Mirtazapine - weight gain!!!!

Kathy, I am so sorry for what you have been through.  I too had breast cancer and am a 10 year survivor to date.  I pray you will have a success story too.  I turn 70 in just a week so we are close in age.  In addition to the loss of two children, I have had numerous physical issues that have precluded me from doing a lot of exercise -- fibromyalgia, knee replacements, shoulder replacement a year ago, and some back surgery to help with nerve pain from stenosis, just two months ago.  I have recovered from the surgery well, but the problems have not gone away so I am also still not able to be very active.  I decided to go down on my dose of Mirtazapine from 15my to 7.5 to see if I can get off this med.  I have done very well on the 7.5 for about 3 months now.  When I return to the doctor soon, I will take more steps to try to get off these medications.  I also take Wellbulerin 150mg so I don't know if the next step is to try to eliminate the Mirtazapine or reduse the Wellbuterin.  At any rate, I am now up about 16 pounds from the lowest weight I got too after losing 85 pounds.  This has been over the past 2 or so years.  The bad truth is that once I gain a pound, I do not seem to be able to lose one!  I know that it causes me to crave ice cream and I need to just stop eating it but easier said than done.  I hope that you continue to do well off this medicine.  You inspire me to go for it soon!  God bless you!

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Thank you, NCNana; I'm glad you're a 10-year cancer survivor! Mine is an unusual type, a leiomyosarcoma, that first showed up a little more than 4 years ago. I had surgery and they said they got it all, but it recurred 3 years later, last summer. I had radiation but not sure how much good it did. I have refused chemotherapy which my oncologist is pushing at me, having read that this type of cancer doesn't respond very well to either chemotherapy or radiation. I am resigned to my fate and just trying to get some projects important to me done before the inevitable. Dr. says I'm doing better than expected. But there is no cure for this cancer and it WILL take me out, maybe a few months, maybe a year or more. I'm not making long-term plans. But I have Jesus as my personal Savior and I know that when my eyes close here on earth they will open in heaven and his will be the first face I see.

As for the Mirtazapine, I wanted to get off it because of the weight gain and because it makes it so difficult to get up in the mornings (I've been taking it at night and it does help me sleep). This morning I got up in time to photograph the dawn for the first time in many months. I don't take a lot of prescriptions but there are two I don't dare get off of. Plus I take a lot of vitamins and minerals and one herbal preparation. I will just live as long as the Lord allows. 1 Cor. 10:13 says "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I've claimed that verse. God bless you too, and may we meet in heaven!

 

Oh, my dear sister in the Lord, Kathy, you are a breath of fresh air in the midst of such a potential storm.  I am also a believer, for over 40 years now.  And  the two daughters I lost, Jennifer @ 40 in 2013, and then Diane at 41 in 2014 were also both believers.  So I know the joy that awaits us all when we are reunited.

You have the most amazing outlook and I pray that should I face a reoccurrence of my cancer that I will face it with the same resolve that you have.  I believe that I will!

I am part of a FB private group called Survivors Unlimited that is a group of women that either are dealing with cancer or have had it.  I believe also that caregivers may join, but it is really focused on those of us who have faced the trials, treatments and testing of cancer.  It has been a blessing to me and I have had the opportunity to be an encouragement to several of them.   You would be a wonderful contributor to this website.  We actually have to make a recommendation on each individual and then the creator of the FB page adds you.  If you have FB, you would have to become my "friend", which I would love, then I would recommend you.  No pressure if you keep your life private and FB private.  Just a thought.

I want you to know that I know two women right now who have taken th same stand you have.  One is now surviving 7 years and several years ago just gave the treatments up, and her life to God.  I have to tell you she has done remarkable.  She does continue to go in when she feels that she is digressing and in considerable more pain and they check her out and give her medications but she takes no more treatments.

I know another who has really reached out to a lot of new treatments, going to SK in NYC off and on. So in her journey and mission to "live with cancer", she is now on her 5th year.   I actually befriended her through my daughter Diane when Diane met her and shared with her and started taking her to healing class at her church.  She  is still strong in her faith.  The last few months she has posted about increasing pain and she is evaluated everything much as you are.  You have to count whether the treatments will help or not, as they may not be a cure.  God is in charge, He is the healer and one way or the other, based on His plan and timing, we will all be healed, whether it is for a longer time here on earth, or to go home to be with Him.  As Paul said, and I just paraphrase, either way, we win! :-)

Thanks again for you information.  The Mirtazapane also turned things around for me when I started.  The Wellbutern I was taking just was not quite doing it.  I had no other way to describe what I was experiencing other than just telling the doctor that I just had very melancholy momehts, sad momehts, still overcoming such a loss.  And since I had lost 85 pounds and was continuing past what I would have been very satisfied with, she said "this will help with the weight loss...and will help with sleep too"  Well, right she was..lol..  I should had said right away I don't want  help with gaining weight!  I had spent so many years very overweight and for the first time I was down to my wedding weight again but I took it.  And the big thing about it was I immediately felt it working on my meoncholy moods. 

I am so much more emotionally healthy now and that is why I want to try to wean off of it and see if I can do without it.  They were labeling it  as "situational depression" as I had never had a depressed day in my entire life!  So my prayer is to eventually get off all of it.

I  deal with fibromyalgia, having had it for over 30 years and also some joint and back issues so I am going to pain management for that.  I also want to get off the pain medication and am trying some meds specific for fibromyalgia.  I think the Lyrica I started is helping but I think it does also cause me to have a little disorientation for the first few hours of the morning but I'm not sure.  We never know what causes what.

Didn't mean to go on so long but when you connect with another believer you automatically feel that connection.

God bless you and if you are interested in being a FB friend I am listed as Mariruth Redfern Pyatt.  You can send me a friend request.  Otherwise, I will stay in contact here.

Blessings!

 

Hi Mariruth, I will look for you on FB and send you a friends request. I don't belong to many groups but I think yours might be of value to me, and me to them. I will answer at greater length later; got to rest now. I am Kathryn Meyer on FB.

Dawn, I'm just seeing this and wanted to offer some input from my experience.  I too immediately started getting the urge for ice cream in particular.  I was eating it about every night. l And on the nights I tried to not, I found myself doing so after midnight.  But the most informative post I ever read about it was from someone who said that she knew she was in trouble when she found herself eating ice cream that was freezer burned at 3:00AM!!!  This told the story for me.  But the drug really helped me get past the melancholy I was feeling a lot of days even with taking the Wellbutrin.  As I stated in another response, I weaned myself off it over about a 6 month period and have been fine without it.  Good luck with resisting the ice cream! God bless!

I had to get off it slowly, took several weeks. Since then I haven't gained any more weight, but haven't lost any either. I'm now on a different antidepressant, Bupropion (Wellbutin). It also works well for me but doesn't make me gain weight. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply were u ok comin off it im a bit scared.

Yes, I was OK so long as I didn't go too fast. Had some strange dreams, which are listed as side effects going on and coming off, but nothing bad.

Sorry for being a nuisance how far did u go down for them too change to another tablet.

I had quit entirely last summer, did not go on another antidepressant until just recently. I have stage-4 cancer and am getting near the end, running out of options. That would depress anybody.

Im so so sorry to hear this. 😢

I too am so very sorry that you are experiencing this.  I hate it.  It took my two adult daughters from me and the sadness never ends.  But I have the hope in Christ Jesus that I will see them again.

​I stopped taking this med about 8 months ago.  But I cannot take off the 20 pounds it put on me, about 10 each year.  I have just had hip replacement surgery two days ago and that problem kept me still for the past 8 months.  I pray that when I am fully recovered that I an return to an active life and maybe takes these extra pounds off.  I will pray for you, Kathy.

I will just offer my own experience here.  I was actually diagnosed with situational depression due to the loss of two adult daughters to cancer, 14 months apart.  That would put anyone in a depressed state I think.  But after a few years of taking it and time being somewhat of a healer I decided to just cut my pill in half and did so for about 6 months.  When I saw my doctor and told him I was doing okay without it and was thinking about taking only 3.75 at that point and he said if I had done well, that small amount was probably not even needed.  So I stopped and have done well.  I still have days when I feel melancholy, which was the primary reason I went on it as I was already taking Welbutrin and still am, but I just push through and the next day it is usually gone.  I wish you and anyone on here the best in getting off it.  Try to wean yourself by taking half the dose you were taking for a few months and if you started with 30mg or more you can continue to go down by half for a few more doses.  It really helped me get over that edge of sadness and I am grateful for that.  But not happy with the extra pounds I put back on after loosing about 80 pounds over those years my girls were sick.  I hope to take them off soon.

​Best regards and prayers for good health to you!