Coming off Medication to 'reset'

[hope23]

Hey Team, just wanting some thoughts and opinions.
Before i make any changes to medications this is always discussed with my doctor and we work through the process together.

More looking as to whether anyone has experienced or tried this.

So when i started the amitriptiline in december 2021, once we got up to 75mg i noticed a marked change in my symptoms(they were not worsening and the rollercoaster had slowed) we went to 100 and the reduction in my symptoms felt like a miracle, i had pain medication free days!!!

So i had a flare up about 6months after this(which at the moment my flare ups start with a throatful of ulcers ) since that flare up(6months now) i have had two other ulcer outbreaks.

My questions here is has anyone weaned off a medication in order to restart fresh like hitting the reset button and the medication (hopefully) will work again as it had prior?

Again i never make changes to my medications without it being fully discussed with docs just wonder if anyone has tried this or thoughts and ideas?

 

[cookiebaker]

cant say i have ever done that with going back to the same medication - but if your doctor is amenable, it is certainly worth a shot.

I would think you would probably want to be off if completely for at least a month tho, to glean any potential benefit.

 

[hope23]

I would think you would probably want to be off if completely for at least a month tho, to glean any potential bebenefit.

I would say you are right, and potentially longer depending on how long the medication takes to work its way completely out of your system as well. It is highly likely i will get worse/have another flare up but i guess i am wondering if the 'reset' is needed as when i had the flare up the medication had been working wonderfully but i really havent gotten back to that point with the two other occurrences since june 2022

 

[cookiebaker]

yeah, meds can be interesting.
for me, most either did nothing noticeable, or had adverse side effects, so i am not a good candidate..

even the L. D. naltrexone is not doing much at this point (on 4.5 mg currently - for about 2 months now) seemed to be helping the pins & needles in the legs for a little while, but now, not so much.
waiting on labs next week, and may bump it up to 6 mg, see if that helps any - but not sure i want to go much higher than that.

 

[Harpy]

Hi hope23,
Yes I have it was probably 5/6 years ago I have mentioned it on another chat here but can’t remember which one, ( meds have give me bad short term memory loss)
I asked my gp for a referral to see a pain specialist ( one I had seen before) was the worse 7 months, it was hell , but a few months after that I started back on low dose meds and will never “up” a dose again.
I too take amytriptaline 75 mg but honestly I can’t tell if I have taken them or not, they do nothing for me . So I stopped taking them almost 2weeks ago. I have also stopped my norgesic 200 mg. ( month ago) I still have a few others I am stopping, but will wait till I see my gp on the best way to do them, I am over the pills/ the pain and misery. But I am going to keep my mm oil, I see the dr for that next month. I want that upped and want it in capsules not oil.
Good luck hope you have good transition off it.

 

[hope23]

Im lucky that i have suffered very few sides effects medication wise the only two were gabapentin and that was due to taking them in the morning rather than night, the other was venlafaxine which caused a blood pressure issue where basically my blood pressure would plummet and i would pass out for split seconds, oddly enough this only happened when driving in the morning(i did a 45min commute), so that was pretty scary and i no longer take either of those. The amitriptyline was incredibly effective for me for the first 6 months, i did get a dry mouth and some weight gain with it however as it was so effective it was the lesser of two evils as it were.

I guess theres also the fact of it was so effective and reduced almost all of my symptoms so getting back to that level of effectiveness is the aim but i also have experienced issues prior actually with contraceptive pills that after taking them for 6-8 months they were no longer effective at controlling my period.

 

[JamieMarc]

This is a little off topic but since amitriptyline is being discussed here I thought I would ask. Does anyone here experience very disturbing dreams with amitriptyline or any other antidepressants? I have found that all of the antidepressants I have used give me extremely disturbing dreams, so disturbing in fact that I sometimes feel suicidal in the morning until the feeling wears off after about 30 to 40 minutes. It is the one serious side effect that I hate so much. I am on 50 mg amitriptyline right now. I started at 25 mg. Also, depending on the experience of others here, does a higher dose of amitriptyline stop the disturbing dreams? I have an appointment in a couple days with my mental health doctor and I don't know whether to discuss increasing my dose or just keeping it as is. It is prescribed for MDD but I chose amitriptyline because of it's potential for pain relief as well with my fibromyalgia. Any shared experiences would be most helpful. Thank you everyone.

 

[Harpy]

No I never experienced dreams on amytriptaline. That would be a frightening experience. Have they always caused dreams? Maybe ask ya doctor?
Though they never worked for me , I suppose I’d have to sleep to dream .
I only have them for sleep , I won’t take antidepressants, I personally know a few people on them for depression and I think they have made them worse, specially if the don’t take them. They keep pushing me to take them , no thanks.

 

[JayCS]

Does anyone here experience very disturbing dreams with amitriptyline or any other antidepressants?

I only got very vivid, weird dreams in the first week or two of using the supp GABA.
Not with amitriptyline, 8-9 side effects, but dreams wasn't one.
But i only took low dose, between 2mg and 30mg, then 2 weeks 10mg followed by several weeks 25mg till my seizures got too much.

 

[cookiebaker]

Does anyone here experience very disturbing dreams with amitriptyline or any other antidepressants?

yes, I did - the dreams were incredibly vivid and started almost immediately
I did not stay on it long.

I think you should talk to your doc about it. There are other options available, perhaps one of those would be better suited for you.

 

[JamieMarc]

Thank you everyone for your feedback on antidepressants and disturbing, vivid dreams. I will take the advice given and speak to my doctor this week. Hugs!

 

[sunkacola]

This is a little off topic but since amitriptyline is being discussed here I thought I would ask. Does anyone here experience very disturbing dreams with amitriptyline or any other antidepressants? I have found that all of the antidepressants I have used give me extremely disturbing dreams, so disturbing in fact that I sometimes feel suicidal in the morning until the feeling wears off after about 30 to 40 minutes. It is the one serious side effect that I hate so much. I am on 50 mg amitriptyline right now. I started at 25 mg. Also, depending on the experience of others here, does a higher dose of amitriptyline stop the disturbing dreams? I have an appointment in a couple days with my mental health doctor and I don't know whether to discuss increasing my dose or just keeping it as is. It is prescribed for MDD but I chose amitriptyline because of it's potential for pain relief as well with my fibromyalgia. Any shared experiences would be most helpful. Thank you everyone.

Some, if not all, SSRI medication can cause suicidal thought s, terrible dreams or insomnia, or other such psychological issues in some people. Standard side effect. Taking more of the drug causing this is guaranteed to make it worse, not better. It is generally advisable that if a drug is causing you bad side effects, especially if they are affecting your mental health in a negative way, you are better off without that drug.

 

[cookiebaker]

Some, if not all, SSRI medication can cause suicidal thought s, terrible dreams or insomnia, or other such psychological issues in some people. Standard side effect. Taking more of the drug causing this is guaranteed to make it worse, not better. It is generally advisable that if a drug is causing you bad side effects, especially if they are affecting your mental health in a negative way, you are better off without that drug.

Amitriptyline is a tricyclic, not an SSRI, but yeah.. many anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drugs have similar side effects, regardless of which class they belong to.

Thank you everyone for your feedback on antidepressants and disturbing, vivid dreams. I will take the advice given and speak to my doctor this week. Hugs!

Hope you and your doc can find something else that works for you with fewer side effects. Best Wishes!

 

[sunkacola]

Amitriptyline is a tricyclic, not an SSRI, but yeah.. many anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drugs have similar side effects, regardless of which class they belong to.

Oh heavens, I know that. I will blame brain fog for making me write the wrong thing.
Thanks very much for the correction, cookiebaker. Very important to get it right.

 

[JamieMarc]

It doesn't matter what type (SSRI, tricyclic, etc)...I always have the same side effect of disturbing dreams. Just finished up my visit with my mental health doc. Really nothing to be done unless I want to discontinue antidepressants. That's not an option as I tried before under my doctor's supervision and my MDD came raging back. As with any drug, you must weigh the side effects vs the benefits. In this case, I have decided that the benefit is much greater than the side effect. The important thing is that I know how to cope with the side effect, and it is very short-lived at 30-40 minutes per day when I wake up. Thank you everyone. I was most curious if it was a common side effect, but it seems not. I can live with it. Hugs to all!