Quote Originally Posted by Belleblue View Post
I started Mirtazapine (which I have taken in the past) last night. But I just feel it's a shame that I have to be on something every day when as I say I am alright for periods of time.
Has it been prescribed for anxiety, or as a sleep aid? If the latter it doesn't have to be taken continually. For occasional periods of high anxiety the benzodiazepines would be a better bet, imho, than antidepressants, but the medical profession doesn't agree, admittedly with some justification given the dependency and abuse potential. *Hydroxyzine is another possibility. It is an antihistamine with pretty good anti anxiety properties. Not quite as potent as the BZDs, but often potent enough.

*Hydroxyzine comes in two forms, hydroxyzine pamoate (Vistaril) and hydroxyzine hydrochloride (Atarax). Anecdotally, the pamoate form is claimed to be the more effective anxiolytic, but just how true this is remains a matter of considerable debate in some anxiety forums

I just wish there was something I could take for sleep which which wouldn't have horrible consequences the following day.
Small doses of trazodone might be a better bet than zopiclone, both in terms of tolerance and the sedation hangover into the next morning, though there are no guarantees. Trazodone is a novel antidepressant mostly prescribed these days for SSRI induced insomnia at low doses at which it acts mainly as a powerful sedating antihistamine. It has only a short, though complicated biphasic elimination half-life, but for low doses around 3-6 hours is about right, so much of it is out of the system by morning - mirtazapine has a half-life of 20-40 hr, zopiclone 5-7 hr, but for some its effects seems to linger much longer than the half-life suggests.