Mirtazapine - Weakness?

[Darko92]

Hi

So just started on Mirtazapine after swapping over from Citalopram as my Anti Depressant. I was having difficulty sleeping before so Doc prescribed me Mirtazapine.

I've been on it three days now and I cannot believe how weak I feel constantly. My muscles all feel fatigued and even typing this on a keyboard is feeling like a lot of effort - I just feel like laying down all the time.

I've only been on it a few days so not sure if this is just a temporary thing, along with dry mouth.

Is anyone else on this medication? do you experience this crappy weakness/groggy feeling?

[Soov535]

Any change in SSRI will have an effect - it should settle down.

It's change which affects one.


Give it a few days and see, once your body has adjusted.

[andy-xr]

Yeah, it'll go as you go up in dose. At lower levels it's a sleeping pill type feeling, but take more and that goes away a bit

You'll still sleep well and biscuits will look double tasty. Also, each pint will count as two

[Darko92]

Cheers guys,

Im on 15mg at the moment. Doctor has asked me to come back in 3 weeks and report how its going, at which point he may increase dose.

It's only been 3 days and Ive been feeling so groggy and incredibly hungry all the time. I guess trying to lose weight at the same time is going to be a nightmare lol

[andy-xr]

Its not really one to try and lose weight on tbh, everything will be tasty but sweet stuff more so. I think I put on about a stone but I didnt really exercise and spent 3 hours a day commuting with a McDonalds on the half way point. That said, mental health can often be further up the list of priorities than weight loss

If you're into experimenting, tell your doc you're thinking of stopping smoking and want to try Zyban and take at the same time as Mirtazapine. If you smoke too, fags will taste like st. If you dont, it'll give you a bit of pep.

ETA - if you want a more natural and less prescribed option, buy either 5000 or 10,000IU version of vitamin D3 from Amazon, dont bother with Holland and Barrett, their stuff is based on 400IU per day

Edited by andy-xr on Monday 7th September 11:42

[tonyvid]

Soov535 said:

Any change in SSRI will have an effect - it should settle down.

It's change which affects one.


Give it a few days and see, once your body has adjusted.

I'll go along with that, Citalopram is a SSRI and Mirtazapine a slightly different class so you are having to deal with the switch over at the moment. I found Citalopram an awful drug to be on and Mirtazapine so much better. I had real problems coming of SSRIs(prozac was my last) and it did take me weeks of slowly dropping the dose other wise I felt like I was drunk all the time. We are all different though

It should be taken before bed as the lower doses will make you sleep like a baby. Prepare to be hungry and accept that you will put on some weight. Its just the way that works and as it has been commented on - sometimes other things are more important than an extra stone.

Just sit it out for a few days and you should be ok I did/do find it makes some joints ache at times and then it goes away - odd.

[Darko92]

Thanks all,

The issue is, I cant afford to put on more weight. I already have a bit of a problem with my weight and need to reduce it quickly.

With Citalopram, I was only getting the side effect of sweating a lot, I used to be sweating non stop but other than that I didn't seem to have much problems. The sleep deprivation was probably an effect of it too but I overall felt better on that.

On this Mirt though, I feel like utter sh*te, I'm going to give it another week and try and see what benefit it does.

Also: Citalopram reduced my appetite so I liked it in that front haha.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for better SSRI's/AD's I can speak to my doctor about?

[andy-xr]

I did really well on Venlafaxine, I swapped to that from Mirtazapine for more alertness and less eating st. I didnt mention it before for 2 reasons; 1) I think you should give whatever you're trying a fair crack and 2) different things work for different people.

I found with Venlafaxine that it didnt change my 'uptime' if you know what I mean. It made me less sleepy and I found a place where I wasnt quite ambivalent as such, but where things that would usually be triggers kind of washed over me, I noticed them but they didnt send me off into a spiral of doom. Also, I could drink more.

The problems you're having I think are coming from the dose level, it'd make sense to go up as quick as you can as the sleepiness will wear off, but if your thing is to lose weight I think it can be done on Mirtazipine, but it'd need a lot of extra work to stay on top of it. I found it too hard so went to another, Venlafaxine was the third after Mirtazapine, I went through a tricyclic and another SNRI before setting on venlafaxine.

It was hard to take on and harder to get off though, had really bad head zaps going on and coming off it, probably like a proper flu rather than a cold. I came off them over a break from work as I thought it'd be hard and wanted a week or so to not have to really think or do much

[anonymous-user]

Mirtazapine never gets any easier with the tiredness and weakness thing... You just get used to it.
It's a 100% nicer drug than citalopram though, that was frightening for me when I stopped taking it after only a few weeks.
Other issues you may have is forgetfulness and complete lethargy.. not found any way round those yet.

[Darko92]

Hi guys

Cheers for all the info.

Bit of an update. I stopped with the Mirt the day I posted this. Doctor said I should stop (phone call)

I understand it's a better drug but I am having a horrible time with it. Coming off cit wasn't difficult but I was on Mirtaz for a few days and I am NOT joking but within 6 days (1.5 days off it) I have put on FOUR KG. This is really distressing for me because it's made my stomach bulge out and I feel like utter crap now. My anxiety is tenfold worse and I am severely down in the dumps. I have absolutely zero energy still and find myself flipping out at everything.

This isn't good

[Soov535]

Darko92 said:

Hi guys

Cheers for all the info.

Bit of an update. I stopped with the Mirt the day I posted this. Doctor said I should stop (phone call)

I understand it's a better drug but I am having a horrible time with it. Coming off cit wasn't difficult but I was on Mirtaz for a few days and I am NOT joking but within 6 days (1.5 days off it) I have put on FOUR KG. This is really distressing for me because it's made my stomach bulge out and I feel like utter crap now. My anxiety is tenfold worse and I am severely down in the dumps. I have absolutely zero energy still and find myself flipping out at everything.

This isn't good

Are you back in the Cit?

Go to the docs and see if they will giev you some Temapzepam to get you over this blip.

And back on the Cit. And stick with it.

[Rusty1]

Hey,
I didn't read everyones posts.
but,

I've been on Mirtazapine since February this year.
about 6 months ago I dropped to half a tablet so 7.5mg a day (well night)

I find i still oversleep (bed at 10 and won't get up till 9:30/10)
my weight gain isn't as bad anymore, when I was on full tablet and not working out i went from 75kg to 95kg
So i went to the gym 3 times a week and got myself down to 7.5mg a day and I've got my weight down to 80kg/85Kg
but i'm having to track all my food and train really hard.

A few weeks ago i tried to go without the tablets, I managed 2 days then got horrific headaches and threw up lots.
I went back on them and for first few days i felt so angry but back to normal now

I think i'll get appointment with Dr to have a look at coming off them as I don't need to sleep all the time and i HATE the issue with weight, i used to be able to eat large dominos every week and never go above 75kg.

Sorry for the ramble!

Just remember it takes 2 weeks to get used to new drugs.

[davhill]

Not wishing to hijack too obviously but I've a Mirtazapine question.

I've been on it for over 12 months now. I was very dizzy for the first week or so but that went away. The dose is 15mg each night.;

The reason for using it is this: acrimonious divorce that's been going on nearly a year -= depression. But I also have MS = tired all the time.

The snag is oversleeping. I'm 'self-unemployed' so I don't have to clock watch. I've always been a night bird so I tend to bed down at about 3-4am. Today, I surfaced at 1pm, which doesn't really matter but probably isn't good. It's noithinbg new.

This seems to beg a question. Is it...

That I can set the alarm to go off repeatedly from 10.30 am but I doze on 'cos I'm depressed and can't face the day?

or

That the Mirtazapine is over-sedating me.

I've heard that 7.5mg/night of Mirtazapine is a treatment for insomnia, so should I reduce (having consulted the quack).

Jokes are fine by me but sensible answers are also welcome.

[JumboBeef]

davhill said:

Not wishing to hijack too obviously but I've a Mirtazapine question.

I've been on it for over 12 months now. I was very dizzy for the first week or so but that went away. The dose is 15mg each night.;

The reason for using it is this: acrimonious divorce that's been going on nearly a year -= depression. But I also have MS = tired all the time.

The snag is oversleeping. I'm 'self-unemployed' so I don't have to clock watch. I've always been a night bird so I tend to bed down at about 3-4am. Today, I surfaced at 1pm, which doesn't really matter but probably isn't good. It's noithinbg new.

This seems to beg a question. Is it...

That I can set the alarm to go off repeatedly from 10.30 am but I doze on 'cos I'm depressed and can't face the day?

or

That the Mirtazapine is over-sedating me.

I've heard that 7.5mg/night of Mirtazapine is a treatment for insomnia, so should I reduce (having consulted the quack).

Jokes are fine by me but sensible answers are also welcome.

You need to get your sleep pattern right. Buy a loud alarm clock and put it in on the far side of your bedroom, so you can't snooze it without getting up. Set it for 7am. Stick to that and you'll have to go to bed earlier as you'll be so tired.

Going to bed at 4am every night isn't healthy, and IMHO could be contributing to your depression and lack of energy.

[tonyvid]

It does make you more sleepy but going to bed at 04:00 and waking at 10:30 is only 6:5 hrs so no wonder you doze

Getting up when depressed is one of the days first battles but it's probably better to go to bed 15mins earlier each day for a while and move your sleep pattern. In the winter you will only be getting 4-5 hours of daylight if you stay as you are and that won't help how you feel.

[davhill]

Well, thank you people,

I can get going earlier if the need arises (different alarm). However, a rude awakening makes for a ste day without exception. Ì'm impressed with the 15 - minute sleep lag ploy and will try it.

I'm still wondering if halving the dose of Mirtazapine will help.

[andy-xr]

If anything, go up in dose rather than down, that sleep tablet feeling isnt as bad further up the dose

[solo2]

My 15 year old is on day 5 of this. The appetite is non-stop and this from a child who appeared to live on fresh air and I found it a struggle to get her to eat anything.

She was on sertraline but that kept her awake. She was up all night, most nights and it's taken about 6 weeks of taking nothing anti-depressant-wise to get it out of her system, she was just on phenegan as an aid to get her off to sleep which was helping. She's dropped that now and as said just started mirtazapine and the sleep bit on that has also kicked in. Whereas before any medication she went to bed at about 11pm, I noticed she's crashed out 9.30/10pm.

Too early to see if it is helping her mood yet but I really hope it does.

[solo2]

As the doseage is increased does this make the appetite worse for better?

My daughter has been complaining she's hungry non-stop for several days now. Nothing seems to curb her hunger for more than an hour or two and I'm converend about weight gain

[andy-xr]

When I was on it the appetite went down a bit as I went up the dose, but the need for sweet things, mostly biscuits stayed the same.

There's a thought pattern about weight gain. If the feelings and symptoms of the depression are going, then that's more important than gaining weight. It's not worth getting into fat=unhealthy right now because it's less important. It'll be hard to lose the weight, but would you rather have a non-depressed bigger daughter or a depressed thin one?

The balance is finding something to replace or disguise the sweet stuff and appetite. You can get suppressants, more pills or different types of food. I used coffee and Marlboro Lights but that's probably not what you'd give to your daughter