r/Amitriptyline

Is that too long ?

New to the group. I am taking Amitrotyline for a chronic cough. It has worked wonders. I am on the 20mg. I know my dr doesn’t want me on this long term. But stupid question…. How are you all cutting your pills to go from 20 to 15 to 10? My pills are soo tiny I can’t see anyway of cutting them.

Omg who else has tried coming off this stuff after more than a decade ?
I’m about 3 months into complete withdrawal after tapering for months and months …. And I’m so unwell . The insomnia, nausea, dizziness, headaches and fatigue are crippling . Has anyone been through this and found something / anything that helps ?

Hey y’all about 20 days ago I went through some life stuff that sent my anxiety into a spiral and I ended up calling out of work cause of how my anxiety was affecting me I was having a panic attack I ended up calling out of work for 3 days straight where I could barely eat when I get anxious I get nauseous and a knot in my throat that makes it feel like I’m gonna throw up at any moment which triggers my anxiety more cause my anxiety first showed up when I was 15 and got super sick for like 3 weeks and had to drop out of high school and restart my life which has happened like 3 times since then due to my anxiety so it’s a shitty cycle but anyways I went to the doctors on the 3rd day and he prescribed me amitriptyline 10mg once per day at bedtime for anxiety and 2 other things for nausea I don’t remember at the time but I’ve been taking the amitriptyline for about 16 days know and 3 days ago I got sick either from the sun or something I ate but I ended up throwing up which triggers my anxiety again and threw me into another panic attack I didn’t eat anything for dinner that night the next day I was only able to eat a sandwich for lunch the next day and the day after that I was nauseous in the morning but was able to push past it and eat an apple corn dog some ramen and chicken from Zaxby’s and was feeling good then this morning when I woke up I woke up super anxious nauseous and feeling hot like a fever but my temperature is fine and for the past couple days my anxiety has been on edge I’ll be fine one second then at like a 9 the next over something completely normal I am seeing a psychiatrist tomorrow but I wanted to get some other opinions if y’all think it’s a side effect of the medicine or my anxiety just going crazy

Wondering if this is just me, but I did a blood test recently and it was like trying to collect water from an empty well. Not sure if the dehydrating factor of this medication gets worse over time or not, or if this something that is less documented, or maybe it’s just not right for me after all. I drank around 3 litres of water heading into the lab, and it still took 5 tries to get enough blood for the samples.

This medication has helped me a ton with headaches, sleep, and ongoing back pain. I’ve been taking a low dose (slowly went from 10mg to 50mg, then went back down to 30mg for now) and hadn’t experienced any really negative side effects, until this. Mainly tiredness after waking up, which I’ve made my peace with as a trade off. Been on it for about 7 months now. But since I need to do blood tests regularly, this might not be worth it.

So, has anyone else who does blood tests regularly notice a difference?

Thanks!

Hi!! So I posted a week ago that I haven’t been experiencing withdrawal symptoms since going from 75mg to 50mg and I’ve had comments say the side effects kick in after a week. But I’m still fine. Maybe an appetite decrease but nothing unbearable. I can still sleep fine and I’m not sad or angry or anything. Infact it has really helped me regulate my temperature in this heatwave.

On 75mg I had so many hot flushes and I was boiling all the time. But now on 50mg I’m relatively cool even in this heatwave. It’s amazing. Hot flushes were awful. I feel great! I don’t have headaches. Maybe some nausea when I wake up??? But it goes away after fresh air and food. I feel happy and energetic. My weird dreams have become less vivid too. I wake up no longer groggy. I don’t have any dodgy bowel or stomach issues anyway.

I’ve lost a teensy bit of weight but I’m was already like a healthy weight and I’m pretty athletic/slim so I don’t know if there was much to loose. But this could also be that my ADHD medication works more efficiently and helps me control my binge eating disorder. I feel alot more in control of what I eat and I don’t feel the urge to binge so much anymore.

ALSO I’d like to say. The reason Im taking ami is for depression and stomach pain as a side effect of my ADHD meds- guanfacine. However the pain went away at 25mg. I was prescribed 75mg to combat depression after I was SA’d and went through some other stuff. It has helped me so much. Ami is a huge success story for me.
I wanted to taper to 50mg because as a side effect of ami, I experienced genital numbness. And I dont want that anymore. Because I’m at the age (20) where I’m ready to start having consensual sexual encounters and it won’t be pleasurable with numbness. My psychiatrist and I believed I am well enough mentally to taper from 75mg to 50mg. That’s why, for context.

No negative side effects :)

I hope this gives you hope that you can withdrawal successfully!

Please help Im concerned

Will the build up overtime be dangerous on 200mg?
Been taking for a few days

Doctor checked on toxbase said that 210 or 220 would cause toxicity based on my weight.

Another doctor said I'II be fine it's a normal dose

I take amitriptyline (15–25 mg) for tension headaches. Since it can also have a sedative effect, I’d like to take advantage of that to help me sleep.

For those of you who take amitriptyline at a low dose:

How long does it take for the sedative effect to kick in?

How many hours before bedtime do you usually take it?

I was prescribed by neurologist for my unexplained tingling sensations. Before this I was recommended Prozac and it wrecked my sleep. First dose of Amitriptyline made me sleep that night. But, as days past Paresthesia has got even worse. I will quit taking it today. Has anyone ever experienced withdrawal symptoms after taking a low dose for a short period of time like this? I hope I don’t get worse now.

Who here has had extremely vivid or lucid dreams when taking amitriptyline?

I've been on it for roughly a year now for pelvic pain. It was working wonders until now, but that's another story.

My husband told me this morning that something has to change with it because I'm straight up arguing with him in the middle of the night about things that aren't real, but are happening in my dreams.

Last night, I was allegedly trying to find an orange cat named Pumpkin ???? Apparently, I'm losing it. I have a tuxedo named Crixus, and he was trying to gently coax me back to sleep, and I responded with "don't piss me off." 😳

And apparently this has been going on since I started amitriptyline. 🙃

Anyway, if you've been through this, what was a solution for you?

Hi,

I've been on 20mg Amitryptelene for around 2-3 weeks and was having really bad side effects from it. I spoke to my doctor and have gone back down to 10mg on the next dosage day.

Is this fine or do you think I need to taper down?

Thanks

A question for people who have successfully used TCA’s to treat their IBS-D… did you gain weight? I’ve read so many successful stories with these antidepressants but I’ve also heard so much about substancial weight gain. Has anyone not gained any weight?

I (24M) started Amitriptyline over a year ago due to chronic pain from neuropathy in my legs. I also have IBS, raging insomnia and seeing how much this drug covered it seemed like a God send. The daytime drowsiness was the only side effect that bothered me but it felt worth it at the time. Now the drowsiness and the weight gain really got to me so I researched Nortryptyline and my neurologist let me switch.

Now that 3 weeks has gone by, I couldn't be happier. I never realized how burnt out constantly being tired makes you feel (shocker). I found I was hating my job, my performance and lates at work was a problem and I was just short and pissy with everyone. I gained around 20 pounds and due to the muscle fatigue and PFP in my knees, I needed physio to help gain the strength in my legs back. I found I was catching my legs giving out and I fell a few times. It was really disheartening since it felt like I was just losing control.

With sleeping I was so in love with the idea of falling asleep right away that I ignored the fact that I would sleep 8-10 hours a night and never feel rested. I was drinking around 3 coffees a day and still felt awful and if I didnt have any caffeine I was screwed.

Now that I made the swap, life couldn't be better. I stopped hating my job, the brain fog disappeared, I've lost 10 pounds already since I'm able to walk more and not feel always snacky or never full. I am able to wake up before my alarm again and if I have a coffee, its usually a small one from time to time because I get jittery now. The pain management is still effective while having no crazy side effects.

The only side effect I had that was a bit annoying, but my neurologist warned me about was rebound insomnia. But I was able to fix that pretty fast with melatonin.

Sorry for the long post, I am just so happy I wanted to share this.

Chronic pain sucks and I am wishing the best to everyone going through it!

TLDR: Amitryptoline make me too sleepy and gain weight, Nortryptyline make me not too sleepy and lose the gained weight.

hi everyone! i started taking ami today for persistent vomiting and IBS symptoms. unfortunately i work in a medical setting where working memory and attentiveness is important, so i was wondering if there are any neutral/positive stories about the effects of amitriptyline on cognitive function. anybody have no memory loss or maybe an improvement in memory? or maybe less brain fog that was originally from depression? please be kind, i do have bad health anxiety :)

Am I safe taking 200mg continuously? I’ve been taking it a few days.

I asked if I can take 200mg, the doctor checked for me and said 210mg or 220mg would cause toxicity based on my weight of 70kg

Another doctor said 200mg is a normal regular dose we give to people

Hi, I've been taking 24mg for 8 months now and is helping a lot with migraines and chronic pain but I've been gaining lot of weight as secondary effects.

Im never full and always craving sweet now.

Doctor said that I could try to reduce the dose to 20mg to see the changes.

Does any of you stopped getting weight when decreasing a dose?

Hi everyone, a bit of a long story but started Amitriptyline for IBS D end of 2024. Dose started at 10mg then gradually increased up to 50mg. For me it completely changed my life, I could eat what I wanted, but most importantly my anxiety around eating and becoming ill just disappeared. I fell pregnant last year and despite the ok from midwife to continue taking it I chose to reduce amount to 25mg. Safe to say IBS was ok but symptoms definitely got worse once reducing my dose.

Now I’m 6 months pp, not breastfeeding and my IBS symptoms are just creeping back again and I’m having flares 2-3 times a week.
Would you recommend increasing back to 50mg?
I am a bit worried that this medication just doesn’t work for me anymore and also a bit worried about gaining weight.

Has anybody had a similar experience?

Thank you!

Just wondering if anyone worries about dementia with Amiltripyline and Nortriptyline? I’m on Amiltripyline about to swap to Nortriptyline but worried. I’m 59 years old. I’d like to find another antidepressant that works as well for my anxiety and depression as amiltripyline has. But it’s hard.

I’ve been taking 10mg amitriptyline for 4 years for pelvic pain.

Recently had an acoustic shock and added 300mg gabapentin. Well, ended up taking a flexeril for some jaw pain and now have these internal vibrations, everything is buzzing, muscles twitching, can’t rest. I think it’s serotonin syndrome, since there’s no other explanation.

If I taper off amitriptyline, how much? Water titration? I don’t have a pill cutter. I need to start tonight.