Like Hamster, I found Elavil to be enormously helpful. I got put on it way, way back when it was still a drug of first choice by docs, especially for persons with combined anxiety and depression. Many, many years later, I am still on it. I owe a lot of the improved quality of my life to this drug. I take 50 mg each night about 4 hours before I want to fall asleep.

Doctors are not crazy about ordering Elavil because it's side effect profile is not real benign. But I've been tried on just about everything else that you can think of, and I do mean everything. Nothing else does me as good. (Benzo's are kind of nice, but they're not a good long term solution, as you have found out.)

An antidepressant with similar sleep inducing properties is Mirtazapine, which doctors are much more comfortable with prescribing. It worked similar to Elavil for me, but gave me very vivid dreams that I didn't like having.

Periodically, studies upon studies keep showing that nothing has ever been invented for depression that is better than Elavil . . . or even as good. SSRIs are currently being considered not as effective as they were thought to be when they were new. I got no benefit whatsoever from SSRIs.

Big Pharma doesn't encourage docs to order Elavil because it is now cheap as dirt, and there is so much more money to be made pushing other products.

With tricyclics, you have to start at a low dose (like 10 mg per day) and titrate up gradually, or you can end up with some awful "paresthesias," which are very uncomfortable feelings like bugs in your legs and need to keep moving around. Introduced gradually, though, this doesn't have to be a problem for most people. They are also very constipating, so I recommend taking a stool softener or Miralax with Elavil. Also, tricyclics dry out your mouth, which can be greatly helped by taking Bethanechol.

I've taken Nortriptyline, another tricyclic, which worked very similar to Elavil. But it's more expensive.

I still don't sleep completely normally, but decent enough to have a normal life, which was impossible before I went on Elavil. This drug dramatically changed my life. I couldn't hold a job, or stay in school, until I went on it. Then I could. That's a lot to say for a drug.

Also, Elavil made me physically stronger. I found that out riding my bicycle. I could go further up a steep hill without having to walk the bike when I was on Elavil, as opposed to not on it. I read it enhances how the muscles use oxygen.