very worried bout starting on Mirtazapine

Hi mark

I've been taking 30mg mirtazapine for 10 weeks for depression and anxiety, and to help with insomnia. Had tried citalopram for 8 weeks but doctor changed me to mirtazapine to help with my sleep particularly.

It helped with my sleep straight away, sounds lame but it was a miracle to me how i was able to sleep so well after weeks of dreadful insomnia, that was pretty much like torture.

At week 10 i am feeling a lot better in myself aswell, calmer. As with any antidepressant you might experience feeling a little worse before starting to feel better, i didn't get any of the side effects like nausea and dizziness though. Still get tiredness during the day but i'm alright with putting up with that if it means i feel better in myself.

Best wishes.

Hi mark,

i too was reluctant to take any meds...i am on mitazapine 30mg g.p gradually increased my dose to this...my sleep is great and my mood is steady...can i just ask you what dose you've been precribed? Have you started taking them? if so when did you start? Once i know these answers then i can offer you some advise.i know where you are coming from when i first started mitaz my no side affects but my c.p.n would have to (nag)me to take it....iv'e no regrets...you are not alone x

Hi

I have been given15mg but not started taking them yet, as just sooooo unsure about it. Slept not too bad for me last nite with the aid of some night nurse but still feel very groggy with the effect of that today. I would imagine might be similar on mirtazapine. I have always woke up 5 or 6 times a night for last 25 years do I don't expect it to be a miracle, but some help in quality of sleep and I guess lifting of my mood is what I would like. Some days I can get on and do things so I think not too bad but others won't go out of house or interact with others.

The one constant is a TOTAL lack of self esteem and confidence.

Hi Mark

Has your doctor suggested counselling for you? This might help you with your lack of self esteem and confidence.

My dose of 30mg mirtazapine does give me a groggy feeling in the day, but it's not bad every day and it's a different more managable tiredness than the tiredness I would get from not sleeping properly with insomnia.

Yes I have been having counselling for a number of years off and on now. I can stick with some of what is advised by my counsellor for a while but then slip back again as struggle with the motivation side of things. Chicken and egg I guess.

As I am sure you guys are aware, when we feel like this, even the most simple of decisions is very difficult if not impossible to make, hence my quandary with the taking of the drugs. I don't want to end up with my personality being taken away by the drug, and wonder if this is just what/who I am like, although deep down know it isn't.

Yeah I know what you mean, I'm still waiting on my one to one counselling with the nhs, they've emailed me some stuff to get started with to read myself but I lack the motivation to go through it all, I start and then it all just seems too much for me and I can't be bothered going through it.

I can understand your hesitation to taking the drugs. Maybe a good way is to decide for yourself whether you can carry on going the way you are without them.

I wouldn't worry about your personality being taken away, you will only need to take mirtazapine for a few months, when you are back to yourself you will be able to come off them. It is suggested that you continue taking them for a few months after feeling well, but your doctor will suggest when it's best for you to come off them.

Today I feel as though I can get by without them. Tomorrow could be very different. To anybody else today would not be great fir me though it's ok. As it stands I know the way I am, the bad day will come around d v quickly and at times I can change from ok to down in an hour.

Daft ad it sounds a fear is that if a got better, it would then open the door to all sorts of possible things, like getting out, meeting people, doing things but with that brings a lot if fear and anxiety. Madness really, damd if I do........

I know how all this sounds, like I have "lost" it but I am aware of my feelings and what it all means, but at the moment I am existing not living.

And I really appreciate people taking the time to read and reply to all of this. It can be v hard for people to understand how I feel and I can totally appreciate that

Hi mark,

Funny how it many seem i can relate totally where your coming from....i started on 7.5mg of mitazapine i didn't know that they came in 2 forms a soulutab that dissolves on the tonge i was on this and a tabley form that could be cut in 2...so i was on 7.5mg for a while go back to your g.p have a word....

That's what I was like before I admitted that I needed help. I would say to my friends that I don't think I have depression or that there's anything wrong with me for me to need antidepressants, because sometimes I felt "fine". I just thought that I was just a bit sad for "this reason" and "that reason". I said it millions of times that I didn't think it was depression. It took my friends who were concerned for me to point out that I should get help because at the times when I wasn't fine I could be crying hysterically, sobbing into my sleeves and highly anxious. Also I wasn't hardly sleeping and had lost my appetite a fair bit. Sometimes we can't admit it to ourselves that we need help, I went for a long time trying to cope on my own, it just prolonged my suffering.

Obviously only you can know how bad you feel and make the decision as to whether you want to take them. Maybe ask your friends or family if they have noticed how you have been feeling, or any difference in you.

Hi Mark,No you don't sound like you've lost it at all we've all been there I'm sure..........

You sound like your in a really really bad place Mark, and it can only go up from here,

Get on them drugs, continue to take them regularly if not they wont work, you will have to give it a bit of time,

But just know you will see the light at the end of the tunnel Mark......They are a very good medicine, will help

you to sleep.... Also lift your mood which is very low at the moment. The only real side affect I've found is

Appetite increase, you will get cravings especially sweet things. But give them time to get into your system ......

it does take a while, dont give up, could be a week to 10 days before you feel the effects on your mood,

the sleeping will prob improve a lot sooner. Hang in there Mark ..... Wish you all the best Maizie

Thanks for your kind words Maizie. There is no doubt whatsoever I have quite bad depression, and I have known this for a long time, and yes I can be bad with it, but other times I can be quite strong (my wife will say stubborn, she could be right!) and I can pull my self round. Other days my thoughts are v negative and desperate.

Things change from day to day, I never get manic highs, but can get bad lows. I find that if I sleep not so bad that I can cope ok, as today again is ok. It's days like today that make me think that I can cope without drugs, but who knows bout tomorrow, as I am aware that I have been bad for a number if years, and it has got steadily worse and depression been more consistent and good days less so.

The loss of job, confidence, self esteem, friends over a period of time should tell me all I need to know, but I am still unsure bout drugs. If I could just take them on the bad days then that would be ok, but I am aware just can't do that with these

It is a big decision to start taking antidepressants, I thought so anyway. Do you feel a shame about having to take antidepressants?

There's something I saw on tv yesterday about depression, and a good point was made about antidepressants. Coming from a doctor who had suffered depression himself, he said that depression is a condition in which the levels of certain chemicals in your brain have reduced and antidepressants are a medicine that helps to increase these levels back to normal. Just as if you had a hormonal condition where levels of your hormones weren't normal, you would take a medicine to help bring them back to normal. I've had a similar thing said to me before, if I had a heart condition or diabetes I wouldn't have any quarrell with taking a medicine for that so why for depression should it be any different.

It is a big decision, yes I agree, but no I don't feel any shame in taking them at all. It's just a big worry rtf y th hat a) I will get worse before I get better b) it will take away the real me, and maybe this is just what I am like and just have to accept it. Plus, obviously, you lose some sort of control if you take the drug because th things are out of your own hands. But of course you could argue that is already happening.

I guess it has gone on so long for me, I almost (some days, not always) just accept that is the way it is

Ah that's good that you don't feel a shame towards them. I know that's the case with a lot of people, I was like it myself. I do think they will help get you feeling better, it's not something that you have to live with.

No it SHOULDN'T be something that you have to live with your right sunset, but maybe that's just the way I am now. I am very different to what I was, could easily be my depression. It could easily be old age !!!