Prednisone did work wonders for my disease, but I couldn't cope with the side effects - at first. All the side effects were cumulative for me - the longer I was on it, the more side effects appeared and the more severe they became.
At first I just felt high and had loads more energy. But over time this energy began to include insomnia and a terrible restlessness where I couldn't concentrate on anything and was so bored because I was awake for endless hours where nothing could hold my attention.
The miracle for me was when my doctor prescribed me Amitriptyline. She prescribed it for the insomnia - which completely disappeared and I slept better than ever before - but it seemed to completely counter the restlessness as well, and in emotional terms I felt so much better.
Prednisone also gave me some facial hair, which, once I'd got the moods and sleeping sorted, was the worst thing (though not terrible). Against all my expectations, I did not feel hunger and did not gain weight, though my face puffed up a bit. My muscles wasted - this came later into my prednisone course - and I was physically very weak, but this didn't bother me too much. I got a bad tremor. My white blood counts were always off (I think too high) when I had blood tests done. I'm sure there were other things. It was odd how at first I felt exactly the same on pred and then how many things started steadily changing.
Everything quickly returned to as it had been after I'd tapered. I stayed on the Amitriptyline because until I took it for insomnia, I hadn't realised how much I needed it as an anti-depressant. I'm actually not sure I am less depressed taking it, but it definitely does something for the better to my emotional state that I can't quite define, but I'm very pleased prednisone led me to it.