Increased anxiety / Anyone on Amitriptyline

[maria111111]

Hi all,
I’m 17 days in on Amitriptyline (100 mg 2 weeks and 150 mg 2 days) for anxiety and I’m so anxious: Anxious it’ll not help. Anxious about the side effects (some nausea, increased anxiety and a lot of grogginess - the latter went away after a week on 100 mg) and anxious as I can’t find anything about being more anxious when starting Amitriptyline.

Anyone out there on this medication for depression/anxiety?

I’m on it for back pain.
10mg at night
I get awful nightmares if I go up to 20mg

I’m not a fan of it but it does help.

I’m on 10mg for nerve pain. You will sleep very well on 100mg! Wake up very groggy though.

Did they start you off on that dose? Jesus wept, I'm not surprised you feel a bit shit, it's not one to fuck around with. Normally they start you on 10mg and build it up. Your anxiety will settle but it takes a good 12 weeks to really get used to it. Expect killer dry mouth. Honestly though I'd just push through now rather than try to scale it back, you've already done a couple of weeks.

I've been on it a couple of years now. The dizziness and dry mouth comes back when you change dose but not for too long. You will sleep well too.

@thesnapandfartisinfallible Thank you so much. Did you have increased anxiety when starting up and/or nausea? Did it take you 12 weeks to feel better? x

Yeah, the depression it started helping straight away but anxiety was out of control those first few weeks. Started settling around the 6 week mark but really feeling the benefit was more like 3 months. You started at a high dose though, it might be faster for you. I didn't get any side effects really apart from dizziness and dry mouth. If you don't have any heart or breathing problems then perhaps ask your GP for propranolol? That stops the physical effects of anxiety and really helped me a lot. Give it a chance. Most people give up on it because of the side effects but if you can stick it out until they subside, it's a very powerful antidepressant. That's why they don't often prescribe it, is it's not widely tolerated. Bit of a sledgehammer approach.

@thesnapandfartisinfallible I’m glad you’re telling me that you had increased anxiety. I do too, badly!

I take 75mg a night (for pain) as well as diazepam and a few others bits....
The amitriptyline never caused/worsened anxiety with me, although we’re all different. I do remember for the first few weeks feeling like a zombie every morning and ‘zoning out’ a lot. It doesn’t cause me any problems now though.