Beginning taper of remainder of amitriptyline - 6 months off 37years of clonazepam

[Sunset304]

As per topic line, I'm now starting to taper the remainder of amitriptyline now that I'm 6 months off Clonazepam (37 years on and tapered 12mg total)  and have life pretty much organized.  Amitrip has proved a horrible drug to taper for me. When I first started on this board I was at 100mg.  I managed to already do 30mg  by the fall of 2016 but went into tolerance on the bz and couldn't tell which sx was from what so I finished the bz.  A week ago I dry cut 2mg Amitrip and the horrific and sick nightmares have already started .  I'm going to go super slow and take whatever time I need.   I've been tapering psych drugs since 2011 and also I tapered 450-600mg of Effexor finishing in 2012 (a physician-forced fast taper-not exactly sure on total but it was 600 at one time).

 

Since my last posting my life has changed drastically for the better, even more than it had.  My children are back in my life again in a significant way.. I've moved again (Nov 15/'18) but this time to a much preferable place. Its a walkout basement suite, near to walking trails with lovely people upstairs.   The place I was in became intolerable as it was a basement suite without a sound barrier and the people upstairs would not work with me and seemed eager instead to be jerks and only increase any behavior I found hard to live with and would mention in an attempt to work things out.   I went through acute bz wd there which was not fun but I'm glad its over.  So I'll do a super slow taper  of the amitrip cutting whenever I feel like it.  The only reason, actually, I'm doing this is because of the link with dementia this drug has and that's even noted in all mainstream online literature and, wonders of wonders, my doctor actually knows about it.  So that's my motivation there.  I'm not telling my physician which is how I've done this all along so I have complete control.  Were the stakes not so high I'd live with this drug in my system.   Its nice to have a bit of a life back and I want to reduce harm to that as much as possible. Its a despicable drug but........ So that's me.  I'll update my signature soon.  Thank you for reading, God bless and thanks in advice for any and all comments!

 

There was someone I PM'd with who was tapering Amitrip in 2016 but I can't get into my old messages (relearning the ropes here on this site) so if by any chance this individual sees this and would be ok with commenting on how he is doing I'd be very grateful and I hope he is (you're) done and victoriously celebrating.  I know you were having just as bad a time as I was.