Amitriptyline Withdrawal Issues-40 mg

I had been on amitriptyline for 20 years, 40 mg, for headaches. I naively tried to just go off it cold turkey about 8 years ago while I was still working. That only lasted a few nights as I could not sleep. Due to the retirement of my 25 year doctor, I started seeing a new GP this past November. In the course of going over my history, the ami came up and I said I don't know if I really need to take this any more. He suggested tapering 10 mg for a month. When I spoke to him a month later and told him I was doing ok with the 10 mg drop, he said to drop another 10 mg. I did that but was running out of pills so decided to speed up the process and dropped from 20 to 0 in a month. I knew my sleep would be affected, I expected that. But 10 days after the complete stop of ami, my stomach started acting up. It isn't severe, slightly nauseous, no cramping or pain, there is a lot of gurgling. I had some skin itching, back and hip pain (that is pre-existing but seems worse now). Then I started becoming anxious, losing appetite because I am worried this is being caused by something more sinister than withdrawal. On the plus side, my blood pressure has come down and has consistently stayed down except when overly anxious. I could just kick myself around the block for not researching this before going off of it! I would have tapered down a lot more slowly. I truly thought dropping

40 mg would not cause a lot of grief. I am taking Zopiclone 5 mg to sleep, that is helping me get thru this. If I don't sleep, I am afraid of falling down the rabbit hole of depression. I did suffer thru a clinical depression 30 years ago and was on Doxepine for about a year. I don't remember any withdrawal issues and haven't had a repeat depression, thank goodness! I am an anxious person, my doctor thinks maybe the ami was curbing that to some degree and is resulting in the stomach issues. I am trying to persevere thru this but I sure have had thoughts of going back on it. I am 62 so I know it is not a good idea for that reason. I just started taking a probiotic. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

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