Antidepressant Weight Gain

Steroids are awful for putting on weight & making the face look puffy and moon like. I was on them for six months and couldn't wait to get off them. I absolutely hated them. Never been on antidepressants though.

Marg75 I hate being on steroids (am on the 7th week, got another 6 weeks to go) for Vasculitis. So far, have had lots of side-effects but no benefits whatsoever. I'll never take them again after this.

I have been on fluoxetine for more years than I care to remember and put on 2 stone , trying to come off them slowly , but my new GP has warned me long term use of antidepressants can wreck your metabolism and we hive to wait and see what comes off . So at the moment I have anxiety but no weight loss😂

HowVeryDareYou2, I've got Vasculitis too, I love to talk to you about it and my treatment!!

I was interested to read here about Mirtazipine. My GP prescribed this for me some years ago due to sleep problems although he knew I suffered from anxiety too. It worked but made me so drowsy the next morning plus horrendous dreams and night sweats so I discontinued it and have not taken anything since. I still suffer from poor sleep and anxiety but am trying to accept and overcome them in other ways eg relaxation techniques (difficult for me with my overactive mind!) and gentle exercise. It’s difficult at times but I am persevering as I am very wary of trying other medications now.

Mirtazipine made me pile on weight & also gave me horrendous night terrors. Put a stone on with prozac so got changed to venlafaxine which added another stone. Weight is a huge trigger to me so my gp did lots of research & I've on 120mg duloxetine every evening for the past 10 years. I still have bad days but they pass quickly so I'm ok 90% of the time.
If one of the side effects of any med says weight gain you can 100 % guarantee I'll pile it on!

Yes Mirtazipine is prescribed when there are high levels of anxiety too but are not any longer the main anti-for this. So I would give others a try rather than suffer severe symptoms.

I didn't suffer those symptoms tho so I think its an individual thing indeed they were the most benign ant-d I was on. I'm on mood stabilisers now which have an anti d effect but for a different condition.

Re another post: yes, very long term use of many MH drugs with sedative effects can effect other bodily systems but its a "cost benefit calculation" isn't it, just as other meds for physical conditions are. And not to assume you will necessarily be on that drug long enough for those effects.

Its all very well a GP saying "but my new GP has warned me long term use of antidepressants can wreck your metabolism and we have to wait and see what comes off" but I doubt anyone whose life has ben saved by MH meds or made a reasonable life even possible would feel too warmly by a GP putting them off in this way before even trying.

Weight gain: there are one or two serious psychiatric meds where its a big issue, but changing diet on sorting the drug can minimise effects on ordinary anti-d's, but its yet another question of individuals being very different.

Google Bright Line Eating it certainly helped me on antidepressants.

My husband’s been on Prozac and Mirtazapien for 3 months now, he’s really underweight so was hoping for the increased appetite side effect to happen. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened, his mental health hasn’t improved either, he has an appointment soon so let’s see what else he’ll be prescribed.

Lots of anti-depressants cause weight gain. I adm a support group for bipolar disorder and we have at least one post a day on this subject. The highest risk of causing weight gain are amitriptyline, citalopram, mirtazapine, nortriptyline, trimipramine, paroxetine, and phenelzine.
www.verywellmind.com/diet-tips-for-weight-loss-380695

www.healthline.com/health/antidepressants-that-cause-weight-gain

Sorry to be adding bit by bit....

Other antidepressants, like fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem) and bupropion (Wellbutrin, Aplenzin, Forfivo, Zyban), are likely to have no effect on weight or might even cause some weight loss