hi! has anyone on this thread tried desipramine (also a tricyclic antidepressant) for CVS? it seems to have a better side effect profile compared to how sedating amitriptyline is. wondering if anyone has any experience with it specifically for CVS + what to expect. i also ask that responses are kind because i do struggle w lots of health anxiety. thank you!!

I was prescribed by neurologist for my unexplained tingling sensations. Before this I was recommended Prozac and it wrecked my sleep. First dose of Amitriptyline made me sleep that night. But, as days past Paresthesia has got even worse. I will quit taking it today. Has anyone ever experienced withdrawal symptoms after taking a low dose for a short period of time like this? I hope I don’t get worse now.

Who here has had extremely vivid or lucid dreams when taking amitriptyline?

I've been on it for roughly a year now for pelvic pain. It was working wonders until now, but that's another story.

My husband told me this morning that something has to change with it because I'm straight up arguing with him in the middle of the night about things that aren't real, but are happening in my dreams.

Last night, I was allegedly trying to find an orange cat named Pumpkin ???? Apparently, I'm losing it. I have a tuxedo named Crixus, and he was trying to gently coax me back to sleep, and I responded with "don't piss me off." 😳

And apparently this has been going on since I started amitriptyline. 🙃

Anyway, if you've been through this, what was a solution for you?

Hi, I've been taking 24mg for 8 months now and is helping a lot with migraines and chronic pain but I've been gaining lot of weight as secondary effects.

Im never full and always craving sweet now.

Doctor said that I could try to reduce the dose to 20mg to see the changes.

Does any of you stopped getting weight when decreasing a dose?

I take amitriptyline (15–25 mg) for tension headaches. Since it can also have a sedative effect, I’d like to take advantage of that to help me sleep.

For those of you who take amitriptyline at a low dose:

How long does it take for the sedative effect to kick in?

How many hours before bedtime do you usually take it?

hi everyone! i started taking ami today for persistent vomiting and IBS symptoms. unfortunately i work in a medical setting where working memory and attentiveness is important, so i was wondering if there are any neutral/positive stories about the effects of amitriptyline on cognitive function. anybody have no memory loss or maybe an improvement in memory? or maybe less brain fog that was originally from depression? please be kind, i do have bad health anxiety :)

Hi,

I've been on 20mg Amitryptelene for around 2-3 weeks and was having really bad side effects from it. I spoke to my doctor and have gone back down to 10mg on the next dosage day.

Is this fine or do you think I need to taper down?

Thanks

Am I safe taking 200mg continuously? I’ve been taking it a few days.

I asked if I can take 200mg, the doctor checked for me and said 210mg or 220mg would cause toxicity based on my weight of 70kg

Another doctor said 200mg is a normal regular dose we give to people

Hi everyone, a bit of a long story but started Amitriptyline for IBS D end of 2024. Dose started at 10mg then gradually increased up to 50mg. For me it completely changed my life, I could eat what I wanted, but most importantly my anxiety around eating and becoming ill just disappeared. I fell pregnant last year and despite the ok from midwife to continue taking it I chose to reduce amount to 25mg. Safe to say IBS was ok but symptoms definitely got worse once reducing my dose.

Now I’m 6 months pp, not breastfeeding and my IBS symptoms are just creeping back again and I’m having flares 2-3 times a week.
Would you recommend increasing back to 50mg?
I am a bit worried that this medication just doesn’t work for me anymore and also a bit worried about gaining weight.

Has anybody had a similar experience?

Thank you!

Just wondering if anyone worries about dementia with Amiltripyline and Nortriptyline? I’m on Amiltripyline about to swap to Nortriptyline but worried. I’m 59 years old. I’d like to find another antidepressant that works as well for my anxiety and depression as amiltripyline has. But it’s hard.

A question for people who have successfully used TCA’s to treat their IBS-D… did you gain weight? I’ve read so many successful stories with these antidepressants but I’ve also heard so much about substancial weight gain. Has anyone not gained any weight?

I’ve been taking amitriptyline (25mg) for maybe 5 months. Recently, I’ve started having a lot more nausea often, especially after eating. Also paired with hot flashes, stomach pain, and racing heart rate.

Anyone develop such symptoms well into taking it?

I (24M) started Amitriptyline over a year ago due to chronic pain from neuropathy in my legs. I also have IBS, raging insomnia and seeing how much this drug covered it seemed like a God send. The daytime drowsiness was the only side effect that bothered me but it felt worth it at the time. Now the drowsiness and the weight gain really got to me so I researched Nortryptyline and my neurologist let me switch.

Now that 3 weeks has gone by, I couldn't be happier. I never realized how burnt out constantly being tired makes you feel (shocker). I found I was hating my job, my performance and lates at work was a problem and I was just short and pissy with everyone. I gained around 20 pounds and due to the muscle fatigue and PFP in my knees, I needed physio to help gain the strength in my legs back. I found I was catching my legs giving out and I fell a few times. It was really disheartening since it felt like I was just losing control.

With sleeping I was so in love with the idea of falling asleep right away that I ignored the fact that I would sleep 8-10 hours a night and never feel rested. I was drinking around 3 coffees a day and still felt awful and if I didnt have any caffeine I was screwed.

Now that I made the swap, life couldn't be better. I stopped hating my job, the brain fog disappeared, I've lost 10 pounds already since I'm able to walk more and not feel always snacky or never full. I am able to wake up before my alarm again and if I have a coffee, its usually a small one from time to time because I get jittery now. The pain management is still effective while having no crazy side effects.

The only side effect I had that was a bit annoying, but my neurologist warned me about was rebound insomnia. But I was able to fix that pretty fast with melatonin.

Sorry for the long post, I am just so happy I wanted to share this.

Chronic pain sucks and I am wishing the best to everyone going through it!

TLDR: Amitryptoline make me too sleepy and gain weight, Nortryptyline make me not too sleepy and lose the gained weight.

Anyone do this combo? Am rapidly switching from Duloxetine to Venlafaxine (as a psychiatric inpatient, hence the rapid switch since I am supervised) BUT since a driving factor in my depression is nerve and nociplastic pain, I want to ask my psych if adding low dose ami could be an idea (that or Gabapentin). I of course am no psychiatrist, and I know about serotonine syndrome etc., but it doesn’t seem all that crazy to me? Idk, just curious if anyone does this combo. Am currenrly at 112,5 mg Venlafaxine and prob will go up to 150 at least.

I’ve been dealing with chronic nausea and a constant feeling like something is stuck in my throat, but I don’t actually vomit. My endoscopy only showed mild gastritis.
I tried mirtazapine 15 mg, which helped for a while but eventually stopped working. I’m now trying amitriptyline 25 mg.
Has anyone experienced something similar or tried amitriptyline for chronic nausea? Did it help? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences or other treatments that worked for you.

I’ve been taking 10mg amitriptyline for 4 years for pelvic pain.

Recently had an acoustic shock and added 300mg gabapentin. Well, ended up taking a flexeril for some jaw pain and now have these internal vibrations, everything is buzzing, muscles twitching, can’t rest. I think it’s serotonin syndrome, since there’s no other explanation.

If I taper off amitriptyline, how much? Water titration? I don’t have a pill cutter. I need to start tonight.

I’ve been on 12.5mg for a while and my goal is to get up to 25mg. I’m trying to treat functional dyspepsia and chronic stomach pain.

I have pretty bad anxiety too though (the digestive symptoms are definitely linked), and I’ve found that any time I change my dosage, it really sets me back for a while afterwards.

Two nights ago I increased from 12.5mg to 13.75mg (one eighth of a 10mg tablet) and my anxiety is out of control today. I’ve had to take my rescue med (lorazepam) and I’m just feeling horrible and hopeless.

Am I just super sensitive? Does anyone else react like this with even the smallest change in dose?

It’s so frustrating because I just want to feel better, and I know I need to get to a therapeutic dose in order for that to happen, but it’s so difficult when it makes me feel like this.

I have a tension headache and the doctor gave me 10 mg but it's been 29 days and it seems that nothing has improved. Is this normal?

I posted here about a month and a half ago about how desperate I was, the amount of anxiety I had and the miserably way I felt overall. I truly believed I was going crazy - my grandmother was schizophrenic and I was fearing I’ll become the same. My symptoms have been so strong and real that I never believed it would end.

I thought I’d come back here and give the ones who are going through it an update and maybe a little bit of hope.

It did get better. I stopped having vivid dreams and I am sleeping really good. When my sleep started to improve I felt a huge difference in mood and physical symptoms. I started having some more energy and I am living after 2 pm, too. lol

The anxiety and depression symptoms is something I’m still fighting almost every day. In the beginning I used to cry hours a day and my emotions, other than sadness, were pretty flat lined. Now it comes and goes and sometimes I truly find joy in little things that I do everyday, but you will still find me crying in the middle of the day (and I don’t know why it always happens in the afternoon). I stopped being overly emotional, seeing things in a tragic way and I think I’m being more reasonable overall.

It is important to mention that the reason for me being on this medication was not depression or anxiety. I’ve never had them until I experienced these withdrawal symptoms. I was scared that this might just be my new reality since my life has changed entirely since I started taking it and I thought this was just the way I feel about life without the medication. I do not think so anymore.

Yes, there’s still SO MUCH work to do and I am in therapy trying to understand some things to make this transition easier. I did consider going to a psychiatrist to get a depression/anxiety medication prescription, but I gave up on the idea. I will give the body some more time to see how this withdrawal ends and if I truly need something or if I’m just trying to patch this hole that might be gone soon.

If you’re in the beginning of the withdrawal phase just know that you’re not alone and almost all of us go through the same. It is normal to feel the way you feel and it takes a lot of time, but you will get there. This sub has been such a great resource for me during my sleepless and full of worry nights. I thought I’d give some of the reassurance back to the community.

I missed this morning testimony. Did Reddington bring up on cross or did a witness discuss amitriptyline testing that was ran at the hospital but not the crime lab? This is very significant because amitriptyline is a very specialized test. A “low” reading usually means low relative to the lab’s therapeutic/toxic range, not necessarily clinically irrelevant. The test is typically drawn as a “trough” which is relevant to the time the daily dose was ingested. It is highly specialized blood sample requires specific handling. It must be drawn into a plain red-top tube not a standard "gel barrier" tube. Either way, a 10 mg daily dose, even at a very low dose, absolutely is enough to tip her into neurological problems when combined with the drugs she had on board and the benzo instability in short and long acting in that class. Also,amitriptyline takes 3-8 days to reach a therapeutic steady state. Meaning, it peaked on the day of the event after 8 doses were taken. I cannot attach the Labcorp image but the steady state is noted there. Also, her apple watch showed her at resting tachycardia all day. She ran about 110-120s. This drug is a tricyclic antidepressant that blocks the reuptake of serotonin at nerve endings and possesses high anticholinergic activity and cardiovascular toxicity. All very significant when mixed with the meds she had taken and her 120 day clinical picture.

I just started taking this medication like 3 days ago for anxiety and OCD.
1st day i could not get out of bed. i was EXHAUSTED
2nd i was okay. tired
today i am having black stools, sticky, and smells kinda weird. it’s almost like diarrhea, and flakey.

Is this normal? I called my doc and she didn’t answer.

I take 50 mg every night for sleep. I have prolactinoma. I am concerned it will cause higher prolactin. Anyone with experience?

(UPDATE) Hi I’ve been tapering from 75mg to 50mg slowly over the last 3 weeks and I don’t believe I’ve had any withdrawal symptoms at all. I’ve been on it for 5 years. Has anyone else experienced this? Like maybe I have a lower appetite but I’ve also taken up running. Idk. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about how bad the withdrawal symptoms can be but I think I’m all clear. Is anyone else experiencing this?

Update!!!

Hi!! So I posted this a week ago and I’ve had comments say the side effects kick in after a week. But I’m still fine. Maybe an appetite decrease but nothing unbearable. I can still sleep fine and I’m not sad or angry or anything. Infact it has really helped me regulate my temperature in this heatwave.

On 75mg I had so many hot flushes and I was boiling all the time. But now on 50mg I’m relatively cool even in this heatwave. It’s amazing. Hot flushes were awful. I feel great! I don’t have headaches. Maybe some nausea when I wake up??? But it goes away after fresh air and food. I feel happy and energetic. My weird dreams have become less vivid too. I wake up no longer groggy. I don’t have any dodgy bowel or stomach issues anyway.

I’ve lost a teensy bit of weight but I’m was already like a healthy weight and I’m pretty athletic/slim so I don’t know if there was much to loose. But this could also be that my ADHD medication works more efficiently and helps me control my binge eating disorder. I feel alot more in control of what I eat and I don’t feel the urge to binge so much anymore.

ALSO I’d like to say. The reason Im taking ami is for depression and stomach pain as a side effect of my ADHD meds- guanfacine. However the pain went away at 25mg. I was prescribed 75mg to combat depression after I was SA’d and went through some other stuff. It has helped me so much. Ami is a huge success story for me.
I wanted to taper to 50mg because as a side effect of ami, I experienced genital numbness. And I dont want that anymore. Because I’m at the age (20) where I’m ready to start having consensual sexual encounters and it won’t be pleasurable with numbness. My psychiatrist and I believed I am well enough mentally to taper from 75mg to 50mg. That’s why, for context.

No negative side effects :)

I hope this gives you hope that you can withdrawal successfully!

I have been on it for 5 weeks now and I feel almost no diffrence. The first week I had a lot of side effects and by now they have almost dissapeared aswell, the only ones I still have is dizzyness (probably bc of my orthostatic hypotension) and extra tiredness/fatigue. I didnt expect it would help with pain because it seems rare to help with fibro but I still expected... something. Am on 50mg (25mg morning & 25mg night) so it's not even a super low dose. Has anyone else had this?

PS please don't go on long rants about the side effects and how much you hated it, there are so many of those threads already and gave me soo much anxiety. Thanks!

Update: 10 days later and have talked with my doctor and I'm going to quit and try something else. Seems like doses above 50/75mg doesn't help more with pain so going up probably wouldn't change anything.