Side effects, side effects.

A year ago, my psychiatrist put me on Remeron, an antidepressant. He felt that since I have OCD, an antidepressant would help control the symptoms. He had previously tried Lexapro but the very rare side effect of bleeding from the rectum started and I quickly went off of it. Prozac does the same thing. Remeron seemed like a good option.

I had my yearly physical in February, which was six months after I started the drug and my blood test showed that my cholesterol went up fifty points. My GP felt this was because I had gained some weight and told me to lose thirty pounds. I had just followed the Noom diet for four months and hadn’t lost a pound. My doctor suggested I see a bariatric nutritionist. Someone who specialized in people who had weight loss surgery, which I have had.

The nutritionist put me on a plant-based diet that I followed for five months. I didn’t lose a pound. I thought if anything, my cholesterol would decrease. My GP ordered another blood test for August and my cholesterol hadn’t gone down. In fact it had raised by another fifty points, to dangerously high levels. I’ve had a stroke. I can’t afford to have high cholesterol. I thought back to what had changed in the last year and realized that’s when I had started Remeron. I looked up the side effects again and one of the top effects was that it raised cholesterol by a considerable amount. I knew that it would increase my appetite but I failed to fully recognize the cholesterol side effect. My GP also felt it’s the Remeron that is causing the inability to lose weight because I tried two solid diet plans for a good amount of time.

I’m now in the process of titrating down from Remeron and have started Wellbutrin. An antidepressant has really helped with my OCD symptoms but I can’t be a walking ticking death bomb. So far I’m tolerating the Wellbutrin. In three months my blood will be tested again to see if my cholesterol levels are headed in the right direction. If not, then I get to go on a statin, which is hard on one’s liver and I have liver disease in my family. Great.

Side effects are real but so is the battle for my mental health. I hope Wellbutrin works for me. I’ve been on it before, about seventeen years ago. I had to take it three times a day and the pills were big and round and scraped my throat so I asked to stop taking the medication. The pills today are nice and small and I only have to take it once a day. Much better. We’ll see if it all works out. With every new drug comes the possibility of side effects but I have to try to live the best possible life I can.