Hi everyone, I was precribed Amitriptyline in Jan. this year (2017) for pain with Temporomandibular joint disfunction (which is severe headaches, ear pain with a sharp pain going through my ear and jaw pain (I had 10mg tabs) I was told I'd be on them for life, but after I'd taken them for 2 days (10 mg a night) I decided I didn't want to be on medication for life so I stopped taking them with no problems. I have to have a 3 monthly app. which was in April (2017) I said I stopped taking the Amitriptyline because I didn't want to take medication every day for life (I'm 72) I saw a different consultant and he said you don't necessarily take them for life you can try them for 6 months and then see how you feel. He said if 10mg a night doesn't stop the pain take 20mg a night and if that isn't enough take 30mg and so on. He said I strongly advise you to try it. Ive now taken 10mg a night for 6 nights and I'm drowsy, I can't remember things, I have no motivation, I'm over-sleeping, and my legs are heavy when I try and walk, and I have a sort of worried tensed feeling in my head, and Ive only read a few posts about Amitriptyline on this forum and I'm wondering why health practicioners are giving this drug out so freely. I'm quite suspicious as it obviously causes a lot of problems and when some patients try to come off it they feel so ill with various symptoms they stay on it or take a higher dose if they were weaning themselves off it by reducing the dose. I think if I increase the dose I shall just increase the effect it has and it will be harder to come off it, so I'm not going to take any more as I think this drug is dangerous and I'd rather have my pain from my TMJ dysfunction than take this drug. I'll put a post on here now and again to say how I feel, and worryingly some people have had bad symptoms when they stopped taking it, just after taking it for a few days but I shall see how it affects me after taking 10mg a night for 6 nights. I'm not going to cut tablets in half I'm going to just stop taking it and see what happens as I'm definitely finishing with it. I'm so glad I put a search into my computer today and found this site after only taking 10mg a night for 6 nights.
good luck with coming off the amitriptyline Beryl. Hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult after only 6 days. I think you've made the right decision. I took 10mg for two weeks ands found the side effects unbearable and worse than the original fibro pains. It took me six weeks to ween myself off it fully, it will be interesting to know if you notice any withdrawal symptoms after six days.
Hi beryl, this drug is hard to come off so if you can dont take it but you may get withdrawal symptoms even after 6 days, lets hope not. I am currently on a reducing regime which i have failed twice. good look and keep us posted how you have got on xx
Good luck, Beryl. You are doing the right thing coming off and the sooner the better. Hopefully you won't have too many problems coming off but if you do they shouldn't last long.
Let us know how you go.
I have been reading through all the replys on this thread and it seems I may be in the minority with my experience with withdrawing from Amitriptyline. I take at present 10mg of Amitriptyline (I'm on one called Endep) once a day at night, I started on this drug some 20 years back at a 50mg dose. My current GP was not happy with the extended amount of time I have been taking it (it was prescribed by my paedatrician when I was 17 for treatment of a condition I suffer called CVS (cyclical vomiting syndrome) and also to aid sleep) so he reduced me to a 10mg dose immediately basically I finished the last couple of pills in my 50mg packet and began taking the 10mg dose this was approx 6 months ago, I had no extreme adverse reactions as some of you seem to have suffered except that when he reduced my dose my heart rate increased to a higher rate and he then had to place me on Metoprolol (propanalol) which lowered it and sorted out the issue I should point out though that it is actually an issue that comes along with my CVS and one of the main causes of the disorder for me, the other issue I had was interruption of my sleep but that did not last long before my body settled and things righted themself. I am currently still on the 10mg dose and not sure I want to come completely off this medication for the simple fact that I'm a little worried about my CVS flaring up again, it wasn't pretty the first time around and I really don't want a repeat preformance. I wonder if the affects alot of you are experiencing upon trying to withdraw are infact the conditions you are treating using Amitriptyline flaring up and causing your horrible reactions. Along with Amitriptyline and Metoprolol I currently take Vitamin D and medication for Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) aswell. I wish you all the best of luck in withdrawing hope it gets easier for you.
Hi becky i take amitriptyline for nerve problems in my lower back. the symptoms i experience on withdrawal are nausea, headache, abdominal cramps, eye pain, sweating and shivers and all over aches, these are nothing like what i have ever experienced before. the nerve pain i had just affects my skin on my legs and lower back it is like a wet feeling and coldness. im glad you have been ok, i understand your concerns re your symptoms returning but, amitriptyline does cause kidney problems in the long run. also it is not really ment to be used long term, i have read research that links it to dementia however, they link everything to dementia now lol. x
Amanda,
How is your withdrawal coming? I have dropped to 10 mg of Nortriptyline from 12.5 mg over a month ago and three weeks ago debilitating acid reflux, nausea, burning in upper abdomen started with all kinds of gastritis sx. I'm worried that I'm damaged for life. My doc said I might have to go back up on the dosage. He put me on Nexium but nothing seems to be helping.
I hope you are better and I hope to hear from you!
Hey Tom.
Are you fully recuperated as far as your abdomen goes now? I have been living a nightmare after going down to 10 mg of nortriptyline. Any stomach sx you can imagine, but the worst is nausea, followed by acid burning.
Pls let me know how you are. Thank you!
hi Fussyfussy, im ok i have dropped to 6mg but have started with headache which paracetamol is not taking the pain away. I believe this to be a withdrawal headache as,i do not get headaches. If you have read my other posts you will see i have had 2 failed attempts to come off ami. My first attempts i cut from 10mg to 5mg and on day 3 suffered horrendous gastro withdrawal symptoms and headaches, nausea, cramps , belching, acid yuk it was not nice. i will have to go through withdrawal but, by tapering slowly i hope to minimise this x
Good to hear you are OK. Thank you for responding.
Headaches will cease. It happened to me before. I hope you can get off very very slowly with minimal withdrawal this time.
May I ask how long you put up with the withdrawal sx after getting hit on the 3rd day with them in your previous attempts? Did you wait for a few days before you went up the dose or longer to see if it settled?
Thanks a lot 
Hi fussy fussy, on my first reducing regime i went from 10mg to 5mg on day 3 i woke with awful pains , nausesa, headache , eye ache cramps everything. i rang my gp and he said go back up to 10mg i did and it took 8 days or so to feel fullynormal again with no symptoms. the second attempt i went to 7.5mg and 10mg alternate days for 12 days no symptoms then went to 7.5mg every day on day 2 had abdominal cramps and bloating but no other symptoms. the symptoms remained this way for 5 days then all ok. i stayed on 7.5mg for 15 days then did 7.5mg for 2 days and 5mg then 7.5mg for 2 days then 5mgs then alternate days again day 3 bad abdominal cramps, bloated, belching, pains in back and abdomen. i felt bad but again went back to 10mgfor 1 week then all back to normal. i then after 7 days got liquid amitriptyline and reduced by 1mg on 30th march. i have reduced a little slower and sometimes by 0.5mg. i am currently on 5.5mg day 2 and apart from the odd headache no other withdrawal symptoms. i will stay on 5mg for several weeks before my final decent to 0. i have onlt been on the drug for 17 month i must be sensitive too it lol . i will continue to post and keep people updated.
Hi Amanda, Rose and everyone,
I'm busy doing all of the last minute stuff before heading o/s for 4.5 months. Still happily stable on 17.5mg and due to cut to 15mg in about 2 weeks.
Just thought I'd let you know that I'm still here. Hang in there everyone.
Hi, Just an update i am now on 5mg of ami. i was worried the drop from 7.5mg to 5mg in 30 days would be too quick but all ok. I say all ok apart from the odd headache and a weird dizzy sensation i had twice last week. As the Amitriptyline liquid only lasts one month from opening, i will stay at 5mg tab for 3 or 4 weeks to allow my brain chemicals tp adjust then get another script for the liquid before i commence my final drop to 0 x
Well done. 5mg and going strong. We don't might the odd withdrawal
symptom it's just the debilitating ones we want to avoid ☺. I arrived
in Munich yesterday after 30 hours of flying and very little sleep. It's
now 4am and I'm awake and tired. Hoping to get back to sleep soon.
I'm still on 17.5mg and due to jump down to 15mg in on Wed but
I might stretch it out for a few more days while I'm on the move and
still jetlagged. I'll have 16 days in the one place as of the 29th May
so might cut it down then.
Glad to hear that you are doing well. I'm looking forward to my next
reduction.
Hey Amanda.
Thanks for the update.
That's great news! I'm assuming you'll go to 2.5 mg first? I do hope you do.
Keep us updated.
Asli
Oh, one more thing, did you not have ANY GI sx this time like nausea, bloating, etc?
Hi Fussyfussy , i think i will go to 4mg i think the 1mg drop is best for me as i have had no withdrawal symptoms apart from odd headache no GI problems. i cannot tell you how happy i am as i was dreading trying to reduce.
Hi Amanda ,
How are you doing? I've had 4 nights on 15mg and going ok. Sleeping well and feeling ok. Lots of pain from my spine though but that's pretty normal for it to get worse when I'm travelling.
Hi Sheena, im doing ok still on 5mg, i think i will stay here for another couple of weeks as i have been having headaches and dont normally. It may just be that i am thinking about it too much. I have a friend who has been taking 10mg for the last 3 years and reduced and came off with no withdrawal symptoms in one week. I am happy for him but am amazed that some people have no symptoms and myself have had awful withdrawal when i tried to reduce before. Glad all going ok for you on 15mg. We will do this as i am not going back. speak soon. x
Hi Amanda,
Consolidating on 5mg for a while sounds like our a
good idea. I've no idea why some people go through the wars and
others sail through getting off this medication. It proves that we are
all different in our chemical make-up.
My main fear is never sleeping properly again. I've had 2 bad sleeps
in a row now but they were warm, still nights and I've got a couple of
itchy mosquito bites so I'm hoping that's what's been waking me up
through the night. My general body pain is worse too but I had an
excellent physio/massage today so that should help me sleep
tonight.