Prednisone and Depression/Mood swings

I'm currently taking 25mg prednisone, 50mg azathioprine (started 3 weeks ago) and 4600mg mesalazine daily. I started on 40mg pred 2 weeks ago, I was dumb and decided to taper 10mg the first week because I just want to get off it as soon as I possibly can. My symptoms aren't that bad, I have occasional bleeding and mild abdominal pain.

I can't tell what is the drugs and what is me. Life has been stressful lately, my flat flooded and I lost a lot of property (and a hard drive of work...) and we have had to move. We currently have no furniture so I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor, all while starting a new job. Things feel pretty bad.

I feel so helpless and depressed. Because I lost a lot of my belongings I don't have a lot to do (I normally study/work in my evenings and without a computer I can't and I feel helpless) and I feel like I have no energy to do the things I used to enjoy. I find myself dwelling on the past, past relationships, and blaming myself for everything bad that has happened recently, even blaming myself for the flood and convincing myself I've messed everything up. I get jealous of others and what I perceive to be their perfect life and I get horribly awful mood swings and I'm convinced everyone hates me for them. My mind feels hazy and it's hard to explain to people what's going on in my mind. Even writing this feels really difficult. I can't sleep and when I do its restless. I'm eating a lot more and getting headaches. I'm convinced everyone hates me and I definitely hate myself right now. I feel so lonely and isolated and like everybody thinks I'm the worst person.

I want to get off this medication but I also don't know how much of how I'm feeling is me and how much is the steroids or the azathioprine. I'm seeing my GP in the morning as I need help but I don't know how she can help me. I know I can't really stop the pred, but I was told about another steroid called clipper (beclamethasone) that I could ask for instead of pred. How can my GP know what is caused by the medication and what is caused by me. I have a family history of depression but I've never considered myself to have depression. Should I ask for something to help me sleep or stop feeling so helpless. I don't really know what to do, my brain is so hazy...

Can you transition from prednisone tablets to enemas? I have a months supply of Predsol enemas left from the last time I was on pred.

I remember my doctor telling me that depression was sometimes a result of tapering down too fast. I was cutting 5mg pills in half so I could go down 2.5mg at a time. Mary

Thanks all. My GP is allowing me to taper down the pred quicker - 20mg for 5 days then 15mg for 5 days then we'll re-evaluate how I'm feeling and how the uc is. Already I feel better but there's still a way to go. She also gave me some mindfulness techniques to try as well as a number to call for a psychotherapy assessment. Unfortunately she couldn't prescribe clipper - I wonder why. Perhaps it's no longer available in the UK. Shame as I'd much rather be on that than the pred. Hoping this is the last time I have to be on pred once the azathioprine kicks in - I'm seeing a GI nurse on Thursday to assess and if all is well increase my azathioprine dose to 100mg.

4,600 mgs of daily mesalazine is fine. Generally, up to 4,800 milligrams a day is considered the maximum effective dose for oral mesalamine/mesalazine. There are a few exceptions, like apriso, where the max dose is prescribed lower. However, that has more to do with clinical trial effectiveness of that medication at much lower doses rather than safety concerns.

Azathioprine/Imuran is a weight-dosed medication, without knowing the patient's weight it's hard to be one hundred percent certain. A typical dose is 100-200 mgs per day, so the dose is likely just fine, as it's in the normal range (unless we're talking about someone whose weight is very low or very high).