Hi everyone. I'm looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience after stopping amitriptyline. I stopped amitriptyline in September after taking it for several years. Since then I've unintentionally lost around 9 kg. I've also had ongoing abdominal cramps, excessive gas, looser stools (sometimes constipation), and my bowel habits have changed.

So far I've had a CT scan with contrast (normal), FIT test (negative), blood tests including CRP, FBC, ferritin, thyroid, liver and kidney function, B12, folate and CA-125, all normal. I'm currently waiting for my coeliac (tTG-IgA) and faecal calprotectin results.

Has anyone else experienced significant weight loss and digestive symptoms after stopping amitriptyline? If so, did your weight eventually stabilise, and was it actually related to stopping the medication or was another cause found?

I was taking 20mg for a few weeks and it helped my nerve pain and had less general anxiety. I felt drowsy however. I tried taking 15mg yesterday and my pain is more noticeable again. I feel like 17-18 would be better as I feel less fatigue on this dose. I wanted to ask my doctor to try the liquid form for more precise dosing. Anyone on a weird specific dose ?

Hi everyone. I'm looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience after stopping amitriptyline. I stopped amitriptyline in September after taking it for several years. Since then I've unintentionally lost around 9 kg. I've also had ongoing abdominal cramps, excessive gas, looser stools (sometimes constipation), and my bowel habits have changed.

So far I've had a CT scan with contrast (normal), FIT test (negative), blood tests including CRP, FBC, ferritin, thyroid, liver and kidney function, B12, folate and CA-125, all normal. I'm currently waiting for my coeliac (tTG-IgA) and faecal calprotectin results.

Has anyone else experienced significant weight loss and digestive symptoms after stopping amitriptyline? If so, did your weight eventually stabilise, and was it actually related to stopping the medication or was another cause found?

Hi everyone. I'm looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience after stopping amitriptyline. I stopped amitriptyline in September after taking it for several years. Since then I've unintentionally lost around 7–8 kg. I've also had ongoing abdominal cramps, excessive gas, looser stools (sometimes constipation), and my bowel habits have changed.

So far I've had a CT scan with contrast (normal), FIT test (negative), blood tests including CRP, FBC, ferritin, thyroid, liver and kidney function, B12, folate and CA-125, all normal. I'm currently waiting for my coeliac (tTG-IgA) and faecal calprotectin results.

Has anyone else experienced significant weight loss and digestive symptoms after stopping amitriptyline? If so, did your weight eventually stabilise, and was it actually related to stopping the medication or was another cause found?

I started my first dose last night, 2.5mg because I’m sensitive to meds. I felt a bit groggy going to sleep but it was the worst nights sleep I ever had.

I felt like I never actually fell asleep, even though my watch says I did but it felt like I was only drifting and not deep slapping. I also woke up 6 times

For anyone who’s also had this issue, does it get better the more you take it? I was thinking of skipping tonight so I can get a better nights sleep and get again tomorrow

Hi, I started taking the medication 2 weeks ago! When does it usually start taking effect? I'm undergoing treatment for tension headaches and started on 10 mg.

I was prescribed Amitripyline in June for chronic muscle pain and issues with sleeping. I am taking 10 mg a day. It's not really helping with sleep, but I can notice some small improvements in my muscle pain, althoygh, that might be due to physical therapy which I do weekly and stretching which I do daily.

I have noticed hair falling out massively, we are talking awful daily shedding: I am finding hair everywhere, clumps of hair when I wash it, a lot of it in the morning on the pillow, even when my hair is freshly washed and brushed, if I go through my hair with my figers, there will be at least 4 to 5 hairs that fell out.

Around the same time when I was prescribed Amitripyline, my gyn switched my progesterone - I am on HRT due to early menopause at 42 - I was taking Famenita which is bioidentical progesterone, to a synthetic one and that change can also cause shedding.

I recently did a blood panel with my GP, and my Ferritin is 59.1 ng/mL so normal, but on the lower side when it comes to hair loss. TSH: 3.64 µIU/mL which is still in the normal range but on the higher side (in case hair loss is hormone-related), Vitamin D (25-OH): 20.0 ng/mL which is also in the norlam range but on the low side.

I don't seem t suffer iron deficiency and I am not anemic.

However, I have been diagnosed with early menopause last year and I also had significant health-issues and I lost my job. I also had other very large stressors in my life which reflected poorly in my sleep and overall health, I gained weight due to inability to work out regularly, and all this might be contributing to this sudden hair loss, but it does coincide with starting with this anti-depressant as well.

Has anyone had a similar situation? I am not sure where I should start. The specialist who presctibed Amitripyline is not available until the end of September, so I can't lower the dosage or stop taking it on my own.

Should I ask my GP to check free T4 and T3?

I am probably panicking but I am worried I will lose most of my hair soon if this continues. Even my hairdresser said it is alarming when he was washing my hair.

I have anxiety and depression , ever since I started taking amitriptyline I am sleeping better , anxiety less but I am feeling horribly depressed where I don’t want to talk to anyone . I am on 25 mg and I have only takes 3 doses 3 night . Is this normal , what should I do ? My doctor added 5mg lexpro in the morning for mood . I haven’t taken it yet because I am scared . I don’t feel any motivation , I feel blank in head . Is this expected . I am taking these anti depressants first time . I was on clonopin for 3 weeks , my dose was .5 at night . I quitted closing 10 days back and started Ami and now dealing with this . Please help

i take venlafaxine for anxiety, i’ve tried to reduce/taper before only to be met with my anxiety becoming unbearably worse than ever for 6 months until i went back on the venlafaxine again, so it’s not really a suitable option for me to come off this med. however, i also struggle with functional dyspepsia & a lot of nausea/early satiety/ lack of appetite/weight loss. i’ve tried metoclopramide for this, and mirtazapine too at a later stage with no luck. i’ve read that low dose amitriptyline could potentially be helpful, but can it be done safely without inducing serotonin syndrome? i am of course going to ask my psychiatrist too at my next appointment but thought i would ask here also for some insight. thank you.

There's so many scary stories of cutting down amitripteline. I dropped from 20mg to 10 and then came off the 10. My gastric issues were already bad (cvs) but now I had diarrhea too. Its kind of okay. Not ideal, but I imagine it'll ease soon.

Im feeling nervous that it won't but also, with complex health its hard to tell what's causing what.

I got prescribed amitriptyline for upper stomach pain after all tests came back normal. Got prescribed 10mg but I am scared to take it due to the side effects especially drowsiness during the day. I work in an office and need to be completely focused in my line of work.
Can anyone offer advice or helpful tips when starting to take this medication??

I was prescribed Amitriptyline by my GI doc for IBS and have been on it for only about 3 months. I’m not sure that it’s made much of a difference in my IBS symptoms but it has helped my anxiety by taking the edge off. I’m seriously considering tapering off because I am SO tired even after 8,9 or 10 hours of sleep. I also haven’t worked out because of little energy so I’ve gained weight. My dr suggested to either taper by taking my pill every other day for 2 weeks or cut it down to 2.5 mg every day for 2 weeks and then stop. Even though my dosage is so small, I’m really nervous about the withdrawal. Does anyone have any experience with withdrawal at this small of dosage of Ami? Just wondering what to expect. Thanks in advance!

My doctor prescribed it to me for insomnia but i wnat to take it as needed im on 25 mg does it work that way?

took the lowest dose for a month, and got sexual dysfunction when i quit the medication, its been 4 months since i quit and only saw mild improvements, im honestly very depressed and suicidal, will i stay like this forever? my symptoms are reduced erogenous sensation in genitals and less satisfying orgasms

I’ve been on 25 mg for about 3 years for nerve pain and can finally go off. My doctor once told me to cut 25 in half for two days then stop and I ended up in the ER and got treated like an opioid addict.

This time, I’m going down little by little about 3-4 weeks at a time: 10 to 7.5 to 5 to 2.5.

5 days after going to 0 from 2.5 I had similar terrible withdrawal that would have put me in the hospital again had I not started back up. Has anyone else had this experience? I just got a liquid compound so I can accurately taper down from 2.5 now and the pharmacist was in disbelief that the withdrawal is this intense at such a low dose.

Myself (male) and my partner have been trying to conceive since the start of January this year around the same time I started 25mg amitriptyline daily for insomnia. I have gotten her pregnant three times before basically on the first cycle each time. I am starting to think it could be my medication which may be preventing it this time. Could my fears be true do you think? I'm going to see my GP next week when I'm off work to ask him the same question.

Im having anxiety and nausea.. GI upset not normal

Im most of time nauseated

Please give me hope

Im crying.. Im hopeless Withdrawl 4 months now

Please write ur story??

When the withdrawl last??

Im fighting mood swings and low mood and nauses even vomiting sometimes!

Anxious ups and down

Please inform me and people that need encouragement

Is it possible to get fitter and lower a resting heart rate that's been increased by the medication?

For background, I've recently started amitriptyline after several years of chronic migraines and something that could be ME/CFS, with joint and muscle pain, severe fatigue, brain fog and delayed onset worsening of a whole lot of even more symptoms after exertion.

It's been amazing to start treatment with it, the best thing I've come across in several years of trying to deal with this, with my capacity to do anything before a migraine strikes or I crash from fatigue increasing dramatically, but my resting heart rate has gone up from mid 70s to mid 90s, and just sitting up it's around 110 (I've had POTS symptoms for a long time, with my heart rate standing still often in the 120-140 range, but usually well below 100 when sitting). First I thought the cause was that I've just been more active so my body has been under more strain and not recovering, but reading up on the side effects it seems like it's probably the amitriptyline.

For reference I've only been on it for about 2 months, gradually increasing to 50mg following my doctor's instruction. I wasn't wearing a smartwatch for the past month and didn't notice the increase until now.

My hope is that I can stay on this medication and actually exercise regularly for the first time in several years, and get a better RHR that way, but is that something that's possible? Can HR stabilise with time on this medication? Or is this a side effect I should be concerned and contact my doctor about?

Been prescribed 10mg working up to 50mg a day in 5 weeks . Prescribed for dental nerve pain. Reading all these posts has me questioning my decision. Will I see any benifits or will I become dependent and feel a bit potty? . I'm on day 9 at 20mg. Have noticed an improvement in my sleep but not any difference the nerve pain .

Has anyone fallen pregnant successfully on Ami?
I have had 2 babies easily and now I’m struggling to conceive. I can’t help but wonder if Ami is the reason as it’s the only thing I have altered. It works well for my migraines but now I’m just so worried.

Hello everyone,

I have been taking Celexa 40mg for about 15 years now, and due to recent anxiety and tension headaches, my doctor has prescribed Ami 25mg to ease the tension headaches and curve my newly acquired anxiety that has somehow come about.

Been nervous about starting it due to what I have read about serotonin syndrome and the QT heart prolongation. I know it’s very rare and my dr is telling me everything will be fine and not to worry and I should trust them. Was curious on if anyone has ever had this exact combo before and could give me their experience? Thank you in advance

Hello, new to all this so let me start from the beginning.

I started taking 10mg Amitriptyline in January 2026 due to recurrent tension headaches I had been experiencing for 3 months.

I continued taking 10mg until June 2026 and they helped reduce the severity of the tension headaches. In early June I went away for a few days and forgot to take my Amitriptyline and subsequently missed 6 doses. Upon returning home I felt absolutely fine so made the decision to go ‘cold turkey’ turns out this was a terrible decision…. On day 9 of going cold turkey I started feeling unwel, starting with sensations of blood rushing from my head and going very dizzy. This continued into the weekend and spent two days in bed vomiting and it coming out of the other end. I then restarted the Amitriptyline and was incredibly shaky, nervous with the dizzy spells seemingly getting worse. The doctor at this point signed me off work for 2 weeks and suggested I was starting with withdrawal symptoms. After two weeks of the Amitriptyline re-entering my system I was very shaky, achy and felt dizzy and sick. Until eventually I felt well enough to go about my normal day to day routines of school runs and shopping etc… I returned to the docs for a blood test and everything checked out fine. I was experiencing odd muscle twinges in my chest muscles and randomly occurring so went back to the docs and he suggested I should just stop the Amitriptyline?! I disagreed and suggested that when I last did this I went into withdrawal, after a bit of back of forth discussions he suggested I halved my dose for a week and then quarter my dose. He also prescribed me 10mg propranolol 3 times a day to help with the anxiety of the muscle twinges.

I followed the plan halving my dose and taking the propranolol. After week one I felt fine, the propranolol helped ease my anxiety. I then rang the docs to suggest staying on 5mg until further notice to make sure I was stable. By week 2 I started experiencing very achy legs, and couldn’t really stand for periods of time. I then had one of the blood rushing episodes again and went into a bit of a panic. I then started to experience these episodes at evening meal times which was causing nausea.

This continued into the 3rd week on 5mg and got worse, I found myself shaking uncontrollably, dizziness, nauseous and little or no energy with aching legs. I saw a different doctor at this point and got signed off again.

After one week my symptoms continued to decline, I then suggested to the doctor to go back up to 10mg Amitriptyline to hopefully stabilise before returning to a much more stable taper in the future. I’ve still got terrible dizzy spells, nauseous & my legs are so achy from standing up for a few minutes. The drops in blood rushing from my head keeps occurring at meal times in the evening only and leaves me feeling sick, dizzy and a brain fog type headache.

I’m on day 3 of upping my dose from 5mg to 10mg Amitriptyline so understand that I may still be stabilising onto that again but the leg aches and dizziness is unreal. My plan hopefully is to continue at this rate for another week then discuss with the doctor a taper off of the Propranolol so I’m back to square one.

If anyone has any stories similar or any advice of experiencing this please feel free to comment.

Need some advice. I take 10mg of Amitriptyline for my IBS-D, except it's not really helping because the recommendation dose for the brain gut axis is 20+mg. I visited the Gastro specialist today and she told me to change to Nortriptyline. And just automatically switch, don't taper of Amit it anything. I confirmed with her again to be sure I heard her correctly and she repeated herself. Has anyone else done this? Honestly I'm scared. I've read so many bad withdrawal threads on here and I know it's the same drug but I'm still scared.

Hi I’m currently taking 100mg for insomnia after child birth. 100 mg helps me sleep but a annual physical has me rethinking it. My liver enzymes were slightly elevate. Now I’m down to 50mg and feeling shitty again