It did not touch the sides of my anxiety, but apparently it has helped some people.
I tried Paroxetine, sertraline, and mirtazapine. All of which were supposedly helpful for anxiety.
They had absolutely no effect for me.
With the benefit of hindsight, or if I could go back in time, I'd have stopped Mirtazapine after a few months, seeing as it wasn't really helping for anything except sleep. Although that benefit isn't anything to be sniffed at.
I'd have tried Venlafaxine instead. That is meant to be good for anxiety, by many accounts, although the withdrawal syndrome is said to be particularly nasty.
If even Venlafaxine wasn't helping my anxiety after a few months I'd have stopped taking that too, and concluded that the whole class of meds is no use to me.
I wouldn't have ended up taking mirtazapine for years, just because it helps with sleep. God knows what effects long term usage of these meds has on the mind and body.
I really dont relish the prospect of doing a Mirtazapne taper or reduction whilst holding down a job. I think it would be very rough. Plus you can't even get the same type of pills with every prescription refill. Sometimes they are curved and rounded pills, which are extremely difficult to shave bits off with a blade, in order to reduce. Sometimes you get flat oblongs, which are much easier to shave bits off. But it no use trying to taper unless you can be sure of getting the same type of pills every time.
If / when I do come off it, I'll have to see if the Dr can prescribe a specific brand for me every time, and if the pharmacy can get the same brand every time. Something like Milpharm, Actavis, or Alamy, for example which are flat oblongs, and so I could work out the weight of one pill, by weighing several to see if they are all the same, and then ever so gradually reduce down, over as long a time frame as I need.
I'll probably get off benzos first though, as a higher priority, whenever I got an opportunity to do so.
Well, the mirt damaged my hearing, caused me to strke myself in the head well over 100+ times, causing brain damage and nydrocephalus from the consequences of the tinnitus and the online bullying I struggled with due to speaking about it about how I wanted to end my life over this shit. The stuff causes diabetes, for me it caused irreversible damage to my hearing, and though it improved sexual function it did so at a great cost. Always woke up with desert mouth, I'm only 47. I still cannot believe they prescribe this stuff. I mean, even an SSRI might have been a better choice over this, albeit at the risk of problems with intimacy.
But mirt nearly killed me. Both times as I was tapering off. But while I was on it I was getting SBUTTs all the time, and those turned into SSNHLs, and I ended up threatening to kill myself online which resulted in bans, and bullying. I hit myself in the head brutally hard about 80+ times. That causes SERIOUS damage to my health, and now, my sexual function is gone, so I guess SSRIs aren't going to jack shit to that now that it's 75%+ gone.
Oh, and it also caused OSA, sleep apnea, if you want to believe that. Coming off the mirt is likely what saved my pitiful ass.
Sertraline it is I guess. My GP put me on that at 50mg. I've yet to take the first dose. I'll take that for a month, and see how that goes. I know that PSSD exists, but for me it never did with 75mg Effexor, nor did it happen with Lexapro at 10mg, nor did it happen with Paroxetine back in 1999. I also tried citalopram and that also did not too much, but I remember Sertraline made me more social and more wanting to go out and chat with people. Was it mania or was it me coming out of my shell? Who knows?
If I'm still posting after a month, and don't suddenly fall off the perch, then you'll know it worked. If it didn't...well, at least I tried to salvage what was left of me. Weed does NOT work, nor does its derivatives like rosin, or that other shit in carts. All that did was fuck up my hearing even more. You cannot make this shit up.
Zoloft it is. I'll give it a go.
EDIT:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33742212/
Apparently, it applies to ALL antidepressants, including the one I took for 20 years. So yes, the risk applies equally across all of them. The more antidepressants you take (as in, mix them), the higher the chance. But it's still relatively risk-adjusted, so overall the risk is still very low. You'd have to be very unlucky to get it.
