Psychiatrist put me on it today, 30mg a day. Supposed to stabalise my moods, help with GAD, PTSD, and OCD, as well as depression of course.

It's a tetracyclic anti-depressant (NaSSC) that works on Nonadrenaline and Selective Seretonine but with less side effects than SSRIs. Google it if you don't know about it. Just wondering if anyone had any experience with it here.

I took mirtazapine for three years during the late 90's.

It did nothing to help my depression, but it did provide me with some extremely deep sleep.

I started off taking 30 mgs, and by the end of the first year I was taking 45 mgs which is what the FDA had set as the recommend maximum dose.

The recommended maximum dose is just that, a recommendation. Dr's are allowed to choose the dose for each patient on a case by case basis.

Anyhoot, after the first year was over, I remember having found some interesting information that reported that in Europe some Dr's were having much more success using 90 mg doses. The information I read stated that the patients who responded well to the 90 mg doses had not responded to the drug prior to achieving that dose.

Well, I talked to my Dr about it, and even though he was initially hesitant, I assured him that this was something that I desperately wanted to try, because I was sick of feeling depressed, and nothing else had worked for treating my depression up until then, and I felt that it was worth a shot.

So, he had me work my way up to a 90 mg dose pretty slowly. I think I increased it by 15 mg a month until I got to the 90 mg. I never did notice any antidepressant effect, or any increase in the way it helped me sleep, but what I did notice in between the 2nd and 3rd year was that I was no longer able to drink alcohol.

It was not that I did not want to, but whenever I would consume anything with alcohol in it, as soon as the alcohol would reach my brain I would start to feel a pressure in my head instead of the tingly alcohol buzz that I had known and enjoyed for years. This was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing due to the fact that my periodic drinking was not helping my depression in the first place, and a curse in that I could no longer drink periodically and enjoy a nice beer buzz when playing poker, or watching the super bowl etc.

Anyhoot, when I finally decided that I no longer wanted to take it (after 3 years), I found that the effect it had on my inability to drink alcohol lasted. In fact, it lasted for an additional 2 years after getting off of the Remeron (mirtazapine). I was bummed about it, and I just came to accept the fact that I may have done something to my brain that caused a permanent change to occur, and I assumed that I would be like that for the rest of my life.

Well, I eventually did try a beer one night at a poker game, and low and behold I was able to feel the effects of the alcohol buzz once again. I was both shocked, and delighted. To this day neither my Dr nor I have any idea what actually happened, but if I had to guess I would say that it probably had something to do with me wanting to go up so high on the dose.

Wow, okay, this stuff really does the sleep thing.

The last month I have only been sleeping maybe 5 or 6 hours a night, but I'm never tired. I took this thing at 10pm, and within 40 minutes I was out like a light, I didn't wake up until 1:30pm! and I would have kept sleeping! but I was forced to get up to get everyone here some food. This is insane.

I've just taken a Ritalin and it should be kicking in by now but I still feel dopey, but with more attention at least, I'm really going to look like a zombie now!

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have taken some very strong sleeping aids over the years, including Halcion which was very strong, but Remeron takes the cake.

I could sleep for 12 hours plus very easily with that stuff.

My Dr still lets me keep a bottle of it on hand to use when I need it for extreme cases of insomnia, but I have not touched it in a very long time due to how it has such a powerful residual hangover effect.

That being said, the sleep it induced for me was profoundly relaxing, and profoundly deep.

I think I'm going to go off of this.

I hate the hypomania they produce... I always have severely rapid cycling moods but these tend to make me go all in one direction.

I mean god I'm listening to Rammstein and my head wont stop bobbing... this isn't me.

I'm going to try my Wellbutrin again tomorrow and quit this ****, I told my psych that Wellbutrin makes me nervous, but I think I can handle it now, I have more than a months supply left.

He will be so ****ed that once again I stop something and do something else, oh well, it's my life not his.

I would suggest that you talk to your Dr before making any snap decisions about this.

I mean, I know it can cause sedation as soon as the first dose is taken, but the antidepressant effect from mirtazapine is reported to take a week or two (maybe even three weeks in extreme cases).

How can you be sure that it's causing your hypomania?

I ask that due to what you said about, "I always have severely rapid cycling moods."

Please talk to your Dr, or at the very least your pharmacist if you are unable to get in touch with your Dr before you decide what to do.

Your right, I decided against it, I settled down some after I took my dose. In fact I'm just about ready to hit the sack of course, its been a couple hours.

Since I always get a lot of side effects from any medication, my psych said I should write him a detailed daily log of all the side effects that I find I get that I can't stand.

So far the worst thing that I've gotten, and I got it from an SSRI also is these scary jolts, like a numbing, tingling shock that goes down my legs and arms and head and wakes me up just as I'm about to fall asleep or when I'm really relaxed, it scares the **** out of me. Also I get sweats at no particular point throughout the day. My chronic upper back and knee joint pain seems to be coming back in full force too. These were job-related injuries, but I've also been cycling a lot more due to the warm spell we are getting here, could be that. I don't like how my eyes feel heavy all day, but I can deal with that, its like my eye lids hurt though, they feel like locked into place when I force them open and its hard to shut them when I want to sleep.

Those are the anxiety causing symptoms. Other than that being tired all the time like I got chronic fatigue and being hungry all the time are symptoms I don't particularly like but of course I can handle them.

When I get hypomania, it's like a mix of euphoria with anxiety, its kind of scary. I get rapid cycling moods all the time but my psych and I both think it's borderline.