Beary: Amitriptyline x 3

[Beary]

Help my head is burning!  It feels like the night I went off the drug!  I'm afraid I'm getting worse!  What do I do?  I can't get anyone to prescribe the drug so I can't reinstate...and reinstate to what?  I only took three pills!

[MNgal1960]

Beary, I'm really sorry about this. I will tell you what happened to me many years ago. I took one prozac a day for 4/days and stopped because of severe muscle jerks and wild mood swings and alternating feelings of being hot and cold.  Everything settled down within a few days except for the muscle jerks and anxiety spikes. They got worse and worse. They went on for 6 months. I couldn't sleep. I was going crazy. The psychiatrist said it wasn't the prozac. Years later I asked a neurologist and he said it certainly was the prozac.

 

It was not withdrawal syndrome. I had not been on the drug long enough. It was an adverse drug reaction.

 

A couple of years ago I had some genetic testing done and and found out I lack a major liver enzyme that is used to process prozac. I think it also processes amitriptyline. Also quite a few other psych meds and narcotics.

 

If you lack this enzyme, going back on the drug will only make you worse.

 

What made me better was time and being as good to myself as I could (I had 2 young children and a very bad marriage). Some friends helped me and encouraged me. I kept a diary of symtpoms and noted that each month was a tiny bit better than the last month. And I held on.

 

Indeed, I did get better. I now only have a slight tendency toward muscle jerking now.

 

I don't know about the anti-inflammatories, but they might have made you worse. I tried to not take any drugs at all and to eat a very healthy diet during my recovery. And to rest as much as possible.

 

You will heal, but you will need to be good to your body and give it time.

 

MN

[scallywag]

Beary, some people feel at least somewhat better when taking omega 3 fish oil and/or magnesium. As always, start with one at a low dose and work your way up to the recommended dose on the bottle. These links discuss supplementation and there are posts about good food sources:
 
Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil)
Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker

[Beary]

Beary, I'm really sorry about this. I will tell you what happened to me many years ago. I took one prozac a day for 4/days and stopped because of severe muscle jerks and wild mood swings and alternating feelings of being hot and cold.  Everything settled down within a few days except for the muscle jerks and anxiety spikes. They got worse and worse. They went on for 6 months. I couldn't sleep. I was going crazy. The psychiatrist said it wasn't the prozac. Years later I asked a neurologist and he said it certainly was the prozac.

 

It was not withdrawal syndrome. I had not been on the drug long enough. It was an adverse drug reaction.

 

A couple of years ago I had some genetic testing done and and found out I lack a major liver enzyme that is used to process prozac. I think it also processes amitriptyline. Also quite a few other psych meds and narcotics.

 

If you lack this enzyme, going back on the drug will only make you worse.

 

What made me better was time and being as good to myself as I could (I had 2 young children and a very bad marriage). Some friends helped me and encouraged me. I kept a diary of symtpoms and noted that each month was a tiny bit better than the last month. And I held on.

 

Indeed, I did get better. I now only have a slight tendency toward muscle jerking now.

 

I don't know about the anti-inflammatories, but they might have made you worse. I tried to not take any drugs at all and to eat a very healthy diet during my recovery. And to rest as much as possible.

 

You will heal, but you will need to be good to your body and give it time.

 

MN

What type of genetic test was that?  Maybe if I got the same test this would shed some light on things.  Also, I have quite a lot of trauma in my past.  I noticed that when I get nervouse the symptoms dramatically worsen. 

[Beary]

Beary, I'm really sorry about this. I will tell you what happened to me many years ago. I took one prozac a day for 4/days and stopped because of severe muscle jerks and wild mood swings and alternating feelings of being hot and cold.  Everything settled down within a few days except for the muscle jerks and anxiety spikes. They got worse and worse. They went on for 6 months. I couldn't sleep. I was going crazy. The psychiatrist said it wasn't the prozac. Years later I asked a neurologist and he said it certainly was the prozac.

 

It was not withdrawal syndrome. I had not been on the drug long enough. It was an adverse drug reaction.

 

A couple of years ago I had some genetic testing done and and found out I lack a major liver enzyme that is used to process prozac. I think it also processes amitriptyline. Also quite a few other psych meds and narcotics.

 

If you lack this enzyme, going back on the drug will only make you worse.

 

What made me better was time and being as good to myself as I could (I had 2 young children and a very bad marriage). Some friends helped me and encouraged me. I kept a diary of symtpoms and noted that each month was a tiny bit better than the last month. And I held on.

 

Indeed, I did get better. I now only have a slight tendency toward muscle jerking now.

 

I don't know about the anti-inflammatories, but they might have made you worse. I tried to not take any drugs at all and to eat a very healthy diet during my recovery. And to rest as much as possible.

 

You will heal, but you will need to be good to your body and give it time.

 

MN

MNgal  I had the reaction not when I was taking the meds, or the day after I stopped the medications but the day after that.  I'm really confused about what is making me feel so bad.  You think that because I only took three days of meds at the lowest dose I may not have WD?

[MNgal1960]

This sounds like an adverse drug reaction to me. The genetic tests were for function of liver enzymes. I lack an important liver enzyme because I inherited the same defective allele (gene) from each of my parents.

 

In my case, I had very mild symptoms the second and third day on the med. I cut my dose in half; the symptoms got worse. I stopped the med entirely and the symptoms still got worse. I guess they peaked at about a week off the med, leveled out, then very slowly lessened over 6 months. Now they are mild and rare.

 

My neurologist said any kind of stimulant (caffeine, sugar) would make my symptoms worse, and I think anxiety is a stimulant, so yes, that may be a problem.

 

I'm no sure how the anti-inflammatory fits into this, though.

 

Sorry, I'm not on the boards much lately so it took me awhile to see this.

 

MN

[Pilar]

On 11/12/2016 at 12:32 PM, Beary said:

What kind of doctor can advise me on this? My current doctors seem to think this is psychosomatic. I have had a concussion and my neroligist has now diagnosed me with a whiplash injury and wants me to take this course of steroids, but how can I trust his decisions for me if he thinks these symptoms are all in my head?

Hi Beary, 

I had similar reaction to amitriptyline. Have nervous problems with my muscles and it also It dried me up, I had insomnia, I couldn't breath and I'm still having the symptoms 10 months later, they're little by little going away. That drug was given to me by an urologist and then my mental health practitioner gave me cipralex, he didn't even warn me about the side effects of mixing two drugs. When I had all those symptoms I came back to my current GP and he also said to me it was psychosomatic, please don't believe that. Thanks God we found this website, I've seen true knowledge here. Hope you had recovered. 

[Carmie]

Hi Beary, 

 

How are you doing?💚