17 years old at 150 mg

Me too after reading all this. She didn't say ANYTHING about withdraw symptoms. I'm really scared. My pills go by 50 so the least I could do is 25mg at a time. What are the withdraw symptoms? I've seen people post how even at 20 mg they had trouble getting off of it. I'm thinking about just going fast to get it over with. Not cold turkey but 25 mg at a time. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow with a different doctor. I'm getting off this medication if it kills me. I only wonder about the bloating because I am bloated, not just gaining weight. I'm on the depo which could be it but I'm gonna get off this medication first and make the decision to change birth controls later. I was on the depo before amitrip and I didn't have this problem but we'll see what happens.

I looked up the side effects and I'm just crying because I'm so overwhelmed.

Hi kyra67167

I'm sorry you have been put on Ami and such a high dose to start with.  My daughter was prescribed it a couple of months ago but has refused to take it.  I totally support her on that.   Doctors, even good caring ones, really don't seem to understand what this drug does.

I have been on Ami for 23 years.  For the majority of the time I was on 50mg but went up to 75mg for a few months at one stage.  My GP also suggested going up to 150mg (very recently) but I flatly refused as I am seriously working on tapering off and ultimately completely getting rid of these things.

About 2 years ago I tapered down to 25mg and stayed there until a few months ago.  Then I started a plan of cutting down by 2.5mg every six weeks (I don't think you will need to do it this slowly, at least not initially). So, I spent 6 weeks on 22.5mg, then 6wks at 20mg and now I'm on day 8 of 17.5mg.  So far so good.  It is going to take a long time doing it this slowly but I just want the body and brain to have a chance to get used to each change before moving to the next.  It is starting to get a little bit harder to get to sleep and I'm waking up earlier.  That is actually a good thing as I was needing between 9 and 12hrs sleep a night when I was on the higher doses.  I know the trouble will come as I cut down lower and start not sleeping AT ALL like last time.  

How long have you been taking the 150mg?  Right now, as Evelyn suggested, I think you could easily cut down by 10mg per week (or if you haven't been on it very long then you could cut by 10mg every 4-5days as long as you were feeling OK).  The less time you've been on that dose the quicker you could come down.  And the quicker you come down off the higher dose the better.

As long as you were feeling OK I would keep cutting down like that until you got to 50mg and then stay there for a while if you feel you need to (or keep going if you want). It's once you get to 25mg that I would start to take it slower.  I am doing it super slow as I figure after 23 years (minus the 2yrs off before) I want to take it really easy on my poor body and brain.  The pills come in 50s, 25s and 10s.  I have a pill cutter and I am cutting the 10s into 1/4s now (so, I'm currently taking one x 10mg plus 3/4s of a 10mg tab).  I am really happy to be down to 17.5mg.  I now know whatever happens I'll at least never have to go higher than that ever again.  But, I am determined to get off them completely.  My aim is that when I get down to 2.5mg (1/4 of a 10g tab) I will take that for 6 weeks then start taking it every second day for then every 3rd day etc until I never have to take another one again. YAY!!!  I don't think I will be able to aviod the withdrawal symptoms altogether but I hope to minimise the shock to the system by doing it very slowly.  

Re putting on weight with Amitryptyline, it is a definite side effect for many.  Many doctors won't agree with this but you just need to ask the people who are actually taking it.  It puts on weight for a variety or reasons.  One of the main ones is that it creates water retention while dehydrating you at the same time.  Some people feel it makes them eat more and crave certain types of food but as for myself and several others that I know personally I don't eat sweet foods (I just don't enjoy them) and have very few carbs (don't eat rice, pasta, potatoes).  I eat bread but can take it or leave it.  I live with my 88yo mum and she eats twice as much as I do.  My whole family are slim and I used to be between 48 - 53kg.  I have slowly ballooned to 78kg while taking Ami.  I have been to two dieticians who have both said that there is nothing they can do to help as my diet it healthier than theirs. I did wean myself off the Ami 7 years ago and lost so much weight quite quickly that my family thought I was seriously ill.  I wasn't, I was just going ack to my normal weight.

Unfortunatley, I had so many withdrawal symptoms I ended up on several other drugs which caused their own problems.  After a while I thought I'd go back to the devil I know and went back on Ami about 5 years ago.  Now I'm very unhappily back at 77kg and can't lose it even though I'm at the gym twice a week, yoga, do lots of long walks, kyaking and eat less than my much thinner and healthier family members.

Anyway, that's probably more than enough of me going on.  I really do wish you the best with coming off this drug.  Let us know how you go.  I will also be keeping in touch on the various Amitryptyline threads here as I will be needing moral support along the way.

Cheers

Update: So I saw a new doctor today just bc mine didn't have any available appointments. So basically I was told, amitriptyline is not in any way addictive. The only thing "addictive" about it would be my headaches coming back and because it's an anti depressant and I have depression that might be kind of sucky to come off of it. And he said at 150 mg I'm totally safe it could go up to 600 mg and I'd be okay. It is a very high dose for headaches but because it's an anti depressant she must've bumped it up that high to get the effect of an anti depressant which is very annoying because I didn't want to be on one and she didn't even tell me. The doctor that saw me said he definitely believes the constipation and therefore bloating is from the amitrip and he said it was okay to bump it down to 100 mg which I did myself last night. He prescribed me a 25 mg dose of topamax which will maybe replace the amitrip if I'm still having problems with it. He very much believes that this mix will work and I'll be okay but if not I have an appointment in two weeks and I can tell her about it and bump the amitrip down again and possibly increase the topamax. The topamax he said is almost on par with the amitrip for treating headaches but even if this doesn't work I still have a lot more options. If I end up having bad withdraws, they're gonna hear about it. I'm taking their word on it because what else can I do at this point. I think I'm actually going to try getting off the amitrip first and if the withdraw headaches are bad I'll try the topamax. Benedryl and melatonin will be my bestfriend during this time. Wish me luck, I'm getting off this medication is it kills me lol

Aaaarrhhhgg!!! I have never heard of anyone on anything over

200mg so 600mg is insane. They must all be in denial about the

side effects and withdrawal symptoms. I just don't get it. I my GPs

over the years have a been lovely, caring people, but they have all

told me that I will be on Amitriptyline for life as the withdrawal is

too difficult. Why do they prescribe these drugs so easily and then

work to keep us on them??? Don't get it.

I'm glad to hear that you are down to 100mg already - there's 50mg

less of that rubbish that you are not putting into your system ?

Have you checked out Topamax? It will probably have it's own set

of problems no doubt.