really do not need..My weight is one of my many depressants, and I am not an overall big lady.  Most of my medications that I have taken were not short term..The last lengthy medication that I was on was Effexor XR 150mg, o.d., but I came off of that drug this summer when I started to slip back into my depression.  Effexor did help, but was never able to say that I felt "happy", and I miss that "happy" person!! This past fall I was currently taking Celexa which did help a little, but I was taking the higher dosage, and that just wasn't enough.  I am now introducing another new drug into my system, Trinillex.  I am on week three, and have not noticed a big difference.  I took ONE Remeron, last night, and am just being able to function normally after 23 hours of it in my system!! It's been an uphill battle for me..But I have to say that Effexor XR was the longest drug that I had ever been on, close to 17 years..I hate this stuff, and know that it is poisoning my system, but honestly, I have accepted that I need medication in order to live a so-called normal life.  Genetically, there is a very strong history of Chronic depression on both of my father & mother's side...I lost my Dad at the age of 61 due to this disease! I've come a very long way, but hate this guinea pigging, and just need a little upper right now..Ativan helps me through it all..I often wonder, if Medical Marijuana, would help me somewhat?!

​Thank you for responding, Betsy..And hope you have a grip on your illness!

Hi Neverending, 

I definitely have a grip on it now!  Feel better than I have the last 20 years, on less medication than I've been on in that period.  I'm down to 29 mg of Effexor.  I am hell-bent to taper off these drugs, though, as I now see that I have cummulative harm from taking them and want to know who the real me is after 20 years.  I know what you mean about Effexor, feeling flat.  Some call it and other ADs "emotional anesthetics" or "chemical lobotomies."  I just didn't even realize during those 12 years on Effexor that I just couldn't feel joy, totally spellbound by the drug.  I've got a lot of physical and cognitive problems stemming from its use that I just didn't even realize were due  to the drug!

I am not about getting you to come off your drugs, as that is a personal choice for everyone.  However, I have learned a LOT about these drugs after a disastrous year after coming off Effexor.  It concerns me that you said you came off 150 mg Effexor after 17 years of use and switched to Celexa?  Did you do a taper off Effexor befor switching?  People just don't stop Effexor and come out ok!  It is a notoriously difficult AD to stop, with discontinuation syndrome (protracted withdrawal) lasting for possibly years!  No other med stops the withdrawal.  Doctors don't recognize withdrawal.  Depression and anxiety are withdrawal symptoms that doctors and patients think are relapse when it happens outside of 6 weeks post drug, but it is almost universal that this happens 3, 4, 7 months out and can continue in waves.  Other ADs may paritally cover withdrawal but can't negate it entirley, so it seems entirely likely that you have Effexor withdrawal bleeding through the Celexa, which is why the high dose didn't help.

How long have you been off Effexor now?

I went through hell, thinking I was going mad and not wishing to continue living like that last spring.  I was off Effexor nine months and having depression, anxiety and insomnia the likes of which I had never experienced, with doom and fear and ruminating thoughts, and thoughts of self harm.   A new p-doc put me on Remeron, and that helped me sleep, but the apathy and agoraphobia (another new one for me) were so horrible I was desperate.  He decided to put me back on Effexor because I had "tolerated" it well in the past, and BINGO, I felt dramatically better within an hour of taking that first dose of 37.5 mg!  I'd been off for about 10 months!  I was like a junkie getting a hit of heroin!

None of the five or so healthcare providers I saw during WD recognized it!

Very commonly people develop tolerance withdrawal after long term use of an AD.  Depression and anxiety start coming up again, deemed relapse and time to increase the dose or switch drugs, they think.  Or more drugs are added.  But the symptoms were actually withdrawal, and the one thing that could actually make people feel better is to start tapering off.

Studies have proven that long term use of antidepressants actually makes people PRONE to depression!  I wonder in part if that is due to tolerance withdrawal and depression coming up as a withdrawal effect.

I think we fail to discrimate between real depression and withdrawal depression as the years go on.  I can honestly say that depression was still a problem and I never felt truly happy or satisfied with life while on Effexor.

All the switching around and adding drugs to withdrawal causes even more sensitization, and adding new drugs can have paradoxical effects!  

This happened to me in the midst of withdrawal when I tried a new drug, Viibryd.  It triggered such horrific depression, anxiety and insomnia with troubling thoughts that I just couldn't take it and quickly went back off.  This further destabilized my nervous system.  

So, just a lot of food for thought LOL!

You might want to visit the Surviving Antidepressant forum and post your experience to see what your next best move might be.  Again, it would help knowing when you came off Effexor, because the answer to feeling better might be tied in to that.  The mods there are super experienced with these drugs, and there will undoubtedly be people there that have been on the meds you've been on or are going to try.  It is a site for people wanting to come off their meds, though.  However, they will be the first to admit that sometimes coming off meds is not the answer for a person, and there are some people that are just anable to no matter how much they want to.  These drugs change our brains and sometimes the brain just can't adapt back to existence without the drugs' actions.

Sorry this was so long, but if I can help someone avoid the pain I went through, it will be a good day for me!