Crispy, I was also taking 5mg escitalopram and it made me feel really terrible. Obviously everyone reacts very differently to medication but if you happen to react very badly to escitalopram, it is going to have a drag effect and make your overall symptoms seem much worse. I noticed that it has a very narrow band of dosage ie 5mg to 20mg think. Escitalopram is prescribed mostly for depression but it is often used to treat (or perhaps I should say mask) menopause symptoms which is rather strange because I found it caused excess sweating and made me feel 'tinny' and' hollow' sorry, it's difficult to describe!
Amitriptyline treats a wider range of conditions and works in a different way ie it's an old fashioned TCA. The dosage range is huge (10mg - 200mg I think) and it is not only used to treat depression. At lower doses it acts as a kind of body regulator and successfully treats IBS-C, prevents all types of migraine, relieves pain and as an added bonus I have found it regulates spiking blood pressure. Even at lower doses, it can help borderline anxiety and depression but I was initially attracted to it because it works particularly well on cortical spreading depression (CSD) which causes my migraine auras - in some people, CSD can cause odd muscle twitches, numbness, crashing mood, sudden extreme fatigue and weird creeping body sensations.
I deeply regret allowing myself to being scared off ADs. I didn't realise that at a low dose, they prevent migraines and so much more.