Suresh My tapering story with Amitriptyline

[Suresh]

Thanks for admitting me to this group.

I have benefitted immensely during last month by going through other fellow travelers' experience of withdrawing from Amitriptyline.

I am on the same  journey, after being on Ami from last October at 25 mg per day for my joint pains and fibromyalgia.

Present dose is 3 mg per day.

Started tapering from  May 2023.

Initial reduction from 25 to 22.5 mg for 2 weeks.

Next 20mg, 17.5mg and all the way upto 10 mg.

By August 15 I was at 10 mg.

There was minor withdrawl symptoms like cold, hyperthermia (without fever) upto 100.5 deg F, increased flatulence, non specific pain at different places etc on and off during this period.  It was getting resolved over 1 week to 10 days.  

I further tapered down to 7.5 mg and 5 mg by September 20.

I am able to manage so far without major withdrawl symptoms.  Major factor I feel is that I am at peace with my symptoms where as earlier I used to resist them mentally.

Sleep is not so good like it was earlier with higher dose of Ami. But I don't lose sleep over the same🙂.  Body always catches up with sleep when mind is not disturbed.

To give a background, I was health anxious always and last year after I developed muscle and joint pains I was worried and started losing sleep.

After blood checks, diagnosis was Vit D and B12 deficiency.  Supplements and B12 injection were started then along with multi vitamin tablets.

By September last year I developed fibromyalgia, most likely due to sleep deprivation and anxiety.

That is when my neurologist prescribed Amitriptyline, 10 mg titrated upto 25mg over 2 weeks.

The sleep was immediately better and with that the anxiety also was resolved.

Normal side effects were there like weight gain, increased heart rate, urine retention etc.  Dry mouth and constipation resolved over first 2 weeks.

The pain meanwhile was coming down, even though I suspect it was because of the effect of Vitamin D and B12 supplementation.

I was taking magnesium and iron supplements also during this period (and upto now) along with  healthy food choices.  Magnesium and potassium are important (as also iron) when we talk about neurological health.

Found lot of benefits in the meanwhile in my BP (got normalised from earlier 145/100 levels to 115/80 levels) and cholestrol (from 230 levels to 180 for total cholestrol).  HBA1C also came down to 6.5 from 8.0.

I feel that the nutritional aspects in maintaining health are not very much in focus in modern medical practice.  After my experience, I can vouch for the importance of the same.

Presently I am reducing slowly as per the advise in this forum and reached 3 mg, will go real slow and plan to come off by some time next year.

Intention of this post is to give hope as well as some help to other fellow sufferers about taking important steps to take control of our own health.

Sorry for this long post.

 

 

 

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @Suresh

 

As you're still tapering, yours is not a Success Story quite yet. But good to see that your taper is going well!

[Suresh]

Yes I am aware of that. Only wanted to point out that done properly, the tapering can be tolerable for body and mind. Not to forget physical activity (I walk at least 8000 steps per day) and healthy food and supplements.

[Altostrata]

Thank you!

[Suresh]

You along with other moderators in this forum are doing a wonderful job, giving hope and guidance to so many people out there, please accept my deep appreciation and keep up the good work!

[Gertie]

Thank you so much for your story.  My daughter is currently tapering off of Zoloft (sertraline) AND amitriptyline simultaneously.  Once we got her down to 10mg amitriptyline in April we held her there since it is one whole tablet, while we continue the Zoloft taper.  We just got notice that her brand of amitrityline is on back order, which means I might have to switch her to another brand.  This has got me thinking I just want her OFF all of this crap!!!  

 

My question to you is: how are you tapering amitriptyline?  Are you filing and measuring tablets, or did you switch to a liquid?  If a liquid, are you getting it made from a compound pharmacy or making your own from your pills?

 

I'm so happy you've had such success so far and wish you continued luck on your taper journey!

[Suresh]

Thank you Gertie for your wishes.

For coming down from 10 mg, as I was taking cuts of 2.5mg at a time, I was using pill cutter.  The pill is having a score marking in the middle and can easily be broken into two. Coming down from 5 mg, I was using water titration, i.e first crushing the pill and dissolving in 10ml water and drawing out 2 ml with a syringe (8ml = 4 mg).  Liquid form is not available in India.

In your daughter's case, I think you need to go much slower as she is tapering off two medicines. 

Wishing her full recovery and drug free future!