Withdrawal am over the worst....

Hi Babytank, am not surprised you get so confused, thats alot of meds the doctors have put you on. I was also on alot of meds too and am now down to just one which I will be tapering off slowly soon. The doctors could only give me a maximum of 25mg of amitryptyline, because I was already on 30mg of citalorapram and they had to be careful that I didnt end up with serotonin syndrome. They mistook my side effects for other things. Turns out I am hypersensitive to all medication so after nearly 3 years of suffering with a mass of symptoms which resulted in me losing my friends, two jobs, my longterm boyfriend and my health and life as I knew it, I suspected it was the meds and against medical advice, took myself off Naproxen, Robaxin, an anti sickness tablet, dropped cita to 20mg and amit to 20mg and spent best part of last December in bed, I wouldnt recommend doing that as it made me really ill. Despite withdrawal symptoms alot of my scary symptoms started to disappear. Thats the very short version. I then very slowly tapered by small amounts of amit from then until 2.5 weeks ago, I did get horrible withdrawal symptoms and my doctor put it down to my sensitivity.

How are you feeling on your meds? Are they helping you?

Hi Melody I have just also read your post to Ako too. Everything you have described is my experience with withdrawal from this. My doctors and neurologist didnt listen to me either, they are listening to me now, I have put in complaints, taken legal advice and much more and want to raise awareness about this evil drug.

Your right when you said about the brain and nervous system being affected and from everything I have researched it can take anything from a few months upwards to recover, some people take months. I still have parathesia in my right foot, get tingling at times, get exhausted easily, and the odd flashes in my eyes amongst other things am over the worst.

I hope I have put your mind at rest, just hang in there.

Just want to add 3 years ago my doctors took me off 30mg of amit cold turkey, I was so ill they stuck me back on it, makes me so angry.

Thank you Paula for your reply and God bless you for it. This has been one of the worse experiences of my life and has caused my fear and anxiety to sky rocket. My dr's act like its not the drug and could be some other type of underlying physical problem or even just anxiety but I know my body and how I feel and that with all the dots connected and research I have done that it has to indeed be this drug without a doubt that has done this to me. They (the dr's) act like 25mg was such a low dose that I didn't need to taper and also that I shouldn't still be having these withdrawl symptoms since they tell me right away, "the drug should have left your system by now". They scared me more making me wonder what could possibly be wrong as I had suddenly developed some strange disease. It has been since the end of May that I had my last dose, so now it is July 8th and I still get the symptoms but they do seem to be less intense then there were weeks ago. So to reiterate, you said this is normal that I could go through withdrawl for a few months even meaning this is not unheard of that it could take some time before all the symptoms go away? 

Also, did you say all of your symptoms have not went away? If so, about how long did it take before they did? You are no longer on the drug then? 

But are you totally off of it now? 

Melody, as you went cold turkey on these do not be surprised if it takes more than a few months for all the symptoms to disappear.  I came of Amit I think nearly 4 weeks ago, need to double check.  I had tapered from 25mg in tiny amounts as I am so sensitive to them and each amount spiked my blood pressure to around 155/107.  The last time I was signed off work for a week.  I started tapering from last December.  So everything you describe seems completely normal to me.  Since coming off them my eye sight has improved, instead of tingling down the whole of my right side, I am only tingling in my right foot now, my photophobia has disappeared, my aches and pains have gone, my teeth and gums have improved, my stomach still plays up but has definitely improved.  My head has cleared, my short term memory came back, I now feel full when eating whereas I wanted to eat anything and everything when I was on them non stop.  I know I have missed things out.  When I told my neurologist that they misdiagnosed me and that all my problems stemmed from being on a cocktail of medications, and I was coming off amit, due to tapering was on 10mg at the time, she turned round to me and said that she has never known anyone who has had withdrawal symptoms from this amount, I answered with yes you have ME!  if reducing my 2.5mg results in me being signed off work for a week, then hearing that you went cold turkey from 25mg fills me with horror.  

Forgot to mention, with regards to myself I became sick to death with the doctors blaming anxiety for my symptoms, i had to spell it out to them clearly that it is the medication that gives me physical anxiety symptoms and coming off them increases the physical anxiety symptoms, but mentally I do not feel anxious, mainly because after nearly 9 months of tapering off meds, I am so used to the symptoms, and am just going with it.

I see. You said you were on a cocktail of medications. But you do feel it was def amitriptyline that caused most of the symptoms you talked about right?  I know my one dr is just trying to say I am experiencing anxiety symptoms when I know they are from the drug! IT is crazy! I am so sorry I have ever let that evil drug enter my system! I just want to know that I am going to get better and that the symptoms are going to continue to dwindle and go away! None of the dr's have given me any comfort at all but only made me feel worse and they just don't want to seem to act like the drug has much to do with it when we know it is a mind altering drug! I also know now I never should have quit cold turkey, but now that it has been 6 weeks I hate to go back on it and start to taper this late! I hate the thought of putting it back in my system. But will my symptoms end up going away or do i have to re-introduce my body to the drug and do a slow taper to finally get the symptoms to go? As I said I really don't want to start taking the drug again but I also want to make sure I am safe to continue on this cold turkey path! 

Melody, give yourself more time for you brain and central nervous system to settle. I have read that cold turkey lasts longer. Read as much as you can there is alot of information on the internet. Has any of your symptoms got worse?

Thank you so much for your replies. Well I'm still getting the symptoms but it does seem like most of them are less intense then a couple of weeks ago( like the brain zaps). I wanted to ask you too does it seem normal that most of the symptoms are happening to me right when I fall asleep? I did read on internet somewhere that brain zaps can be connected to R.E.M. Sleep which would explain why it happens then I guess. I also get like a feeling like I'm gasping for breathe & that had really scared me and last week I went to the emergency room & they ran tests on my heart & lungs & said they looked ok & just sent me home. He ( the e r dr acted like he didn't really know about the drug (ami) & that I should ask my psychiatrist. He just told me from an ER standpoint I was ok to go home. Right now it seems mostly all symptoms happening in my sleep so I get panicky feeling when it's time to sleep. I guess I'm atleast getting a little bit more sleep now then I was a couple weeks ago when I only slept 1-2 hours a night! One dr said to me maybe I have sleep apnea and go for sleep study, but I know this is not just some case of suddenly developing sleep apnea, as this all started with amitriptaline. And I know the stuff happening to me is my nervous system & brain since this drug altered the chemistry of it. Also u said u read cold turkey takes longer & that I can find a lot on internet do u recommend any source/site in particular? If not it's ok I am more than thankful that u have been replying to my threads as I've felt very alone in this horrid journey. 

Hi Melody, I felt very alone for a few years of hell on these, so know exactly how you feel, that's another reason why I post on these forums to help others.  I wish I could answer all your questions, the only thing that sprang to mind is wondering if you are associating going to sleep with having side effects so immediately become anxious which can increase the bad effects, just a thought!  You mentioned that your symptoms are less intense thats great you are going in the right direction, unfortunately, it takes time to settle on these.  I have done alot of research on the internet and called alot of charities and have spoken to alot of doctors.  I will think of any good links and send them to you privately on here as I do not think the moderators like us publicising links.  Having a massage helps so much, and taking magnesium for sleep really knocks me out.

Thank you very much for continuing to talk to me about this. How can I give you my contact information so you can send me some links/resources? I can give you my email address, but am I able to type it right on here? Let me know the best method so you can send me the stuff privately. I wanted to run this past you also: today I saw a psychiatrist and gave him the run down as I have everything listed in my original post on here about the things that happened to me after first taking amitriptayline.  He told me no way was the stuff that happened to me the drug's cause. He also said no I did not need to taper off of 25mg as he has had people on 400mg and never tapered them etc and "its not the type of drug" that would do the things I was explaining to him were. Did you have similar experiences of dr's telling you that your symptoms were in no way from amitriptyline? They are trying to tell me anxiety and stress caused my symptoms but I do not believe that this drug has had nothing to do with it. I NEVER in my life had these king of things happen to me before taking AMI. So I just wanted your thoughts on this if you feel the same. Thanks

Hi Melody, Yes I was told exactly the same from doctors and my neurologist as you. I was so angry that my neurologist included in my diagnosis anxiety and I told her that what she has said is incorrect, because my health anxiety was caused by the fear of my symptoms not the other way round. One doctor told me that if I refused medication they cannot help me, after I explained that my meds were making me ill. No one believed me Melody not even my boyfriend who very rudely told me to get help as if I was crazy. They believe me now and it turns out I am extremely sensitive to all meds. Infact I have developed a sensitivity to alot of things now and have to have lacto free milk and gluten free bread etc. We know our bodies better than anyone. There are alot of factors in all this including age, weight, dosage, length of time on them. There is a message icon on here next to our names and you can access private messages next to notifications to of screen. I will check out some links I have in the next day or so for you.

Thank you and God bless you tremendously. and sorry if i already asked but you were only on a lower end dose of this medicine (AMI) too right and it still caused you all of these symptoms. The dr's make me feel worse and increase my anxiety. I have a partner who acts like i am nuts about it too and it just hurts even more! Yes, I will utilize the message icon next to send you private messages.

Hi Melody, I was on 25mg back in December and tapered off slowly and came off Amit 4 weeks ago. Sorry to hear you are experiencing the same from your partner, keep strong!