My Dr. put me on Mirtazapine as a sleep aid, and it worked. However, I didn’t know that it is actually an “appetite stimulant” until my elderly cat was placed on it to increase her appetite, put it together, and then looked it up.
I. Was. Furious.
Weight has always been a struggle for me. I put on very easily and it’s extremely difficult to get it off. Since my doctor knew this, I just assumed he would never put me on something that could be very detrimental to my health/weight, and I especially didn’t think he’d not even warn me about it. I was wrong! I got off of it immediately.
I have been off of Mirtazapine for about four months now. And I’ve lost 13lbs without even trying! Clearly, this was having a massive effect on my weight and appetite. I have never in my life lost weight without some serious effort being put in to do so, so this is a pretty big deal. My cravings for sugar are almost completely gone, which were new for me upon starting the drug. I just didn’t realize exactly how much of an impact the drug was having on me.
While I’m glad to have an explanation as to why I just couldn’t lose weight and was having such a hard time sticking to healthy eating, I feel very angry that I wasn’t warned of this. Had I known, I could have stopped a long time ago and avoided a lot of stress and headache.