Extreme weight gain and weird dreams/nightmares

I also wanted to ask if the weight gain was due to over eating or the actual drug, as I have had an increased appetite but not actually ate that much more than usual and a stone and half in 3 weeks is alot.

Awful drug if you ask me, I put on almost 3 stone in a matter of weeks, had crazy rage, and my dreams were so real I couldn't tell if I was awake or not. I think my weight gain was from all the food I ate, I literally couldn't stop myself from eating and when I'd try to I'd start to sweat and shake. Your bad sleeping patterns might be down to you being depressed or to anxious to sleep? Venlafaxine worked well for my depression and anxiety but like all these drugs there are side effects. If your worried about putting on more weight Mirtazapine is probably the last drug you want to be on.

Well the sleep paralysis and hullacanations etc are not down to my depression, I`ve had it since I was 15 and never experienced it until I took this drug. Well I`ve been off them for 4 days (not through any fault of my own, as I ran out and could not get a prescription over the holidays) and my eating and sleep are loads better.

I have been on 45mg of mirtazipine for the last 4 months and during this time have starting experiencing the sleep paralysis that you have been talking about. It is very scary and puts me off going to sleep! I have never had it before in my life, and don't think it's a symptom of my depression either, as I have been on various ADs for depression for the last 18 months and these strange sleep disturbances only started happening when I went onto the 45mg of mirtazipine. I mentioned this to my doc and she has decreased the dose to 30mg and put me on different AD as well.

Take up jogging or something,it works better than this

Heather how are you getting on?

From my own experiences, I believe that the \"weird dreams\" reported by people are just normal dreams experienced by people who haven't slept/dreamt properly for a long time and either don't remember dreams or don't very often.

It has been established that dreams are the reason we sleep, muscles only need about 2 hours a day to recover from any exertions. We don't know how dreams work but we can tell what they achieve by observing people who don't sleep. Paranoia and aggression are the most common early symptoms, followed by short-term memory loss and delusion. Dreams somehow sort out our memories of the previous day, deciding what needs to be remebered and what doesn't, and then somehow \"deal\" with psychological events by having us enact strange dramas in which nothing makes sense to us when we are awake but seem normal at the time.

I have been experiencing lucid dreams since I was a kid and know a host of methods to \"wake up\" within a dream and act consciously. When my depression hit I couldn't sleep properly at all, but since I have been on Mirtazipine have been having these deep dreams daily. One by one, a series of people who may have (deliberately or not) contributed to my depression have reappeared and I have interacted with them. The only difference I have noted between my dreams now and those I had in the decade and a half when I kept a strict dream diary is that there is more sexual content, otherwise the weirdness is just what I would expect. I suspect the sexual content means that Mirtaz is unlocking the most soppressed areas of my consciousness - in other words, it is doing me good even if I'm not \"there\" yet (been on it about 3 months).

If you really can't tell whether you are dreaming or not, it usually means you are dreaming. If you really need to check, try either reading a newspaper below the headlines or look for the lines in the palm of your hands - you won't be able to see either clearly in a dream.

Another tip - if you're naked or otherwise without enough clothes and no-one seems to notice, you're dreaming and if you then carry on with the dream instead of searching for clothing it will miraculously reappear.

As for weight gain, I suspect it is linked to the dehydration and constipation. Mirtaz seems to dehydrate the stomach, making food stay there longer so that more calories are absorbed. What is passed on is so dry it takes ages to complete the journey. This would explain why people are gaining weight without eating more, I know I am so am following an exercise regime.