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Hello everyone! Forty+ male from Germany here. As you can see in my signature, I've been on psychiatric medications, i.e. antidepressants, for most of my adult life. It all started in 2004 (maybe a lot earlier, but more on that probably later) when I was no longer able to sleep, felt like a piece of sh*t and could no longer go to university to finish my studies. Went to a psychiatrist after an amount of nagging by my girlfriend and was put on a low dose of amitryptiline, which actually helped with sleep for a while, but did not seem to do anything besides. Finally quit university after a while and sacked the shrink and amitryptiline on my own in early 2007. Until that no other therapy except meds. Fast forward to the summer of 2007 where I got into another crisis concerning my education and my future in general. Suicidal. Went to my GP who referred me to a different psychiatrist who ordered a course of mirtazapine and CBT. The mirtazapine helped me sleep (a lot) and made me gain weight (a lot). CBT was interesting and, in the beginning, helpful. When my therapist got pregnant at after about a year, I decided I'd had enough of therapy for the moment. Life went on, rough at times, and as the mirtazapine lost its effect, it was time to try Fluoxetine, as this was supposed to be more effective at lifting my mood (or so I was told). As I could not sleep without the mirtazapine, my doc added Trimipramine to the Fluoxetin. The fluoxetine regularly gave me diarrhea and after another (deeper, I'd say the absolute worst until then) crisis in 2012 which had quetiapine added to my cocktail, I ended up with clomipramine and quetiapine. The clomipramine was terrible during the first weeks to months: I was sweating like a river and short of breath at even the smallest exertion, could not have an orgasm, but at least my anxiety was gone. Quetiapine was discontinued quickly in 2015 after blood tests showed it affected my liver function. (And I blame it for my type 2 diabetes which was discovered in 2016, but try telling that a doctor...) After that my doctor recommended a switch to escitalopram as its side effect profile was supposed to be more tolerable compared to clomipramine. Pregebaline was added as escitaloprame was not as effective as clomipramine in killing my anxiety. Stopped the pregabaline for a while after I weighed over 90kg (about 198 lbs) at ca. 170cm height (about 5 feet 7 inches if I am not mistaken). To make a long story short: In 2021, when I was stuck at home due to the pandemic, I decided I'd had enough of those meds and started a, retrospectively, very quick taper: if I remember correctly I went from 20mg escitalopram to 0mg in about four weeks. I cannot say that I felt really bad during that time -- I was more energetic, but unfortunately also a lot more aggressive (my poor wife... now I know it was probably withdrawal) and as summer was approaching, my anxiety and mood swings kept returning. I discontinued the doxepin as well, but more slowly. I do not remember how exactly, to be honest. In July, as I desperately wanted to enjoy my summer holidays and not battle with anxiety, sleepless nights and mood swings, I went up from 0mg to 20mg abruptly. Nausea for one or two days, then I felt als I had always felt while taking escitalopram. Indifferent to anything and everything. For me, escitalopram is a real I-don't-care-at-all-pill. But I could function and sleep. Ok, now am I here in spring 2022 and want to get rid of my psych meds for good. I started tapering in autumn '21 and am currently at 7,5mg escitalopram. My current schedule is reduction by 2,5mg on a monthly basis. I often feel reasonably well, but unfortunately am experiencing some mood swings on a day to day basis. Sometimes I just long for the day to be over so I can go to bed. As today is a day that could be a lot better 😆, I am not sure if I will take the next step to 5mg which would be due on the next friday. Thanks for reading that far and I'd be glad to hear from you! N.

Hi all, So glad to have found this forum, reading your threads has already been so helpful for my understanding of withdrawals. My mother is 58years old and was taking amitriptyline 75mg for around 3 years for fibromyalgia and depression. Though they were working fine for her and with no major side effects, she had a sudden change of heart and no longer wanted to be dependant on the drug, so in May 2020, she quit cold turkey, with no immediate symtoms of withdrawal. I may point out that during this time she smoked cannabis, she ate and slept well and was generally healthy, albeit moody at times. June 2020 she began to have a rapid decline in mental health, became quite severely anxious, intolerable of any noise and struggled to get out of bed, so the doctor put her back on the 75mg and she quit smoking cannabis. After reinstating 75mg of the drug, her anxiety heightened, she was in a constant state of worry and was having reoccurring thoughts, mostly surrounding her health. Without much help from the doctor, we independently decided she needed to stop taking the drug and after speaking with her doctor she began tapering 10%, but only leaving a few days between doses. At this time, we had not recognised that her symptoms were in fact perhaps a delayed withdrawal reaction from stopping cold turkey in May and it seemed quite evident the drugs were only causing more anxiety, so without much meidcal support or understanding, i thought i was doing the right thing in getting her off them ASAP. She finished tapering at the end of September and it has now been 2 weeks since her last dose - she is suffering every minute of the day, she has not slept a wink in 3 weeks, her appitite has declined and in the past few days she has not eaten anything at all, she has not been able to pass stools for 3 weeks, has no energy, the sweats and shivers are continuous she has to wear multiple layers and is still cold to the bones. I discovered this forum, thank the heavens and decided to reinstate her to 5mg, which she has taken her first dose of last night - no changes so far. Should we continue with 5mg for a few days and see if anything changes? Or consider 10mg, simce her original dose was much higher? Has anybody experienced such extreme withdrawals? I am Beyond concerned, its truly terrifying and horris to watch her go through this. I just want to take her pain away but am fonally accepting that this may be a long road to recovery. Thank you for reading, i hope you can share some experiences and offer some much meeded reassurance. 💚

Hello Tapering Warriors, I haven't been on this site in a long time however I am very active in multiple support groups on Facebook and am a polydrug tapering veteran who helps many so I pray I get support here. I am running into problems tapering amitryptaline using a combination of pills that my body is used to and compounded liquid suspension. For example, right now I am taking 1 10mg tablet and then 2.5mg in compounded liquid. I microtaper the liquid. My body doesn't seem to be registering the liquid compound the same as the pills though. I am curious if others have experienced this problem with compounds. The challenge with amitryptaline tabs in their minute size and the coating they have. I know I have to work with these tablets for the duration of my taper and I need help from anyone with experience tapering amitryptaline tablets. I briefly soaked a tablet in water to remove the coating and am prepared to order a gram scale and start microtapering that way. I am badly kindled so microtapering is key for success here. Is anyone else tapering a drug with a coating? Is anyone else tapering ami tablets? Thank you kindly, Heather