elavil withdrawel

[mjcal]

i'm trying to get of elavil which i have been on for 15 years. it has been 4 months now and i'm still sick. lost 40 lbs, stomach problems, tired, flu like symptoms, can't sleep. does anyone know how long this will go on?

[ggreg]

Yes, Mary, don't go back to fooling with tapering.  You're off it now, so just keep hanging in.  Could be you're a little low on various nutrition numbers, so obviously eat good foods and all that.  And as I said, you may indeed have a little cold going, to complicate everything.  Gosh, I hate it that you've had what I KNOW are tough withdrawal things for SO long.  GG  

[mjcal]

thank you so much for all your help regarding my problem. i guess the mistake i made was to just stop taking it all together. i didn't tapper off. Since i haven't taken in 4 months i should just keep waiting and not start it again and tapper the proper way or do you think i should. the dr seems to think elavil withdrawal is a few weeks at most.not too sure he know what he is talking about. thank you, i do take the melatonin at night, it lasts 3 hours then i take another. i guess i'll just keep hanging in until this stops hopefully soon before i get much thinner. thanks again for your reply. Maryann

[ggreg]

Well, frst of all, it takes a long time to get off a drug like Elavil.  Secondly, it is very hard on a person because of the severe withdrawal symptoms.  Therefore, one must gradually taper by some method, either from your doctor or some other source, like websites for how to withdraw.  It just so happens I had to get off a difficult antidepressant SSRI one time, and so I found a method that worked for me, but it took about three months.  So, let me tell you what I did, and hopefully you can modify what you're doing for better success.  Also, keep in mind, once you get all the way off a drug like Elavil, it takes another month to really feel "normal" again, on account of withdrawals really slam a person to where they are exhausted when done.

I got my method off some website I've forgotten, it made sense to me, so I used it successfully to get off two diff drugs.  Obviously you cut doses by small increments, like if you take three pills a day, you cut perhaps 1/4 or 1/2 of ONE pill (not all three).  Stay on that lowered dose until you feel much better, usually about three or four days.  You go by how well you feel as to how long to wait until the next taper.  Then cut the same amount again, wait until you feel regular, and cut again.  As you get down to, say, a part of one remaining pill, thngs get much harder.  This is because you have been stressed from the steady lowering of dose to where it's taking longer to get over any cut, taking sometmes as long as a week to where you can stand to cut it again.  When you're finally off the drug, keep in mind you will feel the withdrawal for the same amount of time as the last cut, and THEN you will just plain be exhausted for a few weeks after that.  But the day WILL come when you KNOW you are done with the medicine.

So, in general, it takes a long time, it wears you out, seems like you'll never finish months of tapering.  It takes at least a couple weeks just to get off one pill.  So, you're at four months, and I do think that's rather a long time, but I don't know how you're tapering, but you could try the method I've given.  In a nutshell, you cut an amount, stay on that reduced dose until you feel "normal," and then keep cutting until you're off, and remember it takes a few weeks after that to really get over it.  To help you sleep, Melatonin, a natural substance the body makes when it is exposed to sunlight, is at health food stores in pill form.  It is safe to use each night before bedtime and should knock you right out.  Sleep and drinking extra water are the keys to tapering off a medicine in general, eating enough proteins, and in general distracting yourself from all the "incoming" shelling your mind and body go through.

Let us know how you're doing.  And you know what, if you have a fever, you just MAY have a cold, especially since withdrawing reduces a person's ability to fight off various infections.