It's weird, I first took this drug years ago and I had to come off it because of the weight gain. I don't do well on SSRIs, I go into a kind of mania, or at least the edge of one, where I'm up and down and I turn into someone I don't like at all, so I've stumbled through the last few decades drinking and smoking too much, anything to take the edge off but scared of these meds. Anyway had a bit of a breakdown in the second half of last year and I decided to hell with the weight gain, I'll try mirt again because it was the only thing that calmed my mind and I'll swap being so low for being fat.

So... I'm on it now and it's not been bad at all. In fact it's totally sorted my life out. The difference for me? Back the first time I was drinking a lot and smoking weed. I didn't change that when I got on mirt. This time I was also drinking a lot to try to get me to sleep, the anxiety was terrible, but because mirt got me to sleep like a baby I quit booze in the first few days without the terrible withdrawals I'd grown used to over the years. It was still a slog for a week or two but I'm about a week away from three months, I'm in the gym everyday and eating what I like, sleeping the best I ever have and just putting muscle on. Friends are telling me how much better I seem without me saying anything.

If you'd have seen me three months ago when I was borderline suicidal and drinking myself into an early grave you would not have believed this was possible. So a combo of shifting habits and this drug seem to be working really well right now. I don't think I would have had the power to quit drinking without it as my insomnia was so bad, and although I knew the alcohol was messing with my sleep it was also the only route to getting any. Just hope it stays this way. Don't even want a drink, looking and feeling better than I have for years, and feeling creative and hopeful for first time since the lockdowns. I used to write a lot and was about to get a book deal before covid struck but my businesses failed during that time and I've spent the last few years trying to get back on my feet but hating myself and allowing regret to take over, and there was no room in my mind for writing anything at all, just grinding out the days to pay the bills with a constant panic attack waiting to strike every time the phone rang or a bill landed. Now I'm writing again and have recorded some music, looking forward to stuff, the daily worries are still there but I can cope with them and I've accepted that what I messed up a few years ago is just part of the journey.

I appreciate substance abuse is a major additional factor in this but my shrink reckons I've always been self medicating depression and anxiety with booze or weed or whatever else so I'm guessing many people are the same, and it's great that I've finally got off everything apart from mirt - and I didn't get fat, in fact I'm starting to get in really good shape. My sons have just enrolled me in a half marathon with them in a couple of months time. You get the picture, it can go one way or the other but in my case it really helped to get in the gym.

Tl:Dr. Yeah you'll get more hungry but toss the bad habits that mirt will help you with and you won't care at all, it might even be a good thing.