Elavil withdrawal?

[Steph4302]

Hi. I'm a 24 year old female, on Elavil for the past 18 months. Started at 10 mg, increased to 75 mg over time. Originally prescribed to help me sleep and help with my GAD. It helped at first but lost its effectiveness even after increasing the dosage. Panic attacks started while on the Elavil leading my doc and I to believe it is not helping the anxiety. Doc prescribed 1 mg Ativan to take on nights when I must get a good night's rest. It is working wonders for me. I've been told to taper off of the Elavil over a 2 week period but I've been dragging it out a little more to make sure I do not receive any WD symptoms. I have not taken any Elavil for the past 48 hours and am now feeling nauseous, shaky, irritable, and uneasy. Is it possible that these are WD symptoms? Or maybe just my regular anxiety? Even though I have no reason to be anxious, it's a saturday night! Any comments or experiences appreciated :)

[mehrdadlove]

1
Hi, I'm 50 year old male! I have OCD and I'm on 25 mg Elavil each day for my depression & anxiety! After for pass 8 months my depression better BUT I starting Phobia/Anxiety Attacks!

Some body knows if it caused a side effect of Elavil?

My doctor wants to stop Elavil and give me Zolot to start!

Any comments or experiences appreciated,

[Paxiled]

Believe me, I do understand.  I haven't been able to sleep properly for years now because of the effects of medication.  But the key is, since sleep meds interfere with normal patterns of sleep, they make the problem permanent, particularly the difficulty getting to REM sleep.  Everyone has to do what they feel is best, and I know natural remedies won't work for everyone.  Neither will meds.  And both will probably peter out over the long term since none of them except perhaps melatonin and tryptophan, because they're natural to the body, was ever intended for the long term.  I don't have the answer, particularly in your case; I simply urge caution because docs are so quick to slap a pill on everything even when the pill in question, like Seroquel, was never tested nor approved for the purpose for which it's being used but was illegally advertised for it, and a lot of people have suffered for this.  So again, a severe intractible case such as yours or mine might require severe methods, but most people will be harmed, not helped, by this approach.  Hope you solve your underlying problem.

[liloleme1]

The thing that absolutely drives me nuts is that people who either never have truly suffered from insomnia or have never gotten to the point where you are desperate to get an hour of not thinking state that you should try a natural remedy for sleeping.  I am pretty sure I can speak for any true insomniac when I state that you start out with the natural remedies (St. John's Wart, Melatonin, Valerian and the other "natural" things that may work for some of us but are an epic fail for others) then we move on to the tried and true diphenhydramine.  Most normal people start with the OTC's don't you think?  Then you when you get desperate enough you go to the doctor.  From there it is Ambien, Sonato, Ambien CR and what not.  They gradually no longer work.  So that is when you get to trip into the lovely world of what the heck else your doctor might prescribe simply because you are at wit's flipping end to sleep.  So the fact that you are taking a psychiatric is really irrelevant.  What is relevant is if it makes you sleep.  THIS is where you get to the Elavil, Benzo's, Trazadone, Seroquel and even mixing them because just like all the lovely anti-depressants out there you are mixing trying to get a result.  If you are depressed and have anxiety you want to be rid of it.  If you can't sleep without assistance you not only are sleep free but you also proceed to lose your mind.  The anxiousness I feel going on day 4 with no med's and no sleep could surely not be any worse than any other thing out there.  Add that to the depression, the aggression and just the sheer thought of what on earth you are going to do when these pills don't work or even worse when your cocktail from hades works too well and you end up dead.  Let me tell you at that point you no longer care if you sleep or you get sedated.  

[Paxiled]

Yeah, common withdrawal, but usually with ssris.  Tricyclics can also be difficult to withdraw from, though to a lesser extent than ssris and snris.  If it's not tolerable, tell your doctor you want to taper more slowly.  Just a reminder -- neither ativan nor elavil is for sleep.  There are so many stories on here of people being put on these strong drugs for sleep problems; they should be handled with remedies, hopefully natural, that are actually designed to help people sleep -- sedation isn't the same as helping somebody sleep naturally.  It's also possible elavil caused your anxiety to increase -- although ssris and tricyclics can be good for anxiety, they can also cause it.  Now, it might be helpful for GAD, but not sleep -- eventually, these things usually interfere with sleep.  Two separate problems.