Early last year, shortly after I lost my job at raging shithole SSE for reasons at least partly linked to my depression and anxiety, I decided enough was enough and went to the doctor to seek some chemical help with my mental health issues. I was prescribed a drug called Sertraline, which I dutifully took for well over a year.
I can’t quite tell whether or not Sertraline had any effect; I think on the whole, it did improve my mental health somewhat — although this may well be a placebo effect — though it didn’t “cure” it. There is no such thing as a magic bullet that will “cure” depression and anxiety, unfortunately; if there were, whichever drug company was able to churn it out by the ton first would doubtless become the first “megacorporation” with all the proceeds, and we’d officially be living in even more of a futuristic dystopia than we do already.
One thing I found while on Sertraline though, and I don’t know if this was the drug causing the problem or my own overactively anxious imagination, was that I had great difficulty sleeping. I’d lie awake until 3, 4 in the morning most nights, unable to get to sleep until my body was so exhausted it simply shut down. Prior to that, my brain would be rapidly darting back and forth between all manner of different thoughts — some worries, some desires, some recollections, some pure fantasies — and be far too “alert” to allow me to properly switch myself off and get some much-needed rest.
I persevered with this for probably far longer than I should have, but eventually, once again, I decided that enough was enough, and I wanted to try something new. I’d seen some positive effects on someone (who shall remain nameless for the moment) who had exhibited similar symptoms to me at times when switching from Sertraline to another drug called Mirtazapine, so I went to my doctor armed with this knowledge and asked to switch to see how I got on.
Like the other person, the difference was night and day. While Mirtazapine is also no “magic bullet” to completely alleviate depression and anxiety, one of the things that was bothering me the most — the inability to sleep, and the anxiety this caused — is “fixed”. I can go to bed at a reasonable hour now and actually get to sleep when I choose to put my head down. Rather than constantly worrying that I don’t know “how” to get to sleep — which is something that continually bothered me while I was on Sertraline, and possibly beforehand, too — I can just, you know, sleep without thinking about it, like a normal human being.
This has made quite a difference to my overall outlook on life. Getting a decent night’s sleep is important, and as soon as you start getting it again having endured a period where you haven’t had it, you really appreciate it.
Plus Mirtazapine gave me about a week of feeling perpetually stoned and having some incredibly vivid, crazy dreams, too, so if nothing else it was worth it for that experience.
