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  1. Hello! I have been surfing the surviving antidepressants forums for the past couple of months ever since my withdrawal symptoms began and have decided to finally make an introduction post as I have some questions and concerns. I apologize for some vague starting dates, it has been a few years and I couldn't find a record of my exact starting dates. I also please ask anyone responding to me to express some discretion in describing specificities of their own symptoms, and refrain from excessive pessimism as I am extremely anxious and prone to health anxiety! Someone could tell me my hand could hurt tomorrow, and behold, my hand will hurt tomorrow. 😄 I also may be slow to respond as I try to limit my interaction with WD research and forum reading as it makes my anxiety worse. Thank you for understanding. In 2021 I was prescribed amitriptyline to attempt remedying my chronic interstitial cystitis that has been resistant to other treatments. I was initially put on 10mg, then after a few months bumped up to 25mg to see if it would make a larger difference. Unfortunately it did little to remedy my cystitis symptoms (yay.) After several more months on that dosage, I asked to try 30mg to see if it would help more (it did not, unfortunately.) In 2022 my GP suggested switching to nortriptyline to see if it would make a bigger difference for my pain. I agreed and did a direct switch from 30mg amitriptyline to 25mg nortriptyline (no crossfading in between them, just a cold one day switch.) I did not know the potential risks of such a switch, and my doctor ensured it was safe since nortriptyline is metabolized out of amitriptyline. I do not recall experiencing any WD symptoms from this switch, but I wasn't exactly looking for any either. Fast forward to late 2023, I start having some anxiety issues (well they've been going on for a while, but I went to doctors for it around this time,) and after a run in with a lack luster psychiatrist who encouraged me to start a benzo and a new antidepressant on top of the nortriptyline without any care for my concerns against long term benzo use I got quite spooked out by psychiatric medication and wanted to get as far away from it all as possible. I did not take the medication he prescribed me, I only took 3 days of 0.5mg clonazepam that gave me intense side effects (including making my anxiety leagues worse for the duration I was taking it) that I stopped CT after 3 days (I was told this was ok by the pharmacy.) After a particularly intense googling session on all the side effects of benzos and antidepressants (with PSSD becoming my new biggest fear) I became quite unsettled with my already taking nortriptyline, and decided to brave tapering to try and prove to my anxiety that everything will be ok (the irony 😅). I was incredibly nervous to start, and for the entire month leading up to it I was in deep deep anxiety about all the ways it could go wrong, and was still deeply anxious as I was going through the taper. Id like to note, the entire time I was on nortriptyline I did not experience any adverse effects, aside perhaps aggravating my anxiety as it feels like my anxiety getting worse corresponds closely with switching to nortriptyline (not sure if that is possible though!) So at the start of 2024 January 4th, I began my taper with advice from my GP and a pharmacist to alternate doses between 25mg and 10mg. I had a whole schedule written out where I would start out with alternating 25/10 every other day, then switching to 25/10/10 the next week, and so on and so forth for about a month until I would have hypothetically been alternating between 10 and 0. At the time I had no idea that this is not recommended! Right at the start of the 2nd week (25/10/10) one hour after taking 10mg for the 2nd subsequent day in a row for the first time, I began experiencing vaginal coldness and burning sensations. I started freaking out and barely slept, I ended up taking another 10mg that day a few hours later (so a total of 20mg) out of panic thinking it was the start of PSSD (my aforementioned biggest fear.) Previously, my pharmacist instructed me to return to the 25/10 schedule should I get any distressing symptoms, so that's what I did, counting the 20mg I took that day as "25." The following morning, after advising with my mother, I began to suspect perhaps its not withdrawal, but the worlds worst timed yeast infection 😄, and begun treating it as such with topical creams. After a few days the burning seemed to subside so I assumed I was correct, and continued my 25/10/10 taper. However with the burning receding, instead came electrical zaps, tingles, and smaller burning sensations. So then I started doing more googling, found surviving antidepressants, and decided to try reinstating at 20mg until things calmed down. After I reinstated I didn't feel a particular improvement in symptoms. There was a change that for a few days it felt like specific parts of my pelvic area would "buzz" chronically all day. But then it went away and it returned to more sporadic tingles and zaps. Presently I am still at 20mg going strong! Since then I continue to have weird electric jolts, body zaps, tingles, tickles, etc. in various parts of my body. While primarily focused in the genital/thigh area, it is also common in my heels/feet, and I have felt it in my thumbs, scalp, and sometimes sensations of intense pressure in my face/cheek. I still occasionally get vaginal burning as well. There is no actual numbness, or sexual dysfunction, I can still feel everything, it just tingles. It is not painful, or too uncomfortable (with a few days of exceptions where it was at its worst.) But it is very very nerve wracking. It comes and goes, it is not constant, though some sensations may last for a few days. It does feel like it is slowly reducing over time, and despite my worst fears I have full faith it will one day go away. It gets noticeably worse whenever I am nervous and freaking out, or if I sit and/or lie down (for pelvic/feet.) I have also experienced some increased tinnitus in one ear about a month into the withdrawal, but tinnitus has been a life long problem and that ear has been finicky way before I started to taper so Im not quick to blame it on the withdrawal. 😅 I am also not sure if my extreme anxiety these days can be credited to the withdrawal, since I was unfortunately in a pretty similar state of mind prior to tapering. I have since spoken with my GP, and my GP's opinion was that it is not withdrawal and entirely psychosomatic since Ive been in a state of chronic high anxiety for nearly a year and was expecting my taper to go wrong in every way possible. However I have been referred to a neurologist and a new psychiatrist anyway. The new psychiatrist I saw is actually quite incredible, and believes what is happening to be withdrawal related. The psychiatrist is even familiar with the 10% taper, and in my circumstances, even recommended I taper by 5% if/when I decide to continue. I have also since started counseling to help reduce my high levels of anxiety, so hopefully with all these things combined I am well on my way to recovery, however difficult it may feel now. To conclude this terribly long introduction post. I am now left with some questions on how to proceed forward. First question being about compounded pills, my psychiatrist recommended compounding doses at a pharmacy for future tapering, but also said I could manually weigh them. I recall seeing some posts saying compounded pills can be quite variable in weight and thus they concluded they are unreliable for a taper. Is this true? My understanding is that even the non-compounded pills tend to vary in weight, but this doesn't seem to have many negative repercussions. I would prefer to compound since it is much more convenient, and manually calculating doses would make me nervous. But if it is unreliable I would rethink this stance. Second question I'll admit is less of a question, and bit more in the realm of seeking reassurance. But please bear with me. Should tapering correctly and slowly (5-10% decreases) reduce my chances of getting PSSD? I have had no sexual dysfunction from these pills, yet PSSD is my biggest fear and I have read plenty of worst case scenarios on the internet of people being stuck with no emotions for years on end. My understanding is that PSSD comes with two camps, one as a result of adverse reaction from being on the medication (SD while still on the drug) that then doesn't go away after taper. Then the other as a symptom of withdrawal. It seems like adverse reaction PSSD seems to be the more common case with terrible long term cases, whereas withdrawal seems to be more forgiving and more likely to go away with time. Is this assumption correct? Have you guys seen cases of PSSD/anhedonia emerging after conservative 10% tapers? I understand there are no guarantees with tapering, but I am hoping to find something to latch onto to to put my mind at ease. Thank you for taking the time to read my post! I wish us all to have smoother journeys going forward.
  2. Until I was 30 years old I had never put an antidepressant in my mouth. I had a normal life. I studied, graduated, dated, got married, etc., etc. Since I was a child, I've always been a little anxious/worried. When I was young, I had some difficulty sleeping. I also had gastritis due to anxiety, but nothing more than that. I never resorted to medication, even though I faced many traumas (my father's death, problems with my mother that made me move in with my grandmother, etc.). However, I started taking Lexapro 20 mg from 2010 until 2017 to treat classic depression caused by a disease that no one discovered and that made me feel a lot of pain. In 2017, after many bad episodes, notably my son's diagnosis with a serious illness, Lexapro was no longer effective. I started to feel scared, depressed, with back pain and anxious. I was afraid that my eldest son would also be diagnosed with the same disease. Now I question whether the exacerbation of these symptoms was not a result of Lexapro itself. WE WILL NEVER KNOW. The fact is that the doctor - in 2017 - switched to CYMBALTA 60 mg and I reacted VERY WELL. I even got through traumatic episodes, like the sudden death of my grandmother - which for me was everything in life, as she was the one who raised me - and everything went very well. The only annoying effect was dizziness when standing up. I actually fainted a few times because of it. In one of them I even had to get stitches in my head. Anyway, everything was going very well until the episode occurred in May/2023, in which I was fired by my friend, who suggested that I had committed a crime in 2016. After what happened, I became very depressed, I didn't want to get out of bed, a feeling of injustice, difficulty waking up, etc., but I was still able to do normal activities. Early July 2023 - when I was much better and didn't feel any of the symptoms I'm experiencing now - I went back to the doctor, who decided, don't ask me why, to increase the DUAL to 90mg. About 2 weeks after starting the new dose, the monster that now plagues my life began to be born. After seeing a news story saying that a certain person had been convicted for an event that had occurred 6 years ago even though he was innocent, I began to feel afraid that the suggestion made by the monster who fired me could come true, despite there being no factual-logical support. for that. From then on, I believe that due to the increase in medication, I began to feel anguish I had never experienced before - and which I later discovered was not that bad as I would feel much worse. But, as it was something new for me, I was very scared and, after contacting the doctor, I was prescribed Pristiq 50 + 0.25 Rexulti. I argued that I didn't want to take two medications. Because of this, she told me to just take pristiq. After about a week, I felt much better and thought everything was over. A few days later, however, the symptoms of anxiety/distress and intrusive thoughts returned. Therefore, we switched to 100 mg of pristiq associated, at my suggestion, with cannabis extract. However, the medication (Green Care 79.14 mg/ml) caused me 2 panic attacks. I was traumatized by these two events and permanently stopped taking THC. For the first time in over a decade, I had to take a Xanax to calm down. However, without any change of medication, the anxiety began to return very strongly, to the point of almost preventing normal activities from being carried out. Even so, it was possible to tolerate the symptoms with GREAT DISCOMFORT. Upon returning to the doctor's office, I reported the worsening of symptoms and the Pristiq dose was increased to 150 mg, this time associated with half a Rexulti tablet (0.25). As I was very fragile and wanted to improve, I accepted the association with the antipsychotic. About 1 week later, my symptoms improved and I thought that, this time, things would go well. After 1 or 2 weeks I felt good - although a little accelerated. However, at the end of November/2023 I started to feel very anxious, accelerated and distressed, which caused a terrible cycle of thoughts. They were very uncomfortable symptoms that were slowly destroying me. I even had a kind of panic attack, but I resisted without taking Xanax. I was anxious for almost the entire day, but I refused to speak up for fear of more problems. Mysteriously, all these symptoms diminished greatly during the night, so that, as far as possible, it was possible to sleep well, despite being very distressed during the morning and afternoon. Well, after this episode I went back to the office. Seeing my condition, the doctor decided to replace the 150 mg of Pristiq with 20 mg of Lexapro with the removal of 0.25 mg of Rexulti. In the first week after withdrawing from Pristiq, it felt like something bad had come out of me. From 11/21 until 11/28 the symptoms decreased until they almost disappeared. I was quite happy. I thought I had discovered what caused all this and that there would be a happy ending soon. But there was no time to celebrate. On 11/29/23, 8 days after withdrawing from Pristiq and starting Lexapro, the anguish returned in a brutal and overwhelming way. So great and intense that the desire to kill oneself appeared as the only option to end the suffering. I had never felt this before. Therefore, it is obvious that the medication was to blame. From 11/29 onwards, my real downfall began. Despite the ups and downs, before that, I was able to go for my daily run, work and have leisure time. From then on, no more. After 11/29 I have certainly been facing the worst phase of my life. If I weren't working remotely, I would have to take time away from activities. From that date on, I completely abandoned the faith that had helped me so much in the past and my life became a distressing struggle for survival. From being a fervent Catholic with a daily rosary, I no longer had the strength to continue. It was my wedding anniversary and I couldn't go out to dinner with my wife, just to give an example. I was completely dysfunctional. Many times I couldn't even take my children to school or go to the supermarket. He was in a daily hell that seemed to have no end other than taking his own life. The days that followed were terrible. During this period, I was forced to take xanax every day (I only took it once a day, but if I could, I would take it every 3 hours), such was the anguish. I had never felt anything close to that. Not even Doistoevksi, or perhaps only he, could faithfully describe the overwhelming feelings that invaded my soul. On December 7th, due to my terrible condition, the doctor suggested that I take ketamine sessions and add 0.5 of Rexulti to the 20mg of Lexapro. From then on I had ups and downs. After the first two ketamine sessions I thought I was cured and that everything was over. I was wrong. After a few days of improvement, I began to worsen dramatically with terrible anxiety and panic, as well as intrusive thoughts. On 1/8/24, in a new consultation, the doctor decided to maintain Lexapro 20 mg and maintain 0.5 of Rexulti. That same day, I went on vacation with my family and had the worst vacation of my life. Catastrophic thoughts accompanied me at all times. I was already waking up with a LOT of fear and panic. I spent the whole day like this, with the same thought circulating and plaguing my mind. I went to the beach with atrocious difficulty. Every 5 minutes, throughout the day and afternoon, I had to relive what happened to tell myself that there was no reason to worry, that it was just the thought of a crazy person, etc., etc., all of this surrounded by a lot of fear, anguish and panic. At night, there was a little relief and, I don't know how, I was able to sleep well. But I woke up the next day in absolute panic. It was a nightmare. Upon returning from vacation, on January 22, 2024, in complete despair, I went to another doctor. He said that I had symptoms similar to those of OCD and ordered me to keep the Lexapro, remove the 0.5 of Rexulti and take Luvox 50mg for 3 days, then switch to 100. In the first three days I noticed that the intrusive thoughts decreased. Given this, he asked to maintain the 50mg, in addition to the 20mg of Lexapro. From the fourth day onwards, however, despite the thoughts having reduced, the anguish/panic increased a lot again and came in a BRUTAL and OVERWHELMING way. I had terrible episodes for about 10 days, where I really wanted to kill myself to end the pain. I woke up with a feeling so bad I couldn't describe it. I even fainted on two occasions. I couldn't carry out everyday activities, like going to the supermarket or taking my children to play soccer. I had never felt anything like this. Doctor gave Buspirone but it was like water. Therefore, he told me to take Xanax 3x a day, in addition to the other medications. Afraid of the effects of benzos, he took xanax only when the anguish was unbearable and tried to live in anguish at all times, without respite. Then, in desperation, I asked the doctor to remove the Lexapro - because I thought it was causing the symptoms. On 02/02/2024, he ordered 5 days of Lexapro 10mg and then withdrawn, he kept 50mg of Luvox and started Elavil 25 (should go to 75 mg in 5 days) and Lithium 600 (2x of 300). The day after taking 25 mg of Amytril, on February 3, 2024, I felt better. I was very happy because I didn't wake up in a panic and I didn't feel like throwing myself out the window, something that had been with me in the last few months. But my general condition continued to be poor. From then on, very slowly, I gradually improved. It wasn't great, but I stopped wanting to die. Given the improvement, the doctor asked to keep Elavil at 25 mg. I suggested that he reduce/remove Luvox but was ignored. I thought it might have effects from completely withdrawing from Lexapro but it didn't get any worse. At an appointment on 2/22/2024 with another doctor, I was in a simply reasonable state. Still very traumatized by everything I suffered and went through, but without that anguish and panic that paralyzed me and left me wanting to die (and sometimes to kill myself, which scared me a lot). As for the thoughts that I would be reported, etc., they came many times a day, but without panic or anguish. But it was much better than my previous state. I was very happy with your new doctor's line of thinking - who also understood that most of the terrible symptoms I suffered stemmed - not from my condition - but from the medications. I reminded the doctor that I was flooded with a sea of serotonin and norepinephrine (I was prescribed an incredible 150 mg of Pristiq + 0.25 of Rexulti, then 20 mg of Lexapro + 0.5 of Rexulti, and finally 20 mg of Lexapro, + 50 mg of Luvox). One of the doctors even commented that we could increase Lexapro to 40 mg!!!! My perception is that what made me improve was Lithium. After 2 weeks of taking the mineral, I had a good improvement considering my previous condition. The effect of 25 mg Elavil was also impressive, as I took it at night and, the next morning, I didn't wake up in despair. As for Luvox, I honestly think it does me more harm than good. I remind friends who read me that I am one of the many cases in which the patient presents a small complaint and is devastated a few months later by the medications. If the medication starts to cause unwanted effects, the standard medical approach is to always increase the dose, and never take out the medication. It's insane. The new doctor ordered dozens of tests, including genetic ones, and authorized the reduction of Luxox to 25 mg. I've been on the new dose for 15 days and I'm still doing it - not very well - but simply stable. He also said that our target is to remove everything ( AMEN). He also said - unlike the previous doctor - that I don't have OCD, just a persistent intrusive thought. I remember never feeling anything like that. I never had thoughts that tormented me day and night. I remember never feeling anything like that. I never had thoughts that tormented me day and night. This is yet another indication that this all happened due to the different drugs I was put on. The thoughts that I could be accused of something - despite having done nothing - appear all the time, but without the panic like before. Today, 8/3/24, I am taking low doses of three medications: 25 mg of Elavil 25 mg of Luvox 600 mg of Lithium, The first withdrawal occurred. 15 days ago I reduced Luvox from 50 to 25. Because of all this, here I am, looking for everyone's help to, little by little and very carefully - after all, I am very traumatized by what I went through and felt - remove these medications from my life and get out of this nightmare I have been going through. Thanks and sorry for the bad english.
  3. Hi everyone, I’m a 40 year old male at the moment coping with nasty issues after the use of one tramadol tablet half January this year. let me first start where my problems with psymeds started. In the year 2016 i got prescribed Amitriptyline for neuropathic pain in a 10mg dose in the upcoming years to 2019 the dose was upped to 30mg per day. In 2019 i noticed the amitriptyline did not do anything for me anymore except that it made me sleep well. In 2019 i tapered amitriptyline based on a schedule one week 30mg next week 20mg and last week 10mg and 2 weeks after 10mg with skip days as suggested by my GP. This worked but i noticed erectile disfunction after stopping. Later i found out that this could be pssd. since the disfunction was mild and i’m in a stable relation with my partner it wasnt a real problem. the disfunction got better in the upcoming years and even had a newborn son in the meantime. until last january 24 where everything changed for me, i used one tablet of tramadol and i woke up with numb genitals the next day, in the upcoming 2 weeks i got emotionally numb, severe ED, decreased sense of touch on my skin, anhedonia, insomina, waking up and cannot sleep anymore, smell and taste got bad and my vision is not clear. I went for help at my GP who says im depressed, i prescribed me quatepine for sleep and after 3 days taking this i got suicidal ideations, so i stopped it. But the suicidal ideations did not go away. GP still says depression, and prescribes me Amitriptyline in a low dose for sleep, after a few days i feel my genitals getting number again so in 2 weeks i stopped the amitriptyline again from 40mg to 30mg to 20mg to 10mg and the stopped in one week. my GP now sent me to a psychiatrist who at the moment put me on olanzapine 5mg. my sleep is now better and suicidial ideations are in the background. ( in day time i use 3 * 10mg oxazepam to keep calm) now for upcoming week i have a new appointement again with the psych to talk about new antidepressant to go on. im not sure what to do because i think it is pssd or some sort of withdrawal im coping with. gp and psych says depression. at the moment i cant do my job or look after my family because of all this. does anybody have some advice in my situation? Could a new Antidepressant give some relieve of the symptoms im experiencing and not make them worse?
  4. Crochetchica

    Introduction

    Hi, I’m 70 and have had depression and anxiety on and off for most of my life. I weaned myself off Valium in my thirties successfully. I was prescribed Citalapram 20mg 15 years ago and it works for me. In the past twelve months my mobility has not been good and I have struggled badly with depression as I have the motivation but my body says “no”. My family had to intervene to get me some help and I was prescribed Mirtazapine which helped me through a bad patch. I now would like to come off Mirtazapine as I feel tired all the time. My doctor is aware of this and told me to do it gradually, which is sensible. I’ve been checked for everything to explain my tiredness and everything is fine, so my next step is to look at the meds I take. Thank you for reading this and any advice on coming off the Mirtazapine would be gratefully received.
  5. Hi, I am new here, I was put on klonopin for 6 months then I had to taper because I developed a tolerance to it. Accidentally did a rapid taper off of it with out realizing how fast and dangerous the taper was. I am suffering from a lot of systems from getting off of klonopin. I am 4 months out since my last dose of klonopin. As soon as I got off of my doc put me on Amitriptyline for sleep. I don’t why I excepted Amitriptyline I wasn’t thinking straight at the time. I just need to now if it is ok to be on a sedative like Amitriptyline while trying to heal your CNS from a benzo like klonopin? I know that Amitriptyline has a long list of symptoms just like klonopin. And I am getting scared that the symptoms from Amitriptyline might be intertwining with the withdrawal symptoms from klonopin.
  6. Hi everyone, Happy New Year! I came across this site by reading the Reddit thread about amitriptyline so I’m hoping you can help me before I go out of my mind with worry. I started suffering from insomnia a couple of years ago - I never had trouble falling asleep but would wake up at 3 am and not be able to get back to sleep - but it got worse in August 2023 and my GP put me on amitriptyline. I started at 10mg but it did nothing so she increased the dose to 20mg a night. When I fell asleep, I slept fine but it would always take me ages to get to sleep so I didn’t love it as I felt like I had just changed the insomnia round to pre-sleep rather than after some sleep, if that makes sense. I also started to put weight on and I started to snore, which disturbed my husband. I therefore decided to come off amitriptyline. My GP told me when I started taking it that I could stop at any time…so this is what I did. No taper, just cold turkey. That was on 12th or 13th December 2023. Since then I have had a constellation of odd symptoms that have got me feeling very worried and anxious, especially as I already suffer quite badly with health anxiety. It started with extreme itching in the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet as well as in my eyes with a stuffy nose and a cough. At first I thought it was related to dairy because it came on after drinking coffee and a cup of tea with milk and sugar. It then became a bit more generalised - coming on after eating a store bought sandwich, for example. I went to my local pharmacy and they told me to take fexofenadine 120mg once a day, which does seem to have helped the itching. Since that point, the itching has turned into a burning/tingling/prickly sensation in my cheeks predominantly although I have also felt it all over my body. My cheeks sometimes go pink when the pain is really bad. This was especially acute after eating some cheese at Christmas - something I have done always and never had a reaction to. I have had sweats and chills and found it very hard to regulate my body temperature. I’ve had diahorrea, nausea (both pre and post eating), a cough/wheezing (which came on after cheesegate), acid reflux, hearing my heartbeat pounding in my ears as well as insane amounts of anxiety. I read somewhere that amitriptyline is a histamine moderator so I wonder if some of the allergy symptoms are being caused by the sudden rush of histamine in my system? I always react badly to mosquito bites so have wondered for a while if I might be a bit histamine sensitive. I also read that GI and GERD symptoms can come from amitriptyline withdrawal which might explain the nausea, diahorrea, cough etc. I guess what I am looking for here is to see if this rings true for anyone else before I lose my mind with worry. I saw my GP today and she told me that it could be any number of scary things so now I’m doubting the assumption that the symptoms are withdrawal-related with the associated hike in my anxiety levels. She is doing blood tests so we’ll see what those come back with. Any advice or pearls of wisdom you have would be very gratefully received! Thank you so much in advance.
  7. Thank you for accepting me into this group, I am so grateful to be here. I have only recently (after many different types of tests) realised that I have been in AD protracted withdrawal for around 2 years, it has been the most hellish time of my life. I am so broken and quite distraught that I can't get the help and support that I need to navigate this situation that I have found myself in 😥 I am not sure how to go about making contact with other members so I'm writing this in the hope that someone would kindly point me in the right direction. Thank you.
  8. Please help me , I have been taking 3 meds ( Olanzapine 5mg , Quetiapine 400mg and Amitrptyline 150mg ) for over 2 years , The last 2 months were very Hard , suddenly I start having Panic attacks , depression , fatigue , 0 appetite , Insomnia ; I've read that it can be from reaching the tolerance , tolerance is when the drugs don't work as they use it because the body get adapted to them , I am pretty sure that I am having tolerance because I start getting my old feelings for the first time . I didn't find anyone that had a similar experience ; Please help , Should I stop the medications ? or i have to just wait ? I don't want to increase my dose or to swicth to other drugs .
  9. Thanks for admitting me to this group. I have benefitted immensely during last month by going through other fellow travelers' experience of withdrawing from Amitriptyline. I am on the same journey, after being on Ami from last October at 25 mg per day for my joint pains and fibromyalgia. Present dose is 3 mg per day. Started tapering from May 2023. Initial reduction from 25 to 22.5 mg for 2 weeks. Next 20mg, 17.5mg and all the way upto 10 mg. By August 15 I was at 10 mg. There was minor withdrawl symptoms like cold, hyperthermia (without fever) upto 100.5 deg F, increased flatulence, non specific pain at different places etc on and off during this period. It was getting resolved over 1 week to 10 days. I further tapered down to 7.5 mg and 5 mg by September 20. I am able to manage so far without major withdrawl symptoms. Major factor I feel is that I am at peace with my symptoms where as earlier I used to resist them mentally. Sleep is not so good like it was earlier with higher dose of Ami. But I don't lose sleep over the same🙂. Body always catches up with sleep when mind is not disturbed. To give a background, I was health anxious always and last year after I developed muscle and joint pains I was worried and started losing sleep. After blood checks, diagnosis was Vit D and B12 deficiency. Supplements and B12 injection were started then along with multi vitamin tablets. By September last year I developed fibromyalgia, most likely due to sleep deprivation and anxiety. That is when my neurologist prescribed Amitriptyline, 10 mg titrated upto 25mg over 2 weeks. The sleep was immediately better and with that the anxiety also was resolved. Normal side effects were there like weight gain, increased heart rate, urine retention etc. Dry mouth and constipation resolved over first 2 weeks. The pain meanwhile was coming down, even though I suspect it was because of the effect of Vitamin D and B12 supplementation. I was taking magnesium and iron supplements also during this period (and upto now) along with healthy food choices. Magnesium and potassium are important (as also iron) when we talk about neurological health. Found lot of benefits in the meanwhile in my BP (got normalised from earlier 145/100 levels to 115/80 levels) and cholestrol (from 230 levels to 180 for total cholestrol). HBA1C also came down to 6.5 from 8.0. I feel that the nutritional aspects in maintaining health are not very much in focus in modern medical practice. After my experience, I can vouch for the importance of the same. Presently I am reducing slowly as per the advise in this forum and reached 3 mg, will go real slow and plan to come off by some time next year. Intention of this post is to give hope as well as some help to other fellow sufferers about taking important steps to take control of our own health. Sorry for this long post.
  10. I’m at my wit’s end here. Earlier in 2023 I was on 20mg of Citalopram after having been on them (with a brief change to Sertraline in 2020 after upping Cit to 40mg in 2019, if I remember correctly) since 2017. I was given them alongside 20mg Omeprazole for suspected anxiety-induced gastritis, which still hasn’t been confirmed. They helped me cope well enough, except for the dip that caused me to change to Sertraline. Sertraline wasn’t as effective and seemed to give me IBS. In January this year I was given 10mg Amitryptyline for painful IBS symptoms. it made me feel confused and limited my cognition and concentration, and didn’t seem to help my pain either. Meanwhile, I had decided to go off antidepressants altogether as I have now been in therapy for three years and wanted to explore my emotions properly in a safe space that I didn’t have when I started. The antidepressants had made exploring my emotions very difficult and I was under the impression that coming off would give me the space to move forward. I was instructed to taper off over three months, decreasing to 10mg, then alternating between 10 and 0 before dropping altogether. After the last decrease, I started to feel odd, but decided to persevere, not knowing any better. My appetite started to decrease and my health anxiety was increased. I thought I had breast cancer and in the first week off Citalopram entirely, I was in a massive depressive state convinced that I was dying. It gradually subsided as everything was fine health wise, so I again decided to persevere as I was desperate to feel like myself again and move forward, having felt stuck for years. I now realise that I should have reinstated at 10mg. I thought I was getting on okay, but very lethargic and my appetite was slowly decreasing, which I didn’t quite notice. Citalopram had made me voracious and almost overweight before I got that under control, so I was pleased to lose that. I was able to maintain my weight for a month or so, and thought that I was just going through the motions and must be getting better. My mood was a bit off, but there were positives coming up such as old memories and generally feeling more like myself. But I was starting to have brand new depressive thoughts creeping in, and suicidal ideations, which have never happened for me. Making my mood worse was the mental impairment caused by the Amitriptyline. I can’t work much at the best of times and do very minimal freelance work at home, and this was just making it worse, so I was desperate to get off. I had told the doctor about all of my symptoms (so so many, including no appetite, weight loss, heavy heartbeat, fatigue, weakness) and had a clear blood test come back, with a note of low iron that was just left at that. I had mentioned wanting to come off Ami and doctor told me to do it over a week, taking a pill every other day. I had a feeling this was a bad idea, but I was desperate and trusted that the doctors must know what they’re doing. I could get through the initial symptoms, but then I had another huge depressive episode, maybe even psychotic, where I was doubting my own mind and unsure of what to trust, my anxiety was huge and I had to drop everything I was doing because everything made me too afraid. I had real trouble eating after this, not wanting to eat much other than carbs and fridge snacks. This regressed into being unable to eat anything without sobbing because it made me too anxious. I am still in this place. I have continued to lose weight because I simply cannot eat enough. I have had a lump in my throat (apparent globus) since July or so, which makes swallowing extra sensitive now. I’m experiencing an intense internal electricity panic sensation, and tremors, which is increased when I try to eat, hence the sobbing. I got desperate last week and asked the doctor to increase back to 10mg Citalopram because of how hungry it had made me in the past. Instead, I now just have impossible insomnia and flare up of my gastro issues, nausea, excessive burping, early fullness, catastrophic thoughts, and complete food aversion. My sense of taste has also changed, it’s oversensitive and makes eating so so difficult. I keep descending into moments of fear that I will keep wasting away and end up in hospital and inevitably be put on more medications. I’m trying to eat more, and realise that I probably got my stomach used to too little food, but it’s incredibly tough and I’m having to rely on high calorie foods and Complan. The doctor had initially wanted to give me Mirtazipan for my appetite but I really didn’t want to be on a sedative after how Ami made me feel on it. I’m at a complete loss of what to do, I realise that my central nervous system is in complete shock and I’m so scared that this has done some real permanent damage. I’ve never felt so hopeless in my life, how am I supposed to get to sleep? I just lay awake buzzing with electricity. On the off chance i get an hour or so, I jolt back awake. Some moments I feel like I can handle this and things will slowly get better but that's quickly replaced by panic. If anyone has any advice or kind words, please please leave a comment.
  11. I was prescribed Amitriptyline after overuse of hands due to hard work. sept 2021 The medicine helped with pain at nights but I felt dizzy when the dose was increased from 10 to 30Mg. Allso got dry mouth and got constipated. I have got 2Mg capsules from Dr and I have been tapering from 10 MG in May this year to 6Mg today. Feeling weak in legs and arms and have some joint pain. I have been on 6Mg for a month I am a bit afraid to taper further for the moment. Cant get 1Mg capsules so I might try to cut a capsule in half to get down to 5Mg i.e. 2+2+1 Mg
  12. Hi All, On aug 16 2022 I have started using amitriptyline 10mg prescribed by neurologist where I was having one sided headaches. After starting the medication I felt really sleepy through out the day I can't focus on work and dry mouth, however I read that for the medication to function we have to take for a longer period of time, i continued regardless of how I felt. But on sep 2nd week when I tried to sleep I would sleep for 5 mins and wake up with body jerks again and shock like sensation and not able to fall asleep. I felt really really bad that day.but i really exactly don't remember if I did take medication or not on that day but to my memory I think i also took it that day.next day I went to the same doc he said it's nothing just hypnic jerks but they were very bad I know how hypnic jerks feel they would clear in 5 mins not whole night, then he prescribed other medication etilaam.pro 0.5 , i understood I was already making my self a mess wite medication and decided not to experiment any further . Then I stopped, next day i wasn't able to fall sleep I would sleep for 1hr and wake up with Nightmares, I would be half asleep , it was so horrible so i came back home . I genuinely thought it was happening because of medication(amitriptyline )side effects that I took I should never go on them, and next few weeks I would try to sleep but wake up in 2-3 hrs with Nightmares and couldn't fall asleep,also I would be half asleep , not fully awake or fully slept. But i didn't understand why all this was happening, i was always analytical in my life , during this period I was asking myself why I am feeling so bad every day and insomnia. Maybe one day i thought due to caeffine, may be x may be y .. but now i understand none of it is a logical explanation. On Oct 22 still having sleep issues at night i just asked myself why iwas feeling so bad and i felt a shock , next min I couldn't recognise myself and all depersonalisation symptoms from them.. after few days i visited a psych he prescribed paxil and clonezapam, i thought they would take dp away, they didn't, i would feel more numb, after completing one month course having no medication for a day while sleeping I felt the exact same way unable to fall asleep jerking night mares that day, then i understood whenever I missed a dose all this jerks are happening and realised that these medications shouldnt be quit abruptly so late , I had bad withdrawal symptoms from amitriptyline. Now I can't get out of this dp every day feels like hell, the paxil 12.5 and clonezapam makes me sleepy and numb no excitement.im having suicide thoughts from couple of months I can't take this dp and numbness, i tried doing sports, working for long hours, cold showers, but the feelings of dp haven't reduced a bit
  13. Hi I hope that someone will be able to give me some kind of hope. I have been tapering from 20mg of Prozac and am now down to 4mg (for the last two months) but the side effects have been awful - mainly chronic fatigue, terror attacks, anxiety and generally feeling like I have the start or end of flu. Should I stay on the 4mg until this subsides? I was also on Venlafaxine 75mg (until about a year ago - but my GP withdrew me from this in a matter of weeks) so I'm not really sure if the symptoms are also due to this too.
  14. Hello everyone! I apologize this will be long but unfortunately doctors played me on a hamster wheel. I now realized how bad I affected my CNS because of writing out a timelines of everything I took. Summer of 2021 I went into depression and actually did not know what was happening to me. Extremely fatigue, could not sleep, could not eat, nothing made me happy, complete anhedonia. I was so scared because of what was happening to me...then came in anxiety when my neurologist friend says I should start AD meds. I was loosing it....so after 2 months of pure agony here it goes: July 2021 - started prozac 20mg, romeron 30mg and ativan 1mg September 2021 - started going down on prozac as I got to 50mg and was having horrible side effects (headache, dizziness, etc.) October 2021 – switched to Zoloft 50mg and added Lyrica 75 with the to drop the Ativan. was taking Romeron on and off, was able to get off it easily. January 2022 – still taking Ativan and Lyrica also, tapering down Zoloft as I got to 125mg and was again feeling horrible. Headaches, zombie, numb no feelings. Went down according to my dr from 125 to 75mg and felt horrible, the dr wanted to put me on Cymbalta. I decided to try to get off meds totally. January-end of March 2022 – by the end of March I was done tapering Zoloft, I had no actual taper rules because I did not inform myself anywhere and I did not tell my dr either. I was just cutting small pieces of the tablet off. The whole experience was horrible, I had bad anxiety, nausea, fuzzy head type of feeling, vertigo, emotional numbness, anhedonia – I was just there and felt horrible physically too. April 2022 – After 3 weeks totally off Zoloft I am back at new psychiatrist and got back on Prozac 20 to take me out of withdrawal. Bad mistake. All this time I was still taking Ativan and Lyrica. May 2022 – Major headaches started again, I got switched directly from Prozac to Cymbalta 30 and from Ativan 1mg to Valium (10mg). June 2022 – upped Cymbalta from 30 to 60 being a therapeutic dose. This increase totally kicked my a$$. July 2022– my dr. started tapering my benzo, she really wanted me off (so did I!!!) She insists I do it like she says and not go to “forums I keep reading”. I told her about Ashton Manual and my Cymbalta hurts worse group and she was not happy. So, I said ok, lets do it like her and started tapering Valium by a quarter every 7 days 😕 August 2022 – by the time I got to the last quarter (2.5mg) of Valium I was a mess: anxiety, complete fatigue I could barely do anything, my whole body hurt, blurry vision, wanted to sleep and lay down all day. I lasted like this 10 days and could not do it anymore. I have 2 small children to look after. Dr says to go back to Valium 10mg and increase Cymbalta to 90 saying 60 is not enough to get me off of valium….. October 2022 – headaches start here and there. I was feeling okish other than headaches. December 2022 – by Christmas time I was so desperate to do something, I was having day and night pressure type headaches that did not go away with any meds for the past 5-6 weeks nonstop, from the minute I opened my eyes. December 2022 – dr. switches me from Cymbalta 90 straight to Effexor 75 without any tapering. I was still on 10mg Valium and 225 Lyrica by now. January – March 2023 – the switch to Effexor was bad: constant faint like feeling, stiff neck and painful neck and skull/head and major anxiety. Got increased to Effexor 112 and the anxiety was much better. Within 14 days headaches started again, I was terrified. April 2023 – had headaches most of the time from January to April when I suggested my dr to back to Cymbalta 60 when I was fine and had no headaches. She agrees and has me direct switch from Effexor to Cymbalta 60mg. The switch was horrendous: bad migraines for days, flu like feeling for days, tired, anxiety and continuing headaches. May 2023 – my doctor makes the wonderful decision of trying to get me off antidepressants to see how my natural state is and figure out this headache mystery. She says go from 60 to 30 cymbalta for 2 weeks and increase lyrica to 300 and then zero Cymbalta and 375 lyrica and 1mg Ativan again (instead of Valium). OMG OMG OMG. I lasted 2 weeks off Cymbalta while I was having mild anxiety and what bothered me most was very intense pain, burning, pins and needles at the base of my skull and going up my skull in the back of my head like someone just hit me with a baseball bat. I called my dr crying and she says to start Cymbalta 30 again and see what happens. I was a little better, the pain was better but still there. I find the Cymbalta hurts worse facebook group and post my story there also. They advised me to go up on Cymbalta (try weighing beads if I can and take less then 60 or just take straight 60). June 2023 – I increased to Cymbalta 50, the first week was great I had such pain relief and I was getting excited I am finally a bit better after everything I have been through. The increase in Cymbalta was rough on my body again, I was having BAD headaches daily, the neck pain returned. I go to the dr again and she wants to switch me to amitriptyline. She says go down to Cymbalta 30 and start ami 12.5 for 10 days then drop Cymbalta to zero and go up to 25 ami. I went down AGAINNN to Cymbalta 30 and added 12.5 ami on June 10th 2023 and have been there since then. I did not go CT on Cymbalta again, I am honestly scared to do any other change. I still take 1mg Ativan and 225 Lyrica. So 4 drugs total…..I am 35 and have 2 kids and psych meds totally ruined me so far. What I have now is a different symptom every week (that s about how long it lasts untill a new one comes or they keep rotating). They are probably still withdrawal symptoms, that is my guess: -neck and head pain/headaches - I am almost sure cymbalta is also causing my headaches -nausea -anxiety especially in the afternoon but not too bad -anhedonia - I could care less that it is friday, monday, vacation or I am at the office. I have not felt happiness, excitement, joy or even sadness in a longgg time. -lack of motivation or excitement to do anything. I was a very active person that loved to do things/go places. What I take now (nothing changed to the AD since June 10th): -0.5 ativan in the AM -75 lyrica at noon -30 cymbalta at 5pm -0.5 ativan afternoon or whenever I feel it necessary (it helps most with the neck pain) -225 lyrica and 12.5 ami before bed usually around 8.30 pm Pls help! where do I start tapering these 4 drugs? I am familiar with the scale method, the bead method for cymbalta. Do I have to wait until completely stable after the cymbalta dose change in june? Tthank you so much. You are honestly my only hope that one day I will be free from all of this. I have been to multiple drugs and they all have no clue....I have been to 2 of the top doctors in Bucharest Romania and I felt I knew more... -
  15. Hello there, My name is Phil and I’m 31 years old. My pharmaceutical journey began in October 2020. I began to experience random waves of nausea, indigestion, dizziness and anxiety out of no where. So, I figured I’d seek help. I went to a clinic, and they ran a bunch of tests. They decided that my anxiety is the culprit, so they gave me a script for Celexa. I took the 10mg and later that night I went to the ER from sheer fear that I was about to die. Safe to say, I gave up Celexa and moved on to “the next best thing” which in their mind was Mirtazapine. I will admit, Mirt gave me the most sound sleep I’ve ever experienced in my life. But that’s about as far as Mirt did for me. It gave me brutal anxiety and panic attacks during the day, and beautiful sleep during the night. Kinda ironic. Eventually the clinic gave me a referral to see a gastroenterologist. From there, I had a series of tests done that left the GI with no answers. He decided to diagnose me with the umbrella term of “functional Dyspepsia”. Basically they give you this diagnosis when they can’t find anything wrong with you. Shortly after my “diagnosis”, he chose to put me on Amitriptyline for my “nerve pain” So I transitioned from Mirtazapine to Amitriptyline very quickly. It was a bumpy few weeks, but I eventually stabilized on 10mg amitriptyline. They told me it would take up to 6-8 months to see any benefits from Amitriptyline; so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I waited. I suffered and told myself that it’ll eventually get better. Fast forward to today and I feel like I’m going to war with myself everyday. I am now a slave to Amitriptyline. I have attempted to self-ween myself from this poison and I have been humbled by the drug multiple times. I don’t remember my experience coming from 10mg to 5mg, but this time around trying to get to 2.5mg has been the most brutal thing I’ve ever encountered. I’m currently in the throes of my most recent attempt to ween to 2.5mg. Im currently experiencing grotesque GI symptoms that include violent waves of nausea, cramping, diarrhea, constipation, 0% appetite, etc. As far as the mental aspect goes, I don’t think I can even put into words what the last few weeks have been like. I’m in constant loops of what feels like psychotic episodes. Ranging from severe panic attacks, paranoia, derealization, depersonalization, suicidal ideation, insomnia, night terrors and self isolation. I am truly at a loss, and I know that this is Amitriptyline’s doing. I have felt these things in the past from attempting a ween, but this time around has been very violent. I’ve had to take a leave of absence at work, and I’ve been bed ridden for about two weeks now attempting to stabilize on 2.5mg. Every night when it’s time to take the pill, I battle with myself. It’s either I continue down the path of the 2.5mg or attempt to re-stabilize myself on 5mg. Im feeling very lost at the moment and was hoping for some type of guidance here. If you chose to read my story, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
  16. Hello everyone, This is my first post, and I wanted to express my sincere appreciation for the supportive environment this forum provides to individuals grappling with antidepressant withdrawal symptoms. The particulars of my journey can be found in my signature block, but in short, I've been navigating a three-month withdrawal process following an abrupt cessation of over three years of antidepressant use [cycling through the TCA class of drugs with Amitryptoline, Trazadone (Trittico), and Mirtazapine (Remeron)]. The withdrawal symptoms were triggered by the decision of my psychiatrist to abruptly switch me to Pristiq (Desvenlafaxine, an SNRI). After complaints of fatigue and depression, his expectation was that the SNRI would give me an energy boost. This switch was aggravated by the decision to not cross taper. Instead, within 24 hours stopping Remeron and starting Pristiq triggered nearly manic side effects. I was in a hyper-agitated state, dizzy and unable to sleep. He suggested I continue with Pristiq for a week to see if symptoms improved, after they did not, he cold turkey transitioned me to an SSRI (Lexapro) to test its efficacy. Unfortunately, this change didn't bring any improvement. Ultimately, we attempted to reinstate Trittico at a very low dosage. By that point, however, my body had become hypersensitive and reacted adversely to any changes. About 100 days later, my withdrawal symptoms are still significant, with only sporadic periods of reprieve. My most debilitating symptoms include severe dizziness and disassociation (which can last for days), brain fog and forgetfulness, hypersensitivity to certain foods and stimulants like sugar and caffeine, intense anxiety and insomnia, and a persistent, severe ache in my neck muscles that make it feel as though my entire head is trapped in a vise. I also suffer from a constant, low-grade stomachache. These symptoms are negatively impacting my work and personal relationships, which leaves me questioning whether I should consider reinstating a low dosage of one of the original successful drugs (Amatryptoline, Trazadone or Mirtazapine) in an attempt to alleviate these issues. Alternatively, I'm wondering if it would be better to continue without introducing drugs, out of fear of potentially exacerbating the situation. I've also explored virtually every dietary supplement available, but I'm unsure whether any have a real impact. Despite maintaining a healthy diet and exercising lightly each day, I'm not witnessing any significant improvements. Does anyone know of any reliable methods to lessen these symptoms? Since Pristiq seemed to have caused this effect on my body, are there any other people who have transitioned from TCAs to an SNRI and experienced the same negative symptoms? What does the recovery timeline look like? At 90+ days, I am severely demoralized and considering restarting anti-depressants. Having read through numerous posts on this forum, I am well aware there's no simple solution. However, my confidence in my psychiatrist has been completely undermined due to his choices to rapidly switch me through medications and his subsequent trial-and-error approach in trying to correct that initial error. Currently, I take 25mg of Xanax at night to aid sleep, but this doesn't guarantee a restful sleep, and I often wake up in a state of panic. I'd be grateful for any advice or guidance on what steps I might take next, as it feels as though I've exhausted all my options. I'm currently undergoing therapy to tackle my baseline anxiety, which has been beneficial, but it doesn't tackle the fundamental issue - the alterations in my neurochemistry and the impact that years of antidepressant use has had on my brain. I am hopeful that there are strategies or tips out there that might alleviate these symptoms and assist me on my journey towards a drug-free life. With sincere thanks.
  17. I also went CT but only after taking amitriptolyne for 14 days. I had 3 months of horrible withdrawl and have been now left (7 months later) with the worst anxiety. I never had anxiety before this. I think the anxiety actually is causing most of my symptoms now. I'm sorry you are going through this, it's so hard but I have had to learn that the only thing that is going to make my anxiety better is to do a LOT of self help exercises. I have been listening to The Anxiety Guy on you tube and I find him really good. he does some great daily affirmations for health anxiety that really help. I also throught I had fibro, i convinced myself I had MS and even brain tumours. Had MRI's, CT scans, bloods 3 times. It is all withdrawl. I am still really anxious all the time but I really find listening to some afirmations and being kind to myself is starting to help. I have managed to still work through it all (although i have an azaming boss who completly understands and gives me time when i need it). Unfortuantely I am one of those people that has had a massive reaction to this sort of medication and all doctors want to do is put me on some sort of blocker to fix my issues. Not going there anymore! I hope your anxiety calms down soon, maybe try some daily mindfullness techneques.
  18. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I am a 62 year old man with Ankylosing Spondylitis that was diagnosed 40 years ago. This systemic autoimmune disease made life quite difficult. And it began with going from being a decently talented Track & Field athlete, to not being able to walk very well. Along with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), I had a spondylolisthesis, which led to temporary paralysis a couple times. While my doctors told me I needed a double fusion back operation, I was terrified of such a surgery, and put it off until the second time I lost the feel of my legs. I then went in for surgery the very next week! After the surgery I thought I would just take off and be back to sports. But I struggled another few years until they found I had AS. Dealing with sciatica for years prior to the surgery, and after the surgery, I had to use anti-inflammatories, and muscle relaxants to get through the really difficult times. Aside from the anti-inflammatories though, I never really took any drugs for long. I had to take steroids for inflammation many times, but they were short lived dosages. But around 2002, a doctor prescribed amitriptyline for nerve pain, and strange, severe muscle cramps I would get during sleep. I ended up taking that drug on an off from that point up until three months ago, when I did a very short three week taper from 50 to 25 to 12.5 to stopping. And for the first time I had many side effects that I don't recall experiencing any time in the past when I stopped the drug for awhile. Even three years ago when I stopped it, it wasn't bad at all, and I never even concluded anxiety could be from amitriptyline. I truly thought it was the safest drug ever! And if I am honest, I had forgotten it was an antidepressant drug being used off-label for so many things. Since Ankylosing Spondylitis is systemic with inflammation, I ended up with blocked arteries, kidney issues, and hypothyroidism. I had to take beta blockers the past 6 years, along with some other heart medications, and a thyroid medication. I went on a strict whole food plant based diet 8 months ago, and have since stopped all medications except the thyroid medication. I stopped the beta blocker Atenolol 4 months ago (and my blood pressure and heart rate has been amazing), and quit the Amitriptyline completely almost 3 months ago. I went from feeling very clear minded, serene, and proud of my strict diet accomplishments, to feeling odd heart fluttering (maybe palpitations), anxiety, panic attacks, hypersensitivity in these cuts on my hands that get during the dry, cold winters here, and waking insomnia (I would fall asleep but wake up restless, worried, etc.). This all started a few days after I stopped taking the amitriptyline completely nearly 3 months ago. I didn't expect the amitriptyline to cause this. But I noticed when I began taking metoprolol 6 years ago, that I angered quickly, became impatient, and things began to feel harder and harder to do. With AS, I am fused in much of my spine making simple movements difficult; which of course makes life filled with daily pain already. But I thought the beta blocker metoprolol was the reason for it all, and tried changing over to other drugs (I only had two drug class options due to my blocked arteries). Only when I was able to change from a lipid beta blocker to the water based atenolol did it improve a bit. But it only improved somewhat. I learned that amitriptyline was so good at getting past the blood brain barrier that it was often used with other drugs designed to heal brain issues (because most drugs were not able to get past the blood brain barrier). I then began to think that the amitriptyline was escorting all the beta blockers I had been taking and perhaps acting as a potentiator, augmenting the different side effects I had (hallucinations, nightmares, numb hands and fingers, eye issues). It wasn't till I got off the beta blockers completely that it seemed amitriptyline may have been behind all the difficulties over the last 6 years. Sorry for the lengthy story. I just wanted to share that while life with AS is difficult, I was never into any type of drugs. I had problems with drinking beer at times of my life, but always managed to stop that. And I only had alcohol once during the past several months during a horrible panic attack! I don't wish to take anything to get through this, unless someone thinks that starting amitriptyline again to taper slowly is a plausible course of action?? I would rather not though. I just wanted to know what others taking amitriptyline thought about all of this. I can already understand that there is no definitive time frame for discontinuation syndrome, or protracted withdrawal. I can only recall stopping the 50mg amtriptyline back in 2020 after having Covid (stopped for about 4 months without much of an issue). I did take 100mg a couple times after a new blood pressure medications terrified me after a single dose I went through several trying to reduce the horrid side effects, and used amitriptyline just to calm myself and get through that night. Other than that, it was always 50mg. Thanks again for taking the time! WestOn4th
  19. Hey everyone, I discovered this website yesterday on Reddit after feeling like I hit a brick wall while trying to taper amitryptiline 30mg. This may not be the most organized post since it’ll be detailed but I can answer questions and fill in some holes. I’d like to first rewind two years ago how I got here in the first place. I was 27 at the time in my last semester of grad school, no medical history, anxiety/mental illness history and a dedicated power lifter in the gym 2 hours a day 5 days a week. i decided to cut to single digit body fat percentage and so many things went wrong after a month in suddenly. I had a strange feeling one evening suddenly start in my chest/abdomen that hit me in my head with nausea that could put anyone down to their knees. I told my mom what has happened and we went to the hospital to get checked out. I waited two hours without seeing the doctor since I felt fine and would follow up with my primary care doctor. That morning I woke up with chills, vomiting, chest pain, and slept terrible. Blood work revealed that I was low in vitamin D. This was the beginning of hell. For 5 days I wasn’t able to sleep at all. Headaches, severe tinnitus worse than the tinnitus i was habituated that I’ve had since I was a child, my eyes would hurt I wasn’t able to eat or drink anything, acid reflux that was tearing up my insides and burned like nothing I had ever felt before. My entire head tingles like ants crawling all over it When I would try to sleep I would wake up with a bright flash of light waking up disoriented and panicked every 15 to 20 minutes. This carried on until I went to the hospital to get sedated and slept for 18 hours. I held steady for a week until the sleep issues came back again. I was put on a half dose of 5mg ambien for a week to reset. Once the ambien ran out I didn’t stabilize. I was put on buspar 30mg per day and 5mg of ambien until the buspar built up in my system. March goes on and things become far worse. The tinnitus became louder, sound sensitivity kicked in again, I wasn’t able to go to the gym anymore because the gym made my headaches and tinnitus worse, I wasn’t able to eat or drink anything again, my face and jaw hurt, my jaw felt tight. My head tingled all the time and I had no idea or understood why. It was back to square 1 again and my mental status completely changed again. I stopped the buspar cold turkey since I knew this wasn’t working. I google my symptoms and they sort of seemed like migraines so I tried taking magnesium and I was able to gain back a significant quality of life till I was able to see a neurologist. I saw the neurologist in April and and he puts me on 10mg of amitryptiline. It never really worked so we just went up to 30mg over the span of 3-4 months. My symptoms never really ceased either and I felt lost and hope and just wished for the best that things would stop one day. I tried going up to 35mg one time but it made me feel very jittery with poor sleep so I just went straight back to 30mg (fall 2021) Fast forward to December 2022 I decided to try supplementing iron out of instinct since I craved chalky and flaky foods and had strange appetite cravings that I thought was attributed to amitryptiline. I took 50mg of elemental iron and all of a sudden it’s like my blood vessels were able to chill out. I had shortness of breath go away I didn’t know and I could breathe! It was like I was choking on air. My sleep was deeper and better, the craving went away, my heart rate went down. fast forward to late February/early March 2023. I decided to taper amitriptyline. I started from 30mg and cut 2.5mg every week. I felt great, my lingering symptoms along with the tinnitus diminished, my mood was better, the annoying side effects were starting to go away as time went on, the headaches became more tolerable when I would go to the gym and it was like I was getting my life back and I could finally move on. the only issues I had were on the nights I cut down the 2.5mg it would take me a little bit longer to fall asleep for a few days but I would feel FANTASTIC as the week went on ready to drop another 2.5mg. Then one week I eventually reached 0mg and for 6 days then I was doing fine then suddenly here we are.. one night it was impossible to sleep and I cut in half a 5mg ambien to sleep or else I knew that the lack of sleep would spiral me out of control or else I would end up in the hospital. I felt nauseated, had no appetite, the tinnitus was loud, my head hurt, I felt jittery and anxious, my heart was pounding. I knew this was withdrawals and called in for work. I reintroduced 5mg to stabilize myself a bit to get some quality of life back after evaluating that the 2.5mg drops at lower doses were too big and too fast despite how well I was doing week by week over the past couple months. Here I am today going from 0mg over 6 days back to 5mg today and hoping to hold it down and keep myself steady on this dose going no higher (hoping I can stay steady and become steadier at this dose for the next month). I was able to ignore the tinnitus today and do most of my day to day, grocery shop, play video games (no gym for awhile it seems). I’m looking forward to sharing my journey, my struggles, and my progress with you all in getting off of this stuff once and for all THE RIGHT WAY with the 10% taper that I’ve learned over here.
  20. Hi all, I’m so glad I’ve come across this forum, it’s taught me more about antidepressants and withdrawal in a few weeks of reading than I ever knew the four years I was on them. My story is that I have always had bad anxiety but as a teenager I experimented with psychedelics and weed which made my symptoms a lot worse. When I was 18 I went through something quite traumatic and went into a few month long drug and ptsd induced psychosis. I was treated by some awful psychiatrists who misdiagnosed my bad ptsd and psychosis symptoms as bipolar disorder (through two 30 minute evaluations). I was young and because of the symptoms I was experiencing, I was not in the right mindset to question what was going on and my mother was just trying to do what was best for me so followed the doctors advice. I was then put on seroquel, Valium and olanzapine I think there was a few other medications but I don’t remember. I was on all of this for a maybe 4 months but all it did was cause a lot of awful side effects and made me gain a lot of weight. My mum decided that I should get off of them as she could see the damage they were doing so we slowly weaned off of them. I now know that the taper was still too short although at the time we thought we were doing what was best. The psychosis symptoms did stay away although I was very anxious and depressed. After a lot of therapy I was doing okay although still quite depressed, the depression lasted till I was about 2017 when I was 20 and although it went away I then developed anorexia quite badly. I was able to recover by 23 but I feel like prior trauma combined with the stress of being malnourished triggered bad OCD symptoms that I had never had before (repetitive awful thoughts and fixations). I was taken aback as it seemed like this came out of nowhere and it was quite scary. Because of this I was desperate to get rid of the symptoms so asked my doctor to go on Zoloft 50mg in 2019. I was already taking 10mg of Amitriptyline for sleep so we started the Zoloft. It did get rid of the OCD symptoms as my symptoms although distressing were only moderate. I was on this for a year and a half although I had terrible brain fog, could not think clearly or focus so I wanted to switch to something else. The pandemic had also made me very anxious, I cold turkey switched to Lexapro at the end of 2020 and was on 15mg until October 2022. Honestly my experience with Lexapro was good I felt calm and happy and my OCD symptoms were much better, although it did make me a bit too carefree and I gained a lot of weight again. I didn’t care as much about my university grades or other little issues, I think my anxiety pushed me to be a bit of a perfectionist. I started to read a lot of articles about the long term effects of antidepressants in 2022 and I got scared. I had noticed I had a hard time remembering things since being on the medication and I was concerned that the medication wasn’t actually treating the root issue. I also read a lot about how some mental health issues are being linked to the metabolic system and as someone who has had terrible stomach issues I wanted to try different natural ways (diet and exercise) of treating what was going on. So I decided to go off the Lexapro cold turkey (I didn’t know the effects of this, it was dumb but it was 6 months ago now I feel too far along to reinstate). Initially my withdrawal were not too bad I had brain zaps and felt fluish but this passed within three weeks. I had a bit of sensitivity towards the end of 2022 but was pretty okay although some OCD symptoms and anxiety were worse but I thought they were just coming back as a result of stopping the medication. But I think I must have had a protracted withdrawal as in January I started to have terrible mood swings, hormonal issues, awful pain around my period and extreme mood swings leading up to my period. I started crying all the time and feeling very sensitive. The only supplement I was taking at this time was milk thistle as I had read it helps with OCD and although I did notice that it slightly helped the symptoms, I feel like it didn’t do that much. I read more and more about metabolic health and I decided to try a paleo diet to see if it would help my symptoms, it has reduced my OCD symptoms a lot, although up until a month ago I was still feeling quite anxious, emotional and sensitive and these symptoms follow a windows and waves type pattern as described here. At the moment I have been taking a small dose of milk thistle daily for the past three weeks which I have found helpful for anxiety although seeing some info about it on here I’m thinking I should not take this as it alters brain chemicals. The other symptoms I’ve been dealing with since January are nausea, dizziness, fatigue, trouble thinking clearly, trouble putting sentences together and remembering words as well as feeling depressed, irritable and having mood swings. I am also still struggling to lose the weight I gained on lexapro but have joined up for more exercise classes and I’m hoping overtime my metabolism will improve. I just had a two week window of feeling a bit better emotionally but still dealing with physical symptoms but now I’ve started to feel down again. I am going to try the vitamins listed on here, the magnesium and omega 3s. I have also been thinking to try Ashwaganda or some hormonal balancing herbs as I think I have a bit of an imbalance going on but I’m not sure if I should add more things in right now. I’ve joined here because it feels so comforting to know that what I’m going through is a result of withdrawal and to know that other people are also experiencing similar things and have gotten through it. I hope that I start to see some improvements soon but I will keep people updated on my symptoms and progress. Nice to meet you all!
  21. Hi all. Going to make it short as I can. in 2020 summer I got my first panic attack due to lots of stress in life. in 2020 fall I spiralled into panic disorder. 2021 February started taking Seroxat - made me super anxious, gave up in 3 weeks. 2021 April doc put me on Lexapro. In few months felt myself again, enjoyed 2021 summer. 2021 fall - symptoms started to come back, but they were not too bad. 2022 January - got new job, anxiety skyrocketed and doc upped my Lexapro dose to 20mg. At the same time started to develop some strange socio fobia - in social gatherings my anxiety started to become really high. Dunno why - it just happened. 2022 spring. **** started to hit fan after russia invaded Ukraine. I’m from Eastern Europe, so this contributed to my anxiety even more. 2022 May - doc was throwing at me random drugs and all in all - I was taking 5 antidepressants at the same time. Was super furious about this and he removed some, but… put me on Klonopin. 2022 May lost my job, I stayed 10 years… 2022 june - anxiety was still high no matter what. I lost hope in drugs and started to wd Klonopin first. Was hospitalised, since could not handle the wd. 2022 August after the hospital I was put on Tranxene 10mg, Citalopram 20mg and Flupentixol. 2022 September started my new job and started to wd Tranxene. To my anxiety, sociofobia I started to become agoraphobic due to Tranxene wd. 2022 December could hardly go to work, was super low with all my symptoms. Lost my job. 2023 January was put on Amitryptiline 100mg. Was still agoraphobic. Got new job. 2023 March. Amitryptiline did nothing, I talked to my doc and we decided to just wd this for now. 2023 April - one month drug free. Living on emotional and symptom rollercoster. One day is possible, another - can hardly keep rowing. Do my agoraphobic exposures. Do my sociofobic exposures. Doing my best to live up daily symptoms. I guess I kicked my nervous system hard in 2022 and now a reset is needed. Would be awesome to live in a forest for a year, but… I have family, 3 kids, 4th is on the way, wife is unemployed, I must do job - I like it or not. Living in a flat is no fun at this stage. wish me good luck.
  22. Hi, I took Mirtazapine 15mg for 2 weeks and stopped due to severe side effects. I tried Amitriptyline 20mg, i took it for about 3 weeks but it started making me very dizzy so i stopped. Started Mirtazapine 7.5mg again as it was helping me initially for sleep, but it did not help as before so i stopped it again after 2 weeks. After all this, i came to know that these medications should be wean off or taper gradually. None of the Dr's i saw educate me about it. now i am 3 months off these medications, i get anxiety, restlessness in waves, my sleep is very broken but since last 2 weeks i feel very tired and fatigue even without doing anything. will this pass? is it the part of recovery process? Is there anything i can do about it? Any reccomendations?
  23. Hello. I started using sleeping pills many years ago because of a sudden severe insomnia. Over the years, My insomnia has gotten worse, and I had to add several different sedative medications in order to get any sleep. Currently I must take a very high dosaged cocktail, otherwise I can't sleep at all. I want to start tappering off the drugs, starting from the antideppresents. My nightly cocktail: 75 mg Amitriptyline (3 pills) 60 mg Mirtazapine (2 pills) 0.5 mg Bortizolam (2 pills) Sometimes I add 0.25-0.5 mg Clonazapem (Last nights, regularly) I also take high dosages of melatonin. Can someone offer me a specified withdrawal plan from all of these, starting from the Amitriptyline and Mirtazpine? Thank you
  24. Hey everyone, I've wrestled with two crippling bouts of insomnia in my life, both within a year a half of each other. Both bouts of insomnia weren't driven by anxiety or depression, but rather came through illness. So, I don't ordinarily have depression or anxiety. The first time I had insomnia it lasted around 3 months and I got through it with temazepam and remeron, which I tapered off of successfully. The second bout of insomnia started December 8th, 2022, again due to illness. I started temazepam again and later remeron. I had some med changes over the course of several days, which is reflected in my signature, but eventually got back on remeron. My sleep eventually stabilized, so I tapered off the temazepam successfully, with the added help of hydroxyzine. I then stopped the hydroxyzine cold turkey and didn't seem to have any issues. The last thing to go was the remeron, which I always took at 10pm and went to bed at 10:30pm. I was on remeron for about 2.5 months, most of that time being on 15mg, which I then reduced to 7.5mg for a week, then 3.75mg for another week. During the remeron taper I also used 5-10mg of THC and 30mg of CBD at night and I only had one night I didn't sleep well. The last day I took the 3.75mg dose of remeron was March 2nd, 2023. So, I hopped off at 3.75mg and it's been two days and I haven't slept at all either night. I'm guessing I should go back on the 3.75mg dose and do a microtaper with a compounding pharmacy?
  25. Hi drug time line is below. In hindsight this was a disaster from the get go! My nervous system was already a little out of whack thanks to a head injury (hence the drugs!). looking for advice, really don't want to go back on the meds due to the physical side effects but not sure what to do. From reading this post I know I tapered to quick, probably should of got off amitriptyline day 1 when I had severe drowsiness and then jumping to effexor as prescribed just added huge fuel to that fire. Not sure where I go from here? I'm guessing just wait it out an hope it gets better? Amitriptyline Nov 24th 10mg Dec 4th 20mg severe reaction told to go back to ten and then 15mg Dec 10th to Jan 1 15mg Wanted to get off and having bad cardiac issues so quick taper. (I didn't know this was quick at the time) Was switched to effexor 37.5mg for 2 days, amitriptyline 10mg a few days, 5mg then 2.5mg Effexor for a week. (No taper, was told there was no issue) Now that I see this group, I see the errors so many errors. I've been off this for near a month, extreme fatigue (since I started amitriptyline) heads since the head injury amitriptyline made them 100* worse. Since coming off effexor ALOT of random crying fits. Shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, lightheadness, no ability to exercise (ran a marathon a week before amitriptyline!) Where do I go from here?
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