amitriptyline withdrawal

hi i am off amitriptyline now x

Hi Tiffany, Amanda, Edie, Sammy and everyone,

                                                                             I'm on a computer for the first time in months so taking the opportunity to catch up with all of your posts and send an update myself.  Lots to catch up on with all of you but I'm happy to hear that you are all hanging in there and progressing in the right direction.  

?Tiffany, how is your sleep now?  Since the end of Jan mine has been awful.  My current pattern is Asleep from 11pm until 2am.  Wide awake 2am until 6am.  Sound asleep from 6am until I need to get up.  I have had to cancel so many morning things as I am so exhausted and not fit to drive most of the time.  I can get to sleep reasonably easy and I'm usually so tired that I am convinced each night that it will be the night that I actually get some real sleep.  

I am on some expensive naturopath stuff that hasn't made any improvement after a week of taking it.

I am going away with my mum and sister for a week this Friday so that should be relaxing and then I am heading overseas again on the 3rd April until the 24th May.  For the first 3.5 weeks I will be in Cuba and twin sharing with a friend (I've warned her that I will be floating around a bit in the middle of the night and she's ok with that.  Luckily, she's a good sleeper).

Isn't it weird how each of our withdrawal symptoms are so different.  I have no trouble with nausea or anxiety now but the insomnia is debilitating.  The one upside is that I have lost about 15kg (about 33lbs) since coming off.  Some of that will be my healthy diet but most of that will be getting rid of Ami.  All in all I am so happy to be off this drug and just need to get some sleep.

All the best to you all....

Hey Sheena good to hear from you, sorry to hear the sleep is bad I can definitely relate sleep for a couple of hours then awake I used to lie awake for hours but persisted in not getting up so now I still wake a lot but I think that is more because of hot flashes it lasts for less than a minute but blankets off then blankets on cos I'm cold lol plus Ami caused me to have nocturia, it has eased a little but still very annoying. I still feel pretty well rested when I do get up. I haven't lost any weight so completely jealous, you'd think with the cycling some would have fallen off but no. Every now and then I get the shaky brain business so not sure what is contributing to that my naturopath did mention low potassium so I've been eating everything high in potassium which has helped as this is the first day without it in a week, can't complain it only showed up for about 8 days. I didn't realize how horrible it was until it came back worse symptom ever. So all in all I am doing well.

i hope you have a great time in your travels nice to hear from you and also to see where you are at with your sleep etc, amazing how different all our withdrawals are my nausea comes and goes but is better than it used to be.

Safe travels. Xxx

Well done Amanda

BOB

Hi Sheena  sorrry your still not sleeping well, yes i agree it is funny how this medication effects us in many different ways. Great  regarding the weight loss . i am doing ok anxiety managable, no nausea all good. x

Hi Thistles

It is hard sometimes for us to suggest different things i.e. Medications, as most of us here are trying to withdraw from a medication that has either caused horrible side effects or one that could be potentially harmful down the track. Amitriptyline to me is an evil drug that in long term use can and does cause terrible effects. I lost my father who took this med for decades for migraines and he ended up with a rare form of dementia that took him at a fairly early age. So my opinion of this drug is not a good one. Pharmaceuticals have a place but I would definitely try more natural remedies before resorting to drugs.

Sorry for your loss, my mother went through the same with my father.

We feel your plight of no sleep, most of us here suffer with the same problem either cutting down or completely off, for me I just try to keep the same routine at bed and hope that one day my sleep pattern will return. 

All the best xxxx

Thanks for your support Sammy.

I saw my GP yesterday, and he went thro' all of my med chart. He prescribed 10mgm X 2 tabs per night, and also to cut down on Codeine ie 30mgms to 15mgms. I take codeine for my arthritic knee pain, and Pramipexole for RLS. (Wilhelm Eckbom Disease, aka Restless Legs Syndrome)

Therefore I took 20mgms Amytrip. and 2 Co-Codamol  (8mgm Codeine /500 paracetemol.)

My brain seemed to work overtime during the night!  But  clearer thinking during the day. 

I'll try again, but with less codeine and see what happens. Hopefully I'll be able to report a positive outcome.

Hi, Thistles,

Wow. Such a sad story, Thistles. I’m so sorry for your loss and the subsequent problems you’re having. I’m an only child, and I was the caretaker for both my parents for nearly 9 years. I was determined not to let them die in a hospital or hospice, so I completely understand what you’re going through.  But like Amanda says, everyone is so different, it’s almost impossible to give advice. We each have had our own different side effects from taking Ami along with different withdrawals while coming off the drug, and you don’t really know what works until you’ve tried it. A long, long time ago - about 29 years, I got smacked in the face by a steel beam ... ok, I actually walked right straight into a steel beam, face first -  that I didn’t see because I wasn’t paying attention. Anyway, I well and truly pulverized the heck out of my nose and had to have surgery. I had to sleep in an upright position for 10 days. Very, very unpleasant. About the 3rd day in of no sleep, I was about to have a psychotic break because I am just NOT GOOD without sleep. So, one of my friends suggested I take some “Simply Sleep,” which is Benedryl. I was (still am, for the most part) a total health maniac and never so much as took an aspirin. But the no sleep thing was kicking my butt, so I relented. Since I was such a “drug virgin,” I only took one pill and when it kicked in I was old cold for 12 straight hours. But the next day, I didn’t feel hung over, drowsy, or foggy in any way. My husband, if he takes a Benedryl, he says he feels very sluggish the next day, so that’s just another example of how everyone reacts differently to the same thing. Anyway, I took one pill at night for the following week, and I managed not to kill anyone, fortunately.  Because it helped me sleep so well in a very uncomfortable position,

 the next week was a breeze. Hell, I could have slept standing on my head for how well it worked. I suppose you could try that. But I’m not sure how addictive Benedryl is, or for how long it’s safe to take, so you might want to check that out with your doctor first. Since I was only on it for a week, there were definitely no withdrawals or anything. BUT - the one thing I would caution you about is how fast it it got into my system and how fast it worked, so I’d suggest getting into bed and taking it then. I wouldn’t take it before bed because if it works for you like it did for me, it could just drop you right in the middle of whatever you were doing, and of course, that’s obviously a dangerous problem. If you’re already in bed when it kicks in, there’s a lot less potential for an accident. Also, though, if you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee or something ... I just can not stress enough to be extra careful. I had someone with me to take care of me, so if I had to get up to use the bathroom, there was someone there I could hold onto, and I definitely needed that because I was very woozy on the drug until it wore off the next morning, then I was fine. If not this, then whatever path you do take, Please keep us all posted on how things are going for you. 

Best wishes ~

xxX💜Ooo

Hi Edie

Dare I say yeeha, as my  reduced dosage of 20mgms Amytrip and Codeine 15mgms. seem to be working so far. Only now wakening up at 6am. Back to sleep then awake at 9am. (10am actually due clocks changing) Brain less numbed during the day.  Less thirsty, but I like to drink lots of water to keep these 76yr. old kidneys of mine working.

I hope that one day my sleep pattern will return to normal, if ever, as my heart aches at the loss of my dearest husband. He was a Minister, and my memories this Easter time are so painful. I can still see him delivering his Easter Message. He was such a gentle, clever man.

Thanks for your support Edie

 

Hi Sammy,

Dare I say yeeha, as my  reduced dosage of 20mgms Amytrip and Codeine 15mgms. seem to be working so far. Only now wakening up at 6am. Back to sleep then awake at 9am. (10am actually due clocks changing) Brain less numbed during the day.  Less thirsty, but I like to drink lots of water to keep these 76yr. old kidneys of mine working.

I hope that one day my sleep pattern will return to normal, if ever, as my heart aches at the loss of my dearest husband. He was a Minister, and my memories this Easter time are so painful. I can still see him delivering his Easter Message. He was such a gentle, clever man.

Thanks Sammy. God Bless you.

 

Hi Sammy,

Dare I say yeeha, as my  reduced dosage of 20mgms Amytrip and Codeine 15mgms. seem to be working so far. Only now wakening up at 6am. Back to sleep then awake at 9am. (10am actually due clocks changing) Brain less numbed during the day.  Less thirsty, but I like to drink lots of water to keep these 76yr. old kidneys of mine working.

I hope that one day my sleep pattern will return to normal, if ever, as my heart aches at the loss of my dearest husband. He was a Minister, and my memories this Easter time are so painful. I can still see him delivering his Easter Message. He was such a gentle, clever man.

Thanks Sammy. God Bless you.

 

Thistles Yahoo! 

Yes Dare to yell it from the rooftops, any cut in dose deserves a 🎉 celebration. Unfortunately the sleep wake crap is the trade off, mine is a little better but I still wake every two or so hours very frustrating however I refuse to arise from my bed until at least 4.30am. Plus I am in menopause so the heat wakes me lol, it like a dance of blankets, off, on off,on rinse and repeat. 

Hold on to those memories of that wonderful man, I nearly lost mine 12 months a go, and now spend as much time doing fun things, making great memories and cherishing every moment we have, life is definitely precious and every day is a gift.

God bless YOU this Easter Thistles xxxxxx

Hey Thistles

Just reading back through a few posts and noticed you suffer with RLS, when I was in my 30's (a long time ago) I got ill and ended up with a horrendous case of RLS to the point where I could not sit down I had to keep walking until I dropped it was that bad. I ended up in the ER it was so horrid. When I started to come off all these medications it started to come back so I did a bit of research and I now take magnesium chelate which I swear by and will never go off. Our soils are so deplete in magnesium that our food doesn't have much of it. Magnesium is used bu every cell in our bodies, so it might help. Just a thought.xxxx

 

Thanks Sammy for the info re magnesium. I take Pramipexole every night, for my RLS and literally don't have  sweet things, or alcohol. Pramipexole is  used for Parkinsons, and it works for me.  I just hope and pray that I won't need to take Amytrip for the rest of my life. Have a good Easter.

Some or your Pain medications  may be causing sleep problems, Both are similar to each other.

The Amytryp is an Antidepressant medication used to assist sleep, 20mg is a very low dose. This medication is also used for Arthritic pain and it prevents nerve and tendon pain.as a side affect, Contraindication, I take this drug for that reason 

Discuss with your GP your pain medications.

BOB