Taper off high dose Amitriptyline
I’m looking for a safe taper for Amitriptyline 200mg. It’s helped my chronic pain, chronic migraines, mood and sleep so I am scared to get off of it but the side effects seem to be burdening my body in other ways. The constipation is horrible, I look 9 months pregnant I stay so bloated and just my stomach protrudes out. I am not all that hungry and it seems crazy to force myself to eat and eat. I met with a coach who told me I need to eat more (I only eat 1,400-1,600 calories a day) but I am full. She said if I don’t eat more I can’t burn calories to lose weight. Sleep is good aside from perimenopause lack of sleep. I already take Trintellix for mood but I am thinking of lowering the dose due to hand tremors. It does help my mood for sure though.
At one point, back in 2014-2015 I was on up to 350mg of Amitriptyline. I tapered off of what I had and cold turkey the rest. I later, hoped that I could do a small dose for pain and sleep around 2017. Went back to 50mg, then with additional pain from injuries and migraines, I foolishly increased it thinking I’d be fine. Now I am at 200mg and need to get off of it. I know it will be a long journey but I just don’t know how slow to take it. I did meet with a neurologist about this and they seemed to think this would be easy and I don’t trust that. I was over tired when I saw my neurologist wasn’t in and they had me see whoever else was on staff. I work nights 11pm-7am and so the neurologist asked if I take it once or twice a day and I messed up and told him twice which isn’t accurate. So he gave me a taper to ween off the morning dose. I called the office back to let them know my mistake and that was two days ago. One other time I tried to taper by 10mg and I was extremely moody and had diarrhea and couldn’t sleep.