DOSE:	300 mg	oral	Pharms - Amitriptyline	(daily)
	300 mg	oral	Pharms - Venlafaxine	(daily)
		oral	Diphenhydramine

BODY WEIGHT:

200 lb

I was prescribed amitriptyline for sleep, in addition to venlafaxine for depression. I initially started with 50 mg Amitriptyline and 150 venlafaxine. I am a middle aged, obese woman with severe depression, some anxiety and life-long insomnia. The initial doses were not enough, and my doctor kept upping them until finally, I was taking 300 mg of each. Yes. THREE HUNDRED mg of Amitriptyline daily. And when that wasn't putting me to sleep, I upped the dose on my own - I was probably taking something closer to 500 mg a night for three weeks, then dipenhydramine in huge amounts for the last week because the pharmacies wouldn't refill the amitriptyline early, but diphenhydramine is OTC and very cheap.

Amitriptyline was one of the first meds that I found that actually put me to sleep. I have tried everything - Seroquel, trazadone, temazapam... I tried benzos, anti-depressants, and wonder drugs like zopiclone/imovane. The zopiclone was absolutely fantastic, but the experiences I had while on it could fill another whole page, under the zopiclone substance page. Amitriptyline was what we settled on, and for a year, I cycled the amitriptyline with dipenhydramine to get some sleep .

Since that time, I have been told that the dosage of amitriptyline was enough to sedate a horse - which is kind of what was happening to me. I started out at about 200 pounds. Way too heavy for my small frame - I know that. My weight is a contributing factor to my depression - I don't like myself at this size. But the amitriptyline caused weight gain. A lot of weight gain. In those 12 months, I gained over 120 pounds. I felt completely out of control of my eating habits, and as the weight kept coming, my activity level dropped. At 320 lbs (and 5'2'), even wiping my own ass was difficult. I couldn't cross the street without pain and breathing issues. I seriously hoped that the dangerous game I was playing with my meds would just kill me in my sleep, but I was never that lucky.

Finally, I saw a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and my meds were reviewed. I was taken off the amitriptyline and put on zopiclone - and within the first six months, eighty pounds fell off me with no effort at all. Obviously, I am still morbidly obese at 240 lbs, but at least I am mobile!! I am going through the steps necessary to qualify for bariatric surgery because again - my size is a contributing factor to my depression. But in the year and a half to two years since I took my last amitriptyline, I have worked on my depression to the point where now, I am not taking any antidepressants at all. I am not out of the woods yet though - insomnia is kicking my ass and I am still playing dangerous games with diphenhydramine (going through 100 tablets in 2 to 3 nights. I take up to 50 pills of 50 mg a night). I am not a sane person - I am playing with fire, I know. But I feel so much better about myself now that I have eliminated the amitriptyline and venlafaxine from my life.

I have to disclose that I have been hospitalized for overdoses of both dipenhydramine (36 pills at one time - which is why I now split the dosage over a few hours) and zopiclone (three times - the first time, I had taken 8 pills. The second time, I think it was over 20 pills and the third time - they say I consumed 86 pills in three days but they didn't know about the other prescription for 60 pills that I also filled that week). Since zopiclone completely destroys my memory, I really can't say how many I took, nor can I tell you what happened to me. I just know I went to the ER - and I lost four days of my life that time. I was awake, functional, even quite articulate in a few emails I found after the fact...but I have no memory after the 2nd or 3rd dose above the prescribed amount, (prescribed 2 x 5mg and I would take 6 or 8 pills) - I didn't fall asleep, so I can only assume that I continued taking small doses of 2 or 4 and not sleeping... which meant I would take 2 or 4 more - I have no idea if there was 5 minutes between doses or 5 hours. (I have no memory at all)

Amitriptyline caused severe weight gain.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 100083
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 42
Published: Jan 19, 2020	Views: 1,156
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Pharms - Amitriptyline (165) : Depression (15), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Medical Use (47), Not Applicable (38)