Please help - feeling worried :(

Posted , 3 users are following.

Hi all

Me again!

So I've now been on citalopram for 2 weeks and a few days. I was given amitriptyline on Wednesday to help aid sleep (panicking and not being able to sleep was one of the main reasons I went back on cit) and it was working perfectly and I've been feeling alot better. Lat night however, it didn't work and I felt back to square one.

Can anyone tell me if this is common - perhaps I'll have the odd bumpy night here and there while the citalopram starts working - or do I now need a higher dose of amitriptyline?

I am keen to look into CBT, but just want to start feeling better and stronger before I do.

​Please help!

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi holly. See my reply on your other thread.
  • Posted

    I'm currently experiencing intermittant nights where the amitriptyline doesn't seem to work, or work as well, so I feel your pain. Depending on what's causing the problems with sleep, it may just be that some nights, things don't line up properly to allow you to sleep well. I take a homeopathic sleep aid alongside the amitriptyline, and the combo usually gets me to sleep and KEEPS me asleep, but once every couple of weeks I have a night where I take them and nothing happens, and I end up going until I finally crash from total exhaustion. I hope things work out for you soon!
    • Posted

      Thanks so much for this, I did actually wonder if perhaps it would just be the odd night. They didn't work again yesterday, but perhaps it's just a couple of bad days. Could I ask what MG you are on and are you on any other AD's/SSRI's? 
    • Posted

      I'm on 150mg of the amitriptyline (which seems to be a much higher dose than lots of others here are on), and I take 200mg of sertraline (Zoloft) daily. I first tried the amitriptyline a few years ago at 25mg and then stopped because it didn't seem to be doing anything at all for me, and then when I went back on it I started at 75mg and pretty quickly went up to the 150mg dose when I felt that the 75 was good but could be better.
  • Posted

    holly,

    So sorry to hear about your problems.  Years ago I took amitriptyline also, along with Ativan.  What a powerful combination that  was for me, as I sleep two weeks straight.  Amitriptyline will, at least for me, put me to sleep, and absolutely took away from me all my worries I had in the world.  Wouldn't recommend you take this drug if living by youself, for reason if there was an emergency within your home, if you are taking enough of the medicine, it will not allow you to properly think and make the right decisions in this emergency scenerio.  I cannot respond about citalopram.

    But, if you were sleeping for several nights and continued to take amitriptyline, then not being able to sleep, I believe something else is preventing you not going to sleep, as amitriptyline certainly should allow you to sleep.  Possibly there may be a contraindication to mix the two drugs you mentioned.  Just a thought, but I would check with your doctor or pharmacy to see if that is the case.  In other words, the medicines may be fighting each other, keeping them from doing what they are supposed to do.

    Don't always trust doctors or pharmacies, as they do make mistakes, even with the aid of computers.  Been there, done that several times, only to find I should not be taking two of the medicines at the same time.  This is only one explanation, but I would bring the question to at least your pharmacy.

    Good health to you.

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