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Withdrawal Time Frame


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#1 NYMAN

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    I am having bad symptoms. I am scared.

Posted 07 October 2009 - 03:31 PM

Hi, folks:

I should have asked this from the get-go:

How long does it take for the Cymbalta to work its way out of your system? In other words, how long will this withdrawal last, assuming this is the reason for my symtoms?? It must vary from person to person, but whats a roundabout timeframe? 1 week? 2 weeks?

Whats the absolute longest??

Thanks

#2 barney59

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    I have been on Cymbalta for several years and my doctor started weening me off 3 wks ago. I am now having symptoms that I don't understand

Posted 07 October 2009 - 04:20 PM

Nyman,

See my post to you under Cumbalta withdrawal...or something worse.

B

#3 barney59

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    I have been on Cymbalta for several years and my doctor started weening me off 3 wks ago. I am now having symptoms that I don't understand

Posted 07 October 2009 - 04:21 PM

SORRY FOR THE MISSPELLING.....

B

#4 nursedeborah

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    I am reallly trying to get off Cymbalta, and not having, well I am having nightmares even with the decreased does, and clanging in my head.

    I just found this site, and I really need help, I can't do this, I fear I willl never get off this brutal medication.

    Deboreah Wesson

Posted 08 October 2009 - 12:05 PM

NYMAN,
Everyone is different, but if you willl read lots of posts you will find that this can take a very
long time for some people to get off of the drug, and also a long time to still have withdrawl
symptoms.

From what I have read it can go anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. This is a horrible drug,
and has done damage to so many people.

Are you still on it? How long? What dose?

You can get off this drug, and do it at your own pace. Doctors do not know about the side effects
or how brutal the withdrawls are, that's why this place saved m y life.

Let me know how your doing?

Debbie

#5 mysticcherokee

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    I tried to commit suicide obviously unsuccessfully, shortly beofre starting a New doctor taperd from this drug, (just jumped off) and Ive strong feelings about it.

Posted 11 October 2009 - 10:32 AM

Oh Deborah, Im HOPING! Its been a little less than 5 weeks. Im SOOooooo frightened! Ive lost the ability to judge lapsed time, big time. Yesterdays events seem much longer(I was in Walmart, l{No The LOCAL store, "Sweetbay", this is how my thought process goes......} yesterday, but it seems much LONGER, lapsed time) and so it goes.Severe judgement of duration, impairment! Is it permanent? Do I have early onset Alzheimers. Im waiting to be diagnosed (seems like it taking FOREVER (Everything does!), did I say Im frightened.
My brain was hurting during Cymbalta withdrawal, still does to a lesser degree, (and the pressure headaches!!!!) was hell on earth and I had, yes many various and sundry other symptoms.Surely a person presenting with more underlying conditions would need Inpatient, and as a matter of fact I recommend it, if it can be had. Went to ER for brain hurting. Cat scan said accelerated brain atrophy(chronic pain{physical or emotional} can do it, or chronic pain meds, or chronic alchohol, lots of other stuff), and Id been off about ten days. The impairment of measuring(cognitively) lapsed time has gotten pretty bad. For a while I couldnt retrace steps if Id lost something, Like what I did with package from WAlmart. Absolutely could not back track, with my mind. I hope I dont have ANY permanent damage, and clarity returns. For now the fibro fog(Fibromyalgia) would be most welcome compared to this "twilight."Anybody have similar experience, as Ive described, please respond. I FEEL SO UTTERLY ALONE! Mystic ( not so much anymore)

#6 barney59

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    I have been on Cymbalta for several years and my doctor started weening me off 3 wks ago. I am now having symptoms that I don't understand

Posted 11 October 2009 - 12:43 PM

mystic,

I'm right there with you. Not so much w/ time duration, but I don't feel like my brain can keep up with my thoughts or actions. I talk slower cause I can't get my thoughts into words and my writing has changed. Again can't seem to get my brain to tell my hands what to do. I'm into week 3 off cymbalta. Brain zaps are better, but everything else is still with me. What worries me is that my brain still feels drugged. I also worry if there is some permanent damage that this drug did to me. I too have Fibro, and would also welcome that fog as to what I'm going thru now. I actually think now that most of the problems that I attributed to Fibro are from this drug. It really messes with your brain and who you are. I hope the real me emerges soon. I see my family slowly creeping away from this person the drug turned me into. Please know that you are NOT ALONE! As you can tell from this board, there are alot of us out there going thru this hell. We all have good days & bad, but with the support of all of us, we will get thru it and be better for it!! Stay strong....

B

#7 mysticcherokee

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Posted 11 October 2009 - 02:05 PM

mystic,

I'm right there with you. Not so much w/ time duration, but I don't feel like my brain can keep up with my thoughts or actions. I talk slower cause I can't get my thoughts into words and my writing has changed. Again can't seem to get my brain to tell my hands what to do. I'm into week 3 off cymbalta. Brain zaps are better, but everything else is still with me. What worries me is that my brain still feels drugged. I also worry if there is some permanent damage that this drug did to me. I too have Fibro, and would also welcome that fog as to what I'm going thru now. I actually think now that most of the problems that I attributed to Fibro are from this drug. It really messes with your brain and who you are. I hope the real me emerges soon. I see my family slowly creeping away from this person the drug turned me into. Please know that you are NOT ALONE! As you can tell from this board, there are alot of us out there going thru this hell. We all have good days & bad, but with the support of all of us, we will get thru it and be better for it!! Stay strong....

B


Barney, Wow, thanks! For some reason Im thinking that youll be okay. If your impairment is getting better, even a little, minus the atrophy theres hope. Heck, WITH the atrophy im hoping there is hope. I knock things over constantly, it seems, but I was always a clutz, just not like this. With the fibro Ive always had to search for words, ergo a good vocabulary, words that can be substituted(fms), probably. I too alienated my family,(all two of them, a boy and a man) and if these two can forgive me, YOU CAN BE! WILL BE, NO DOUBT. Time, as long as we have it, cool beans, eh! This has truly opened my eyes about the "small stuff." Its ALL small stuff, it seems now. I tried Savella, and IT brought the withdrawals back. I was able to take it and Elavil(third time for latter) for only five days. Both these brought on a depression, and suicidal ideation. Cymbalta brought on the ideation, a car wreck, a trip to the local mental ward(I called for transport) and 75 valium down my throat to put a final end to everybodys misery last June. In hindsight the Cymbalta gave me "permission" to take a step that otherwise I think is "just crazy." I hope Im alone in that, and in an ideal world none ...of this........would happen to any of us. Sad really, we are so very sick from the fibro and then this. Yes Ive tried Lyrica to no avail as well. It ALL has side effects and doesnt work for me, none of it. You must also be in a quandry, and Im so sorry for your plight as well. So, thank you in that I dont feel so alone, but I dont want you to be hurtin. Itll get better Barney,its gotta! Tho Im skeert to take ANY OTHER MEDS, Im experimenting with supplements. Vit E 2000mg, Gingko, 5 htp, dhea, milk thistle, garlic, and some other stuff. Warning, dont do this: Took some anti-oxidant while on taper and it set me back into withdrawal hell by pulling the cymbalta faster from my system than au natural (NOTHER BIG MISTAKE!)Im so glad to have found a place to post about the two most important thing in the world, it seems: getting better amidst those that understand and getting Lilly to take save a pound vs. a penney, need be. Thats all this world seems to understand, the almighty pocket menace:) Sad,... truly. Mystic

#8 MaureenV

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    Am trying to get off Cymbalta 30mg and wondering about brain zaps.

Posted 11 October 2009 - 03:32 PM

For a while I couldnt retrace steps if Id lost something, Like what I did with package from WAlmart. Absolutely could not back track, with my mind. Mystic



Oh Boy does that ring a bell. I'm down to the most ridiculously small amount now (5mg) and tried dropping it altogether at 10mg, but by the third day (which was a Monday) the brain zaps combined with an inability to get my head out from under the goldfish bowl it seemed to be in obliged me to go back on in order to function work wise.


As well as my keys (twice), one of which I'd only put down a minute beforehand, I 'lost' several pieces of paper that day - absolutely no idea where I'd put them, sometimes only a minute or so beforehand; made so many mistakes with my work etc etc.

All I can say is my experience is that on this low dose I feel fully functioning. Seems like whatever dose your brain needs when you're withdrawing, it needs, regardless of how small it is.

kind regards, Maureen.

#9 mysticcherokee

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Posted 11 October 2009 - 04:15 PM

All I can say is my experience is that on this low dose I feel fully functioning. Seems like whatever dose your brain needs when you're withdrawing, it needs, regardless of how small it is.

kind regards, Maureen.





Thanks Maureen, You sound like a hoot(good thing!) and so does your cat "Archie", from another post. Your still tapering, and with any luck your clarity will return. Im here for ya, though Im not feeling all there, yet:) If its two years then it two years, right now Im not choosey, cause Im THAT frightened, and beggin the good Lord above.. Have the best ya can ,week. Ill be postin. Took me a month to get registered unt now I cannot shut up, so it seems, but I must digress, my head really does hurt. Kind regards returned! Mystic

#10 kzep37

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    I have been on Cymbalta on just about a few months and just want some answer on what the heck is going on with my body

Posted 12 October 2009 - 08:06 PM

I guess I have been on it for under 6 months already was on 120mg when I went off it COLD TURKEY!!! and I did and was not told about how DANGEROUS this drug was or could be when I started taking it. But I know now to read up on the drugs my DR might give me from now on. I have nightmares, I have been seeing things, hearing things also cold sweats, feels like I am running a fever, stiffness in joints and muscle that I did not even know I had. My head would itch so bad when I was trying to sleep and just regular old sweating from places that a women should not be ever sweating from, and I do mean ever!!! I have chest pains and headaches and can not use the restroom correctly. This is going on my 2nd week off being off this drug and it is getting better at least I think it is. I had neck surgery a few years ago and so the withdrawl crap is making that area. I just wish there was something I can do to make everything a little bit better will I am going thru all this. And I do wish that other people can learn about this before they start taking this DANGEROUS drug.

#11 freedomseeker

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    getting off of cymbalta and want to talk to others that understand

Posted 14 October 2009 - 09:35 AM

I don't want anyone to feel what I feel but it is helpful to see that others are having a hard time thinking and it's not just me! I can't make a simple decision like how do I get the sprite out of the refidgerator when it is behind something else. Yeah, really, I stuggled with deciding on what was the best way to get it out...very strange. I feel like my brain is numb but at the same time the headaches are so bad it's like nothing I hae ever experienced and I have suffered from "unexplained" headaches for my whole adult life. Does anyone know if this drug causes PERMANANT DAMAGE?? That is what scares me the most. I feel like my brain and my body are deteriorating each day as I become more and more inactive.

I thank God for this forum and all of you. I would go insane going through this alone!

#12 nursedeborah

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    I am reallly trying to get off Cymbalta, and not having, well I am having nightmares even with the decreased does, and clanging in my head.

    I just found this site, and I really need help, I can't do this, I fear I willl never get off this brutal medication.

    Deboreah Wesson

Posted 14 October 2009 - 11:49 AM

Freedom,
God so glad someone is feeling like I do, but also just here to talk to right now. I don't know
what the hell is wrong with me, but all I want to do is nothing. It's just awful as there is nothing
really wrong, but my head won't leave me alone with all the negative crap. That is what's so hard
on me is the mental stuff, yes the pain stuff, and physical is no fun at all, but I so worry what it has
done to me mentally, and wonder if that will ever get any better. I just still have so much of what
it was like before that keeps pulling me down.

I just have to have faith that it will not be like this for any of us forever, and like I was told by
one of the ones who has been off, this happens during the withdrawl process. It juat alll sucks.

Hope your ok, and doing better today.

Debbie

#13 Junior

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Posted 14 October 2009 - 08:52 PM

freedom

I go to a Paxil forum and some of the people there have done a lot of research into withdrawal and are very knowledgeable. From what I can discern from both them and my own knowledge (I have studied to Honours level in psychology), NO, the brain does not suffer permanent damage. The problem is that these drugs down regulate serotonin (Cymbalta also alters norepinephrine) receptors and it can take a long time for them to begin working on their own again. Also, if you alter 1 or 2 neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) it is highly likely that others also change as the brain looks to find a new equilibrium. Therefore, when you come off the drug, they all need to find their new (old?) equilibrium. It is the combination of waiting for the receptors to up-regulate and the other neurotransmitters to find their right levels that causes the withdrawal symptoms.

Some people heal very quickly, others can take more than a year (I have yet to go through this and it scares the life out of me.) but as far as we know, EVERYONE recovers.

Hope that helps :)
Junior

#14 freedomseeker

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Posted 22 October 2009 - 11:20 AM

Thanks so much Junior!! That info is quite helpful and encouraging!! If it helps you at all, I have been off completely since Oct. 5th and I started to feel better this last weekend. Still feel tired, sore, stomach problems, headaches but some of that may be my Fibromyalgia. Mentally I am much better. Don't know if any of you are religious but this experience had brought me even closer to God and He helped me out of my downward mental sprial. Reading my bible helped much!!!

#15 Junior

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Posted 23 October 2009 - 03:46 AM

I'm glad things are improving for you and you are welcome :)

I don't think I fear withdrawal as much as I fear going back to person I was before... it's been 10 yrs since I stopped medication (apart from 3 weeks when I first came off Cymbalta). I'd suffered 5 episodes of depression by the time I was 40 and lived with generalised anxiety for 20 yrs because no one knew what I had. It wasn't in the DSM!! Medication has been a godsend for me and I really don't want to go back...but I may not have a choice *sigh*

Junior

#16 snicklefritz

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    I have been taking Cymbalta for about 4 months, and my blood pressure became quite high. It settled down slightly but now I am trying to stop taking Cymbalta and am down to 20mg. My doctor does not have much experience with this medication and now that I am at 20mg I do not know how to go down further as I understand 20mg is the lowest dose. I am suffering all kinds of wierd effects which I believe from reading here is from the CYmbalta. I really need help in where to go from here.

Posted 23 October 2009 - 09:22 AM

Freedom Seeker, how much were you taking, and how did you get off of it? I am headed for a knee replacement on NOvember 10, and would like to try to be off by then. I was on 60 mg and am now down to 20, minus some of the contents of the capsule.

Thanks in advance
Vanessa

#17 nursedeborah

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    I am reallly trying to get off Cymbalta, and not having, well I am having nightmares even with the decreased does, and clanging in my head.

    I just found this site, and I really need help, I can't do this, I fear I willl never get off this brutal medication.

    Deboreah Wesson

Posted 23 October 2009 - 11:44 AM

Vanessa,
I just left you a post elsewhere. I can't remember what it was under, but it a long reply.
You will find it, just stay put with your dose, you have enough pain, and things to deal
with like the surgery, and after the surgery. Don't add to it all by trying to get off this
crap that fast, you will live to regret it, trust me. It's hard enough doing it at a slow
decrease, let alone, what your trying to do.

Just be gebtle with your mind,and body for right now, and just do onething only:)

Debbie

#18 dotty

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Posted 26 October 2009 - 01:32 PM

This is so scary, I went on vacation and forgot my pills so decided to stop taking them, I was on a low dose so I didn't think anything bad would happen, the brain buzzing is terrible and I feel like I have a cold or allergy, tired and just don't want to do anything, I wonder how long this will last. its been three weeks since I stopped. I don't know if I should go back to the doctor's but I know he will be mad that I stopped without asking, but I really did because I didn't have them with me.
Has anyone else just stopped and what happen after?

#19 MaureenV

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Posted 26 October 2009 - 03:15 PM

Hi Dotty,


what do you call a 'low' dose. Unfortunately there's not really any such concept.

Whatever your brain is used to, it will react from having the drug withdrawn. Yours may react just as badly as someone who's come from a high dose, no one knows.

If you don't want to 'tough it out' you could always start taking some again and taper down more slowly.

There's every chance that even half the dose you were on would be enough to stop the symptoms, as your body has already tried to 'adjust' itself.

You can buy clear gelatine capsules to split the doses. Don't take the beads just on their own.

With your doctor, any doctor who treats their patient with anger is a bad doctor, however I can understand their frustration when patients don't do what they've requested. It DOES say on the information with the drug, not to stop it suddenly.

If I've done something stupid, I find the best approach is to go in and just say as much. I usually find I get a good response from the doctor. They can't expect us to know what they do in the brief time we spend with them. We're allowed to be human and make mistakes, it's just a matter of what to do from there on.

But if you go in admitting your mistake, they SHOULD be able to help you move on from there, not admonish you for something you've already admitted.


cheers, Maureen.

#20 nursedeborah

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    I am reallly trying to get off Cymbalta, and not having, well I am having nightmares even with the decreased does, and clanging in my head.

    I just found this site, and I really need help, I can't do this, I fear I willl never get off this brutal medication.

    Deboreah Wesson

Posted 26 October 2009 - 06:27 PM

This is so scary, I went on vacation and forgot my pills so decided to stop taking them, I was on a low dose so I didn't think anything bad would happen, the brain buzzing is terrible and I feel like I have a cold or allergy, tired and just don't want to do anything, I wonder how long this will last. its been three weeks since I stopped. I don't know if I should go back to the doctor's but I know he will be mad that I stopped without asking, but I really did because I didn't have them with me.
Has anyone else just stopped and what happen after?


Dotty,
Low dose does not tell us much,LOL. So tell us how much you were on. Maureene said it right on
and it doesn't matter how much or how long one has been on this drug, as we are finding that it
still is causing the same problems for someone on it 19 days or 1 years. It is a powerful noxious
drug.

I doubt your doc will be mad at you, he is not your father, but your doc, just kidding but some
give way too much power to their doc's. Just tell him you ran out on vacation, and need a refill.

It is up to you, but I probally would take more of the Cymbalta at a little lower dose, and then
start to decrease how you will learn with help on her by so many. It will stop all the maddness
that your living with right now in just a couple of days, then you will be in control of your decreasing
and level of functioning too.

There is no race to get off this stuuf, it is only a goal we make, and keep going toward it, that's all.
We all want off this crap, and are all here to support you!!!


Welcome,
Debbie



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