Experiences with Mirtazapine (aka Remeron)?

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As diagnosed asperger, today I got a prescription for mirtazapine (brand name Remeron). This was prescribed for treatment of a recent and sudden increase in overwhelming sensory experiences that cause serious dysfunction. I also have trouble sleeping, never wake up refreshed.
I'm currently studying electromechanical engineering, and I find the class environment with flickering fluorescent lights and the noise of other students to be so overwhelming that I don't function well in class. Is there anyone with experience with this drugs? I'm also on escitalopram (2 years).

The mirtazapine is supposed to give me a good night sleep and a better sensory tolerance as added bonus. However, I have read threads from some years ago in which some WP members describe even more heightened senses! (The opposite of what I need right now).

Any recent or past experiences available that you want to share? I Don't like drugs, and am quite anxious to start taking this. I am zoning out a little too often, and I absolutely don't want to be more spaced out than I am at the moment (Don't want to appear more weird than I am right now)...

Please share your experience!

I have just come off mirtazapine (for treatment resistant depression) because it really did not agree with me at all though I only tried it for about 4 weeks.

On the starting dose of 15mg I was really sedated but once it increased to 30mg (after a few days) that went away to some extent. So if it knocks you out at first don't let that put you off trying to increase to 30 or 45 mg (assuming Dr says it is OK to do that).

It did not really help me sleep, in fact I would say it made sleeping worse as I had really vivid dreams (always have had dreams but not like these), but just made me dopey the next day. I'm sure it also made my anxiety worse but sometimes it is hard to tell. After just over 3 weeks I was so 'strung out' I agreed with Dr to stop taking it as it was clearly not helping.

I'm not sure how it will interact with your escitalopram but suspect you will find you feel like you are taking something to make you sleep and something that wakes you up.

I used to take Trazodone for depression and that helped me sleep and I'm sure helped anxiety. It can leave you pretty groggy the next day though but that does settle down after a few weeks.

I took Remeron in my early twenties.
I gained some weight.
It knocked me out (put me to sleep) at night.
I could sleep 14 hrs straight with this medicine.
I was drowsy and konked out feeling during the day though, a lot.

I have been on Mirtazapine for a couple of years. I take it in the evening to help me sleep. It turns me into a zombie very quickly after taking it and I certainly sleep for a long time but I'm not sure it is quality sleep. I find I have really vivid surreal dreams which often have very menacing and threatening themes. I have always had very vivid dreams but these tend to be well beyond what I experienced before.

Also although I am not overweight I have struggled to maintain my weight at the level I want since I started taking it as it makes me feel extremely hungry all the time. This seems to be a common side effect. I am currently thinking about going back to my doctor as I would like to wean myself off it.

Made me gain weight and look like I had swallowed an inflated balloon. I was hungry all the time and before I was rarely hungry. Also made me more prone to meltdowns. I was on it in my mid teens.

Was on Amitriptyline 10mg [neuropathic pain] and Citalopram 10mg [anxiety] but this combination gave me bothersome heart rhythm issues.

Then tried Mirtazapine 15-30mg only to cover both issues. Good long sleeps, good pain relief but awful woolly head, zombie like depressing days. Pharmacist said it is more suited for retirement home use!

Now on Amitriptyline 10mg and Duloxetine 30mg and feel really much better.

I was on it for a while in high school/college, and it made me exhausted all the time. I could not stay awake through my classes no matter how hard I tried until I stopped taking it.

Oh yes, the weight gain, forgot about that! I added about 8 kg in the first week. Was constantly hungry. It got better as the dose increased but did not go away.

When talking about Mirtazapine effects, you really need to consider the dosage.
It has a sedative effect and is often used to help with combination of poor sleep and depression, but the sedative effect is actually stronger at lower dosages.

From my own experience, I started at very low dosage 7.5mg. At that strength the sedative effect was really strong and I could sleep through 12 hours at a time. (Actually I loved that, because I was severely sleep-deprived at the time). But that was no good for getting to work on time! Also, as others have said, I was constantly wanting to eat.

I went up to what is normally the starting dose, 15mg. Had a few side effects, like occasional diarrhoea and headaches for a couple of weeks, but those tapered off. What I found was it helped stop me falling into long periods of low mood, but without dulling my emotions entirely, which was good. Sleep went back to normal. And a surprising benefit was that I seemed to have more motivation and drive at work, as though it had taken away some of the executive function issues. I think that was because it increases noradrenaline as well as serotonin.

On the other hand, I tend to be a bit more irritable than before. My frustration tolerance, which has never been very high, dropped even further. So don't be surprised if you become a little prickly.

And I would advise being very careful with Mirtazapine if you are prone to anxiety. For me, I think it can make symptoms of stress and anxiety worse and make it harder to calm down - again I think that's the noradrenaline effect.

Overall, I'm very happy with mirtazapine because my main issues were sleep and depression, and it's boosted motivation too. But it has made me more irritable and possibly made anxiety effects worse on occasion.

Not sure about weight gain as I don't weigh myself. From looking at my belt, I've expanded an inch or so around the belly (over 4 months on the drug), which is not too bad. But I knew mirtazapine was connected to weight gain, so I was careful - I switched to a lower GI diet (reducing carbs and/or combining them with fats and proteins) to avoid the insulin rushes that would turn everything I ate to fat, and have been exercising a lot. Actually quite happy with my good appetite on the drug, everything seems to taste good.

Just be aware, my experience was on low dose 15mg, most people take 30mg, and I think mirtazapine effects are strongly dose-dependent.

I was on Mirtazapine/Remeron for a short spell back in 2005. I was 22 at the time. I was on one of the higher doses. I was having trouble sleeping and seemed to have lost my appetite, so the doctor I saw suggested it. Though I didn't know about Asperger's at the time, I think I was having Aspie burnout.

Today, in the USA, doctors are VERY wary of prescribing anything. 14 years ago, they were a bit more lenient. The stuff was great. I slept, regained an appetite, didn't even finish the whole bottle, and just stopped using it when I felt better. Don't recall how many pills I took, I probably only used it on-and-off for about 2 months.

My personal experience was nothing but positive. But WARNING: Dont' take a pill and try to drive a car or do any other sort of precision work. It knocks you out. I remember I'd wake up after hours of sleeping, eat a bit, then go right back to sleep.

I didn't take it daily, more often on my days off from work when I knew I had a day to myself.

Remeron helped me sleep, helped my appetite and my allergies. It only helped my depression/anxiety for a few months before quitting like every other antidepressant does. I was on doses between 15mg and 45mg. It is very sedating so expect to sleep for like 14 hours when you take it.

Holy cow!! !

Yesterday evening I took the first dose (22.5mg) ten hours prior to having set my alarm.
An hour later I felt extremely drunk, almost unable to keep my eyes fixed to anything.

I had a feeling of being a little drunk the whole day, and class was sensory hell. My feeling of overload is like being drunk: more difficult speech, and unable to think because of all the noise (speaking classmates) invading my head.

I felt like being just at the point of overload all day. I suspect that if I keep up the tempo I have for much longer, I'll end up completely burnt out.

This meds should help me with getting more sleep, and as a result have more tolerance to sensory sensitivities.
Yet all it seem to do is make me more autistic.
(e.g., I have always been able to resist typical autie behaviours, but today during a noisy lab session, I had to cover my ears to be able to think how to solve problems. I also had more difficulty with listening while simultaneously making eye contact).

Could this improve after getting used to this meds?
I somehow already consider stopping to use it, but after one day, this seems rather early?

What would you do? Did you have similar experience and how did you cope?

Thanks for all your help and advice, I'm quite desperate, and sharing your experience means a lot to me.

Have a nice day!

Hi Noca,

How did you react to the different doses?

It was suggested to me to start with one pill every evening before bedtime, and if no effect after two weeks, doubling the dose. If again no effect, I have to make another appointment...

Some posts from WP in the past also suggest lower doses are sedating, higher doses give energy? Seems rather strange to me...

The lower doses are more sedating due to the anti-histamine effect they cause, which goes away at higher doses. All to do with chemistry that I don't understand but my Dr did warn me about it because it is counter intuitive.

Quitting after 1 day is a difficult choice to make but sounds like it has not gone well.

I lasted 4 weeks before I gave it up as the side effects just never seemed to get any better. It also did nothing to help my depression/mood and just made my anxiety worse. It also made me quite angry as well, but I put that down to being more anxious than normal and not sleeping well.

As I said before I just built a tolerance to it's sntidepressant qualities in 3 to 4 months. I built a tolerance to it's sedation as well at all 3 doses though it took slightly longer for that, maybe 8 to 10 months before it became a sugar pill and I moved to another drug.

Hi MattInMacc,
After almost a month, I want to stop taking it. The side effects are not worth it, I have gained 5kg in a month, and since my body is getting used to it, I don't sleep through the night anymore, and wake up multiple times having very vivid, tiring dreams.
Did you taper off after your short time using, or did you just quit cold turkey?

I'm afraid of side effects of withdrawal, but so far nothing has improved: still depressed, lower than usual energy during the day, lower than usual sensory tolerance.

I'm having a hard time making a rational decision about quitting or continuing, because I can't make out whether lower energy, mood, sensory tolerance are due to depression or a side effect of the drugs.
Quitting early seems smarter than making my brain addicted to another prescribed drug...

How did you experience quitting after such a short period of use?