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Hey everybody, I’m a new member, so please let me know if this is not okay or goes against anything. I will keep it as short and sweet as I can. Many years ago, I was put on Sertraline. I was quite young and I can’t remember anything negative about it. In December last year, I was put on 50mg of Sertraline (28th), and I tapered off 25mg of Notripyline and stopped completely the day prior (27th). I was on the Sertraline for 2 weeks, and 4 days when the itchiness started. It feels like a light tickle, or as if something has brushed against my skin, like a hair. It can be anywhere on my body. Once I scratch it, it stops, and then will move elsewhere. I’m not frantically scratching, it’s not keeping me awake and I’m not damaging skin, but it makes me anxious, agitated and restless. I will often bounce my leg or do something. The itching stopped for a few days (27th Jan until 31st) and then returned. I did develop a rash on my stomach on the 27th, which was itchy and red. I’m unsure what caused this, but it was near my injection site where I inject Ajovy (a headache/migraine medication). I injected that on the 21st of Jan, rash appeared 27th. I don’t think it’s related to my itchiness, it happened to settle when I first had the rash. The rash is no longer itchy and is fading with hydrocortisone cream. I am also on 25mg of Quetiapine, which was increased to 50mg on the 27th of December last year to assist with any insomnia that weaning of the Notripyline may cause. I guess what I want to know, is this a side effect of Sertraline/SSRIs? I’m very worried I’m developed some sort of compulsion or health condition. I’ve read in a lot of places that itchiness can be a side effect due to the serotonin increase. I also smoke marijuana. I’ve never had any other drug reactions. Thank you in advance

Been on nortriptyline 5 years for pain. Started at 50, got up to 120 last year. Stupidly took herbal tincture which included St. John's wort for a couple of weeks which sent me into serotonin overload. So I stopped it and cut down nortriptyline to 100. I've been in basically a constant panic attack since then, over 2 weeks a ago. Taking the med exacerbates the anxiety, but I can't not take it or I get sick. Can't get into the psychiatrist for 2 more weeks. Primary care have not helped at all. I'm in hell. I would just go back up to 120 except the medication really exacerbates the anxiety. I don't even know what to do now. It will be 3 weeks this Friday and I'm still in a constant state of panic attack unless I take a Valium or Xanax which I am trying to avoid because I don't want to get hooked on benzos. I have been exercising twice a day just take the edge off the anxiety which helps for a couple of hours. I'm on vacation and supposed to be having fun but I am in hell. I have been barely coping at work. I'm supposed to go to train for the position I was promoted to at another office in 3 more weeks. How can I deal? Do I try to go back up to the 120 and then taper much more gradually, even though I wig out when I take it? It used to have a seriously sedating effect. I don't know what's happening! And no one else does either, apparently.

Hello to all. Please accept my most sincere greetings. I know that all of us here are after a better life and the fact that all of us have ended up here by each other's side under one single umbrella means we all have what it takes to build a better more robust life. We are a precious community giving each other hope, helping hands and the necessary incentive and energy to carry on and reach the finish line with flying colors. We will all make it sooner or later. I for one have come into grips with weaning off of Nortriptyline. After almost 2 years of being on the drug for what initially was diagnosed as depression and anxiety, I recently decided to come off it. From what I had gathered mainly through surfing different websites and reading stories of struggles with antidepressants, I was confident that I my tapering has to happen garadually and smoothly, so distressing i was never instructed by my psychiatrist nor my psychologist about the importance and necessity of slow tapering. My maintenance dose was 100 mg for a year and half, then I went on a withdrawing process. I followed the famous 10 perecnt reduction for every 2 weeks. After almost 3 months, I'm now on 25 mg. I exeperienced a wide ranges of symptoms most notably tingling, paresthasia, insomnia and blurry and at times colorless vision on my right eye. Symtoms have become tougher these last steps leaving me with 2 major problems: 1. Some of my symtoms are so persistent and won't just go away namely tingling and prickling on my body and my declining vision quality with colors looking so drab and lifeless. I'm seriously afraid of continuing my taper as i feel this may deteriorate my current condition eventually leaving me with unstoppable poor vision quality as well as persistent paresthasia. 2. I live in Iran and the lowest-dose pills are 10 mg which are extremly small, the best I could do was to cut them into halves using a pill cutter with extreme difficulty. Now that I'm down to 10 percent of 25 mg, I need 2.5 mg pieces which is almost impossible to get. I'm stuck at this phase and I need some real help and advice from my esteemed co-combatants. I thank each and every one of you up front for helping me out. Good luck on your evetually brilliant taper journey.

Hello all, I appreciate all of you coming out and putting your lives out here for help and to help others, it's a beautiful thing and I know there are people out there probably worse off then me. But I am here after 7 days off nortriptyline for migraine. The backstory is I was diagnosed with Hemiplegic Migraines after an ER. My neurologist put me on nortriptyline, 10 mg for a week, 20mg for a week and then 30mg for a week. I am and always have been against these medications because of the horror stories But out of complete panick I began taking the medication. During the 10 mg I'd get light headed, I would loose feeling of limbs and developed awful nightmares. But I toughed it out. I began 20mg. Half way through 20 MG the nightmares were undescribable. I began to have insomnia, began to have a hard time dealing with and processing any violence gore or anything of that nature. (I am an officer so this is a major problem) I have never had PTSD nightmares or anything like that and have always talked openly about things I have seen. This was super out of character for me. I then began having sever anxiety and inability to sleep. I made it through 20mg and started 30mg.(my over all time in the medication is about a month maybe a little less) I got hit with absolute detachment, I am a very loving caring and passionate husband and father. I have 1 year daughter who was the very source of everything beautiful to me. I also have 2 other boys and one on the way. I lost the feeling and emotion for everyone. I woke up and felt scared and began intrusive thoughts due to a Crime tv show where a man murdered his wife. I became terrified of my thoughts afraid I was loosing my mind and becoming my evil. Afraid I would hurt the people I love and adore the very most. I even would be at work and see random people and think "God what if I lost it none of these people even know I'm loosing my mind and could hurt them." Of course I am then flooded with life crippling fear of my thoughts as they are dead against everything inside of me and everything that drives me to protect innocent lives 25/7 of everyday of my life. Even to a point where suicide was allowed to creep into my mind. Where I thought "I'll off myself before I ever let myself harm anyone" and then thought becomes a terrifying intrusive thought I have to work past. It was living in hell literally. I messaged my neurologist with no response. I was so terrified I immediately stopped the medication and have been off for 7 days now. The intrusive thoughts are not as persistant and the hardcore depression from those thoughts isn't as consistent. Now my biggest problem is I fall asleep to awake with gripping fear and anxiety unsure of what I am even afraid of. I have moments where I feel like myself where I feel loving caring and compassionate again. Where I see my beautiful baby girl and see a perfect world. To then suddenly fall back into pure anxiety fear and agitation. I can let thoughts flow again for the most part except during the anxiety attacks and slip into a depressive state.i want to be clear I don't hear any voices anything twlling me to do anything. It is literally just intrusive images thoughts deprived from the deepest fears I have This is not me, has never been me, and is nothing I have ever delt with before. It was 100% the medication. Which I now regret so whole heartedly and look back thinking wtf was I doing actually believing a tryciclic antidepressant would be good for migraine and not cause more harm then good especially knowing I am not have not ever been depressed anxious or suffered intrusive thoughts before. There are times I feel like I'm going to loose control and am freaking out. I take fioricet for migraine attacks and this places me into a very normal state due to the butalbital calming my nerves. But when it ends it's back with a vengeance and harder then before. I don't want to rely on it I don't trust my neurologist or going to an ER where I work because after this I will never allow another psychotropic drug to touch my brain again. Also am dead afraid of them trying to convince me and diagnose me with other illnesses I don't have and have never had. Since I am this far re-instituting is out of the question and no way do I want to risk the power it had over me when taking it. I am far to afraid of that. And to start all of this over again is a he** no for me I was told stopping cold turkey wouldn't be an issue. But clearly that's wrong. I have made it this far, and to an extent I don't know if it's my mind or reality but the days seem to be getting better and better and easier to deal with. I do have sudden onset attacks especially after napping or sleeping and they hit hard. But I manage to ride the absolute terror out. I will deal with migraines. I don't care about them anymore after this. I just want myself back, to feel my daughter's beautiful heart and love. To wrestle around with my boys without intrusive thoughts of loosing control of myself. And to look at my wife with the pure addoration I have always been filled with when even looking in her direction. I want to be normal me again. How long does this process take? What can I do to help myself? Will my brain and nervous system recover? And why did this happen to me??? Feel like a monster. My neurologist said this will pass within a few weeks. Part of me believes her because I feel like I have made progress but then I am also afraid I am just becoming numb to the intense fear the situation has given me. I have seen so many stories of people being stuck for months and years after a run like this and am terrified. Any advice help or reassurance will be so much appreciated. Thank you for reading this and responding to me

Hi all! New here, but I have been lurking this forum for a few weeks. I will share my story... I will first note that don't really have a medical history of anything except for lots of physical stuff - sprained ankles, torn muscles, broken bones, herniated discs, etc as I WAS an athlete (now I'm mostly house and bed bound). No history of chronic illness, auto-immune, mental illness except some anxiety and bouts of insomnia here and there. I don't think I've ever even had a panic attack. 30F. August 2022: I got LASIK. Sept - Oct 2022: Moved cross country and LASIK outcome (had residual prescription) made me really stressed, so I wasn't sleeping well. I took one Xanax pill 0.25mg (smallest dose) before bed on and off for a few weeks. It wasn't really helping my sleep and made me feel really fatigued during the day so I stopped. Developed light sensitivity along the way. Nov 2022: I was (mis) diagnosed with cornea neuralgia, and given Nortripyline for eye pain. I now realize my pain was caused by an ointment I was instructed to use, not nerve damage. Light sensitivity might have been caused by Xanax, unsure about that one. Two days before taking my first dose of Nortrip, I took 0.25mg of Xanax to help me sleep again. That was the last time I ever took Xanax. Then for the Nortrip, I was instructed to take 10mg every three days, titrating up to 50mg. I took 10mg for four days, and was relatively fine. Looking back, I had some side effects like POTS, constipation, and inability to feel my bladder was full. On the fifth and sixth day, I went up to 20mg. My feet started tingling. I was instructed to bump back down by my doctor. Went back to 10mg. Tingling went away. Thought I was supposed to go back up, so I did. Back to 20mg for two tdays and then tingling came back along with crazy limb jerking. Like, both my legs flew up a foot in the air while I was in bed. I messaged my doctors, wasn't given clear instructions, so I quickly tapered down to 10mg and then 0mg out of fear. I thought I'd be fine because I was on the medication for 11 days. Did an intense workout, which triggered all the symptoms I had on the medication the next day. Kept working out because I wasn't sure what was going on and doctor said it was ~AnXiEty~. Since then, all went downhill and I have developed a laundry list of 40+ symptoms, including tardive dyskinesia (I was inspired by moderator's WiggleIt's story, hence named myself MoveIt). The TD started when I took a Zrytec. I immediately had an adverse reaction to it with stabbing pains all over my legs, got a big brain zap, and then my legs started moving by themselves. Over a few weeks it progressed into full body flails and vocal spasms. A week or so later, I took a melatonin and made it worse, my hands started opening and closing. Now I seem to be acquiring new "movements" every 1-2 weeks. I have involuntary full body flails, tongue sticks out of my mouth, eye blinks, hands open and close, feet tap, ,face scrunch, lips purse. My other symptoms have been getting worse as well and my threshold to triggering them is getting smaller. I am finding I can't even walk fast without triggering a "wave" and then feeling like I have the flu + hungover + extra noise sensitive the next day, similar to CFS I guess. Almost all my symptoms are physical (for now...). Now I realize my nervous system is super fragile and am careful with medications and supplementation. In case helpful, here's the list of my symptoms as of today. I am sure I am missing some... Insomnia Flickering lights when eyes open, like I’m blinking Hypnogogic Hallucinations Flashes of light before sleeping Arc flashes in peripheral of eyes (checked with retina doc twice, nothing wrong) Strobe light effect in dark Light / Noise sensitivity Tinnitus Random ear noises, such as car crashing or fluttering Ear pain Brain zaps Randomly feeling bouts of terror when falling asleep Stop breathing while sleeping Chest tightness/pain Cortisol rushes Heart palpitations Can hear heart pounding Tingling Pins and needles everywhere (including in mouth and tongue) Burning patches Stabbing nerve throughout body / face Muscle pain? Or dull nerve pain, unsure Tremors Hypnic jerks Dizziness Jaw jerks Constipation Inability to feel full bladder Missed every menstrual cycle Exercise intolerance Headache Fatigue I haven't really seen anyone on here with similar dosage or reactions like me. I see patterns if I combine stories like WiggleIt's, those with ADR, and those with exercise intolerance. I can't even say I can 100% relate to windows and waves. I will have a random cluster of symptoms anyday, nothing seems constant except for the tingling and the progression of symptoms. I'm also not even so sure I had an adverse reaction because I am now learning the side effects I had were actually normal on the medication, and that a lot of people "push through" and it eventually subsided. I am also unsure if being on Xanax so shortly before had some adverse effect. Also did I "kindle" myself with the Xanax by taking it on and off before the Nortrip?

BavarianPH Started tapering over 6 months ago at 20 mg/ml of escitalopram oral solution. At first at 5% taper, actually 1 ml taper per week with very little withdrawals. At 3 ml it became more difficult, got to 2 ml back to 3 ml, got to 1.75 ml and experience the most intense withdrawals, extreme anxiety, fear, paranoia, close to a mental break. I went back up to 3 ml, then 5 ml, added Benadryl which counteracted withdrawal, but not for long. Was forced to go on .5 mg clonazepam 2x daily which worked but caused irritability, anger, mania, compulsion to talk a lot. So now I try .125 mg clonazepam. Tried to get a hold of my NP psychiatrist, not available until next Monday. I completely tapered off clonazepam 1 year ago and went from 200 mg lamotrigine to 100 mg. I am also on 137 mcg Synthroid, 500 mg Metformin, 300 mg gabapentin. Now I am afraid to taper escitalopram. I don't know at what dose to start, how to taper and for how long a period. This really shocked me. I have to take care of my wife who ended up in hospital 4 times, mostly because of accidental sudden stop of Celexa causing psychosis, then hospital not telling me all the meds they gave her on recovery, then she was put on wrong meds, and then got cold turkeyed on nortriptyline which caused a total breakdown and horrible rage, she was put on antipsychotics and depakote, did not tell me about the depakote and ended in hospital again. Finally, she was put back on escitalopram, rexulti and depakote, she had intense spasms, until I got her on seroquel and off of escitalopram. All this could have been avoided if the hospitals would have told me all the meds given. And if she had gone back on celexa. At that time over 2 years ago I had no knowledge of psychotropics. I studied up to 4 hours or more a day to figure out what happened, and found a totally mismanaged mental health system, unbelievable lack of accurate information and diagnosis. I need a lot of help not just for me but my wife who is so drugged up she can't even think. Please help!

Hi everybody, I have found this forum as I am trying to W/D from several anxiety and sleeping medicine being prescribed to me due to a nervous breakdown I had in 2018. I was in a really bad shape suffering from panic attacks, akathisia, insomnia and many others so I have decided to search for a help here in Japan. Learning just that I will be prescribed medicine without being clearly advised on what are the risks. Not to mention I have been prescribed to take 5 tablets combination of benzodiazepines and antidepressants. My original doctor told me after 9 months of taking the medicine that I can stop at anytime . So I did, and only after few weeks I had the shock to the system severe W/S. I have realized that something is not right and it took me over a year to educate myself on the dangers of the medicine and another year to find another physician who would be willing to work with me on lowering the dose. I did not have any bad side effects from the medicine I was taking but I simply did not feel myself. Taking this many tranquilizers was making me not keen on doing exercise and overall not being very active. I put on weight and so on. However the main reason is that I believe I don't need the medicine anymore and most likely did not needed them 2 years ago. I have done intensive counseling therapy for over 2 years so I am confident I can combat my original trigger. As well my challenge was that to find a fluently english speaking Psychiatrist as I am a foreigner living in Japan. However I found one! This year 2021 I have been able to wean off 2 x Benzodiazepines and although it has not been easy it was not as bad as I was expecting. However when the time to withdraw from the Antidepressant Noritren came I hit a wall. In September I have start lowering the dose from 10mg in AM to 7.5mg and 10mg PM. I had some W/S for 3 weeks but stabilized the 4th week. I knew I have to slow it down even further to make it more manageable so I have cut the evening dose from 10mg to 8.75 and I could feel it was stronger but thought it will go away or slow down after couple of days. Unfortunately it did not. I had a flight to Tokyo and back and on the way back I start feeling the symptoms to elevate. Being on a plane moving and shaking did not help and I start feeling so bad that very strong suicidal thoughts start crawling through my mind which shook me to the core as I have never ever before have experienced anything like this. On the next day I went to see my doctor and he advised me to go back to the full dose AM and PM. Its been a month and I am still feeling the system has not healed but all mental symptoms went away and I only feel some physical ( pin and needles). I will take another month to stabilize but need to find a way how to approach this. According to the information I found here it is recommended to start with the Antidepressant before you get onto the Benzodiazepines which makes perfect sense. I have only the Noritren which in Japan comes in 10mg tablets with hard coating so not suitable for titration or precise cutting method. However apparently I should be able to use ethanol to dissolve them so I am going to experiment in that direction as switching to another antidepressant TCA sounds risky. See the history bellow. If anybody has any ideas or hand on experience similar to mine please let me know. Any help is very much appreciated. Withdrawing in 2021Benzo - Lorazepam 0.5mg - February - April - was taking for 9 mthsBenzo - PZC 2mg April - Jun - was taking for 3 years2 months to stabilizeAntidepressant - Noritren (nortrityline from wiki) 10mg 2 x day taking for 3 years September down to 7.5mg AM 10mg PM October back to 10mg AM and PM to stabilize due to a bad W/D symptoms November 90% stabilized but would like to find a way how to continueSleeping BenzosBrotizolam * 0.25mg - holding - 5h half-life - 3 years takingNitrazepam (Mogadon from wiki) 5 mg - holding 25h Half life - 9 mths taking * Brotizolam (marketed under brand name Lendormin) is a sedative-hypnotic thienotriazolodiazepine drug which is a benzodiazepine analog. It possesses anxiolytic , anticonvulsant , hypnotic , sedative and skeletal muscle relaxant properties, and is considered to be similar in effect to other short-acting hypnotic benzodiazepines such as triazolam or midazolam (from wiki)

Hi there I have been tapering nortrip using 25mg tablets as the 10mg ones are too hard to cut, and cutting them down. I've done it really slowly as if I went quick I got really bad side effects. Was mostly on about 62.5 mg for 10 years or so. I had it pretty sorted until I got to the last quarter ie 6.25 mg when i started getting side effects. i let them settle then went down a little more.....hard to know exactly how much and had a really rough 2 to 3 weeks. I would love some advice on how to make it so I can know exactly what I am getting. I am going to stay here for a good while until all the symptoms have eased. There is no liquid available in my country and generally the pharmacies don't like trying to make it in to a solution for you. I just wondered if anyone had success using scales that go from 0.001 to 50mg or are they not accurate enough? If you try make your own liquid what do you use to measure the water etc and where do you get syringes etc. thanks so much.

Hello Everyone. I was on 20mg nortriptyline for 6 weeks. I tapered off the drug over a 1 week period due to it's side effects (increased heart rate, muscle spasms and hair loss). It's been 2 weeks since I stopped taking the nortriptyline and I am still having a very rough time dealing with withdrawal symptoms. I constantly have this constant rocking motion that I feel in my head as though I'm on boat that's bobbing up and down, left and right, forward and backwards. Although this seems similar to vertigo, things around me in the environment are not spinning. I just feel like my mind and head is always rocking ever so slightly with the beating of my heart. I should note that I had and am still dealing with constant rapid heartbeats throughout the day since I stopped taking the drug. This constant rocking motion in my head makes me feel dizzy and nauseated. And my head feels like a balloon all the time. Has anyone here experienced movement problems during nortriptyline withdrawal? If so, does it go away and how long does it take for it to go away? It's very bothersome. It greatly hinders my concentration and focus. I'd like to hear from anyone who's had this experience. Thanks.

I was put on 10mg of Nortriptyline and was on it for 8 months. I was tapering Gabapentin at the time. I had a horrific taper off Gabapentin and am still far from healed. I am nearly 3 months off but feel dreadful evey day. I am still in acute withdrawal with no real windows, however, I needed to get off Nortriptyline too and am now at 1.9mg. I have been dropping by 0.1mg at a time. I am concerned that my slow taper off Nortriptyline is hindering rather than helping my overall recovery. What do I do?

ADMIN NOTE Here is cake's Introductions topic: Cakesgimmecakes here. I was asked to give an update. I am fully recovered from Prozac withdrawal at this point. It's been 3 years and 2.5 months EXACTLY today. The issues SSRIs left me with are things I'm still contending with, which are hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue, digestive issues. I no longer blame any symptom I have on Prozac withdrawal. Prozac is a distant memory now, and I'm so grateful I have ME back. Things that helped me: Magnesium Vit D Sun in the morning on retinas Digestive enzymes No sugar - you must be strict with this; it matters because the inflammation and blood sugar swings sugar causes stress out an already stressed-out central nervous system Spirituality Mediation - rewire your brain to relax, it works Avoidance of any pharmaceuticals Walking/running/exercise Socializing CBT/therapy - this is huge Sleep when I could get it Supplement tolerance was low for a long time. I could not take fish oil or many, many vitamins. I was unable to sleep for years. NAC helps me sleep now, and controlling blood sugar. I have learned so much from my experience, and I am still angry about what happened to my life because of Big Pharma. I do not go to Western/allopathic/conventional doctors; I only seek natural remedies and holistic/naturopathic/functional doctors. Depression is truly about dysfunction elsewhere in the body. Low T3 in the thyroid, cortisol issues (read: stress), nutritional deficiences, poor communication with others/not feeling fulfilled by goals/lack of goals that truly fill the soul, no exercise, SIBO/candida/digestive woes, wonky reproductive hormones, poor sleep, toxic humans you're around, bad job. Truth: Life will never be the same after you expose your brain to these toxic chemicals. In time, I do believe society will catch on to the dangers. Pills are a quick fix for temporary issues, which excellent nutrition, sun, exercise, and therapy can take care of in most cases. We trusted our doctors and got burned. I do believe in science and that the body is designed to heal itself and the brain has incredible neuroplasticity capabilities. This is why exercise and nutrition are so important. They do make a difference. I encourage everyone to read up on the actual science behind meditation. It's not quackery. It helped because it does change the brain for the better. People recover. I'm living proof. YET, life is not perfect. I struggle with fatigue and bad moods, but my life currently is pretty stressful, and I am dealing with thyroid and adrenal issues. This is life. To this day I still pray for those suffering from psych issues and psych drug withdrawal most evening. You are not alone. Keep the faith. I believe a power greater than me is more powerful than any drug, and there can be miracles. HUGS XOXO

I am beginning a nortriptyline taper and cut from 20mg to 18mg two nights ago. I started nortriptyline 3 years ago for migraine prevention, post concussion issues and nerve pain. Fast forward to now. I have started having severe migraines much more frequently. I had brain surgery a year ago to remove a tumor. I also started having hemiplegic migraines (they can resemble a stroke or seizure). An ER trip for a migraine showed some EKG abnormalities. My neurologist and cardiologist said to start tapering off the nortriptyline as it might be causing cardiac issues and is obviously no longer helping with migraines. I am extremely worried about what I am facing. I went through benzo withdrawal 10 years ago and it was hell on earth. I also got off baclofen (affects gaba b receptors) in December after a 4 month taper. I have been told brain surgery takes 2 years for your brain to fully heal. I have a lot of stress in my life and other health issues. I have heard tricyclic antidepressants are a beast to get off of and am pretty scared. I am already struggling and not looking forward to another drug withdrawal. I have learned my body is quick to addict to meds and slow to regain normalcy after getting off them. Any help, guidance and support is very appreciated. I know from experience that doctors discount the severity of wd syndrome.

Hi! I hope someone has some advice or comfort for me. I have been taking 80mg of Nortriptyline since April of 2004. When our insurance was changing this January, I decided (with the support of my doctor) to decrease to 75mg for cost reasons. I decreased from 80mg to 75mg on January 2nd and actually felt fine. My doctor didn't anticipate any problems for me at all. However, I have been increasingly anxious starting on day 15 through today.I have felt constant anxiety which won't go away even when I'm concentrating on something else. I felt this way while first taking antidepressants 9 years ago. I was going through postpartum anxiety and depression at the time. I couldn't sleep or function and everyone involved felt that antidepressants were the answer. I felt horrible the third day taking antidepressants and felt the anxiety like I am feeling now. Constant panicky feelings that just won't go away. Everyone said that that was normal when first starting an antidepressant and I should continue. I think it probably took 9 months to a year or longer to finally feel semi normal. Back to today. I can't believe that a decrease of only 5mg could bring about such horrible feelings. After I reached the two week mark without much problem, I thought I was home free. Now this. Will this go away in time or should I switch back to 80mg? Will going back to 80mg cause even more havoc since my body is trying to adjust to 75mg? Any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks!

Hi all, I am new to this website and I wanted to say a few words about what I am going through. I was put on Nortriptyline 50 mg and Venlafaxine 37.5 mg for vestibular migraine. Actually first nortriptyline with no success for my vestibular migraine. Instead of weaning off at the time the DR kept me on both medication so finally I decided in 2020 that I wanted to get off the nortriptyline. The first 10 mg was fine, then some restless legs symptoms but got through it till managing to get to 25 mg. Then hell. I found a pharmacy that custom made my doses to allow me to drop 1 mg at the time (no liquid version where I live). I am currently on 17 mg with horrible stomach issues. ( I dropped 2 mg last month). I have no support from my neurologist so that is why I am here. I will follow the advise of 10% per month (or less), just hoping that all this stomach issues will subside, it's so hard!!

I am new to this website, and am interested in gathering information regarding a safe taper from Nortriptyline. My history of antidepressants began with a benzodiazepine (0.25mg alprazolam). I had issues from the first pill, and took me a couple years before I realized it was the drug. I had to do a water-titrated slow taper off the 0.25mg over the course of two years, and jumped off on November 13, 2014. I'm very glad to be off it. I have been on 20mg nortriptyline at bedtime for almost 8 years (started it when I was in tolerance-withdrawal from the benzo but didn't know it at the time). I honestly haven't had troubles with the nortriptyline, as it helped stabilize me in coming off the benzo (which I REALLY had troubles with). About 1.5 years ago, my pharmacy switched manufacturers of my nortriptyline (from Watson to Taro). I was on the Taro version for 4-5 months and was not doing well (I was having lots of withdrawal-type symptoms again). I mentioned it to my doctor, and she scripted me for the Watson-specific version from then on. Once back on the Watson, I returned to my pre-Taro "normal". Almost 3 months ago, my Watson manufacturer version of nortriptyline went on "backorder" status, so I was forced back onto the Taro version. I am now 3 months into taking it, and am struggling and unstable at current. My symptoms include: elevated heartrate, panic attacks, increased anxiety, irrational fears, nausea, loose stools, internal "vibrations" (stomach-intestines area), and a decreased ability to handle "life". I am on propranolol (20mg in divided doses) daily now to help control the heartrate (more for my mental sanity than anything else), and have come to the realization that I don't want something like this to "control my destiny". I am scared to taper because coming off the benzo was horrific for me, and I don't want to duplicate that process again. But I recognize that it's probably time to approach the conversation of tapering so I don't run into this issue again. I am wondering...has anyone noticed differences in how they feel with manufacturer changes? I am also curious to find out if nortriptyline can be water (or juice?) titrated? It tastes AWFUL so being able to put it into something with flavor would be ideal, but I'm open to suggestion. Gauging how sensitive I've been to the switch in manufacturer, I'm concerned with switching to the liquid version in concern that I may tolerate it worse than the Taro version. Anyone with success regarding either water-titration with nortriptyline, or with using the liquid version of nortriptyline, would be appreciated greatly! I was on benzobuddies.org as "mrsalw" for most of 2012-2015, in case anyone hear may remember me! Thanks in advance, Mrs.

Hello, I have been successfully tapering klonopin since May 2019. I am still on 2 antidepressants and feel awful in the mornings. Nortriptyline and Trazodone. My sleep isn't great and feeling so bad, like I am drugged is making it worse. I want to start tapering Trazodone by cutting 5% ever 2 weeks. Has anyone ever tapered 2 drugs at once. I feel if I wait til I am off the benzo, that's a long time away to start tapering another med. Feel this bad in the morning with 3 kids is killer. Not sleeping at all is worse but I think these meds aren't helping my problem. I have read up where some drugs are like brakes and others are like gas pedals. I think all my drugs are brakes ??? Should I hold my klonopin taper for a few weeks and taper the trazodone?

I was wondering how to make a liquid solution to taper my last 10mg of Nortriptyline. ....is it accurate to mix it with water?

Hi All, I'm a 29 year old female and in September 2015 I became extremely ill. The doctors couldn't figure it out. I was having trouble eating, abdominal pain, nausea, migraines and weight loss. In early 2016, I believe March, I was hospitalized. During that time I was diagnosed with gastroparesis. Over the next couple months I continued to be ill and lose weight so I was referred to a specialist (gastroenterologist) in my state. He diagnosed me with Visceral Hypersensitivity and prescribed amitriptyline 25mg. I took that medicine for about 2-3 months and it made me tremble slightly so I was switched to nortriptyline 25mg. That's when I started to feel better. The nausea stopped, abdominal pain decreased drastically and I was able to function. However, my migraines weren't getting much better so I was referred to a neurologist. He thought it best to add Gabapentin 600mg to help with that. I took half 300mg off and on for maybe a month but didn't like how it made me feel so I stopped. It made me extremely drowsy and unproductive. So the neurologist decided to increase the nortriptyline to 50mg. It did help but then I started getting slight abdominal pains again, nausea, lightheadedness, hot flashes. I know now this was due to the medication. I just didn't know then. I also started getting muscle weakness in my hands with occasional trembling. The neurologist did a few test but wrote it off as nothing. When the abdominal pain started to increase around December 2017 they decided to increase it to 75mg. I was hesitant but trusted the gastroenterologist. I wish I hadn't. Over the next few month I would get extremely moody and cry from time to time. I also started jerking in my sleep, tremors and horrible hot flashes. Ended up in the emergency room a time or two due to the horrible abdominal pain. I kept thinking it was due to my so called abdominal issues returning but then I started reading and realizing that it may be the medication. November 2018 I told the doctors I wanted to stop taking Nortriptyline 75mg because of occasional hand trembling and jerking in my sleep along with some mood swings I felt were due to the medication. He decided to taper me off over the course of 2 weeks. 50mg for a week then 25mg for a week. I took my last does on November 21st 2018. On November 23rd I began experiencing the worst symptoms of my life. Whole body trembling, pacing, insomnia, vomiting, nausea, extreme anxiety, panic attacks, flu like symptoms, negative thoughts, crying uncontrollably, hot flashes, abdominal pain. Emergency room 3 times with no help. This went on for about 3 weeks then it began to lessen. Not stop just lessen. I was able to function and go back to work and school full time until about a week ago when most symptoms returned plus blurred vision and trouble focusing. I did began seeing a therapist once the withdrawal started to help with the anxiety and panic attacks. He has been helping with breathing techniques and how to stay come. At this point I'm not sure what to do. During my period when things lessened I had windows each day when I felt myself which made me think I would eventually be okay. Now I'm not so sure. I'm trying to keep the faith but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. It's been almost 3 months now and I'm wondering if I should reinstate and taper off the right way. Thank you all for reading and for your help.

Hi Guys, I am so glad i found this forum. I hope it can help me survive this and hopefully i can help other people too.I had been on Antidepressants for 18 years from when i was 15 years old. The Doctors never seemed to know what to do with me so chucked drugs at me to try and deal with the Problem. I was on Citalopram 60mg for 10 years and was then changed to Nortriptyline (150mg) for 8 years. Around 3 months ago i was told that they could not get this Medication anymore. I think this is something to do with Brexit as i live in the UK but i was obviously pretty angry as i was told you should never go cold turkey on these drugs and now they didn't seem to care. I was given an alternative but i have Epilepsy and it caused me to have seizures. I have also always felt that the Meds caused/triggered seizures anyway and by this point i was terrified of taking any drugs so i ended up having to stop Antidepressants altogether. The initial 2 weeks were hell. I literally thought i was dying but i got through it and was amazed at how well i was coping after that. I have been seeing a great Psychologist for 2 years and my life was really starting to turn around finally...... but that is when it hit. A week ago, after 3 months off the drugs i became severely Depressed and Anxious again. I can't get out of bed and do anything and its like i am back to where i was all those years ago and all that Therapy i have had over 18 years has done nothing. I am terrified as i have no idea if this is going to get better or this will be my life forever now. I have been reading these forums trying to get advice but i'm not really sure what to do. Am i ever going to get out of bed and stop feeling like there is really no point in trying anymore? I'm exhausted and miserable.

My experience with antidepressants started in June 2017, when I was prescribed Nortriptyline(Older generation antidepressant) to treat my nerve pain. It was almost miraculous in reducing my symptoms, but I found out the hard way about it’s sinister side effects. When I started the drug I was in relatively perfect mental health, but it didn’t stay that way for long. Within two weeks it was like I had been given a chemical lobotomy. I lost all sense of satisfaction and interest in life, had a drastically reduced sex drive, and just felt constantly numb 24/7. I came to realize that this drug was poison to me, and I attempted to get off after two months. Even though I was on a low dose I started to experience fairly significant withdrawal symptoms(although they weren’t even close to the hell that other members of this forum have gone through), with anxiety attacks and a feverish feeling. I ended up tapering off in Thanksgiving after being on Nortriptyline for about have a year. To my dismay, my symptoms did not improve after getting off. In fact, they were even worse. I was filled with a sense of utter despair and anhedonia, struggling to get through every day. I found that magnesium supplementation lifted the sense of hopelessness, but the mind numbing apathy to everything in life remained. It’s now been over 6 months since I got off Nortriptyline, and my symptoms have improved very little. I’m still stuck with a moderate depression and anhedonia, which feels like all the color has been drained out of my life. Before going on an antidepressant I used to wake up in a great mood every morning excited for the day, but now I dread it. Life used to feel euphoric for me, but now it’s just completely dull. I also suffer from a drastically reduced sex drive, which is a big deal for a 20 year old male. I’ve been trying to take things day by day, but the fact I’ve now been off for longer than I was taking it in the first place is making me terrified that I’ll never be the same person I used to be ever again. The only thing that gives me hope is that every few weeks my mood brightens, and I feel normal again. Unfortunately I can never pinpoint the cause, and the feeling only lasts a few hours. I guess only time will tell if I’ll recover or if I’ve suffered permanent brain damage from this drug.

I've been on Pamelor (35mg/day) and Xanax (1.5 mg/day) for 18 months now. My psychiatrist released me to my PCP for care 6 months ago when he stopped accepting my insurance. I would like to start coming off both, but not at the same time. M y PCP and I decided to start with the Pamelor. It's difficult to reduce by just 10% each month since it comes in capsule form of 10 mg and 25 mg doses. I have just reduced the 30 mg/day and will stay on that for at least 2 months per PCP advice. I'd really like to hear how others were able to come off Pamelor considering the dosage restrictions. Thanks

hello everyone! i guess i should consider myself lucky that i stumbled across this place before attempting to taper off. i've been on medication for over 2 years now, although my current regimen of nortriptyline + low dose celexa has only been in place for around 12 weeks. what really concerns me is how low-functioning i am (with or without the meds) - i don't have the financial or social support, let alone the mental health capacity, to mess this up. it's probably gonna take a lot of preparation on my part before i start tapering. i had a panic attack that went on for hours when i came across this forum, so i have a long way to go in terms of psychological stability! i'm already dimly acquainted with the withdrawal syndrome. i abused ecstasy in my (even) younger days and the hangover effect from that is almost identical. pretty scary stuff. would i be correct in assuming celexa should be tapered before nortriptyline because it's more activating? i've spent days looking through this forum and the consensus seems to be to leave the more sedating drugs until later.

I am currently taking 25mg of Nortriptyline for migraine headaches and anxiety. I don't think they are helping me enough to warrant taking them for the rest of my life. I want to taper off. The pills are in capsule form so I am unable to taper by 10 percent. I was planning on taking the 25 mg every other day instead of every day for a month. The next month I would take every 2 days. After that, every 3 days and so on until I discontinue for good. Any opinions on this being an effective method? My doctor said I can just stop since 25mg is a low dose but I have been on the drug for 3 years. I have read terrible stories of people suffering from side effects after stopping cold turkey (even on a low dose).

Hello I am new to this place and found it when looking for an answer as to why i am in the situation i am in now. I have been married to my wife for 3 years and known her for about 5. This woman is everything to me and I was everything to her. I was in the military and we got married when living with her family in NY state. When i was medically discharged from the military i wanted to move back to my home in SC. She came with me but it did affect her. I expected as much a big move like that is hard on anybody. She was depressed and just sad for a few months. She started to have these headaches and went to the doctor about it. she was perscribed Nortriptyline HCL 10mg capsules taken once a day for the headaches. Well when they didnt go away the doctor increased the dose to 3 pills at night all at once. She was still depressed and the headaches still happened but she never went back to the doctor for them. As time moved on i noticed small changes in her attitude and behavior being confrontational and easily agitated. At first we thought it was her birth control because she had issues with it. We switched the birth control and it fixed the issues associated with it but the behavioral changes stayed there. i thought it was still about the move and the stress of it all but it just kept going. She wanted to move home so bad and after a year of living in SC on a trip to see her family in NY i decided we can move back because i just wanted to see her happy again. We started making plans to do so and everything seemed fine. A week or so after we where talking about having a baby and this is something she has always wanted but i said lets wait till we are back in NY to do that and she said she didnt want to move back she wanted to stay in SC. She hounded me for a whole year about moving and all of a sudden she wants to stay. After the argument we made up like usual we never go to bed angry with eachother. She has been the kind of person to always say divorce was never an option that we will always work through it. at the beginning of the August she said she wanted a divorce out of nowhere. The days before there where no signs of this she seemed normal like everything was ok. But she asked for the divorce and said she would pick up the papers a day or so after. Come to find out she didnt even know the laws surrounding it she thought she could just get a paper and sign it and boom we are divorced. She didnt have any place to go and to this day still lives with me. She told everybody she had been planning it for months but her actions prove otherwise. I have been trying to find out what is going on and what caused all of this but every person she tells the story to it changes she isnt telling the truth and she never lies especially to her parents. She has this new interest in other men and posting pictures on facebook she shouldnt be and constantly talking about how i ruined her life. I did some more digging and decided to look into this drug. I have read over 40 different storys and articals on this reaction and its so alike to whats happening to me its scary. I called the doctor and told her my concerns about what is going on and she said without her coming in herself they cant stop the medication. I need help i cant lose my wife to a pill. an addition to this i want to make is it seems she has these small moments of clarity and she talks to me like everything is fine and normal then a bit later it back to one word answers and silence.

I have a myriad of problems depression and migraines included. I won't bother you will everything going on in my life. Main reason I'm here, I 'accidentally' (read into that, that I forgot to get my refill of 50mg Nortriptyline filled) went cold turkey off this med. Been over 3 weeks since I had it and I think to myself, well it wasn't really helping, I still have massive migraines and I'm still suicidal so why bother. OK so starting last week I became extremely nauseous EVERY day some times all day long and my Zofran 4mg are barely working and I'm eating them like candy (good thing my doc writes them for 100 at a time). Anyway I've been dealing with many many other probs and just assumed my skin crawling, extreme irritability, unbelievable restless limbs and migraines were being causing by other things and then suddenly this morning I have an epiphany and wonder could it be going cold turkey off the nortrypline? So here I am, that's my story and any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks all, scully134