Lost and Frustrated, on 27 July 2010 - 01:46 PM, said:
I first started taking anti-depressants when I was 14 years old. I started off with Lexapro and after my second year in college I felt depressed again (when I think about it now, I think that it wasn't because the meds werent working, but because I hated the school I was going to and missed my family, which many people experience) but of course my pdoc decided that I should try another medication, Cymbalta. I weaned off Lexapro just like she ordered without any problems and started on Cymbalta. I have been on Cymbalta for 3 years now and I don't think I can contribute my better mood to the medication, but to me changing schools and finding an amazing supportive boyfriend. I have always been an athlete (working out 5 days a week) and I noticed I started to gain weight slowly every year. I went to my gynecologist a month ago and the weight has added up to 40 lbs !! I feel like no matter what I do I cant stablize my weight, I decided that this is one side-effect I cant deal with (I have also experience increased sweating, loss of energy, and insomnia since I started taking Cymbalta, but decided that I could try and deal with those). Recently I told my pdoc I wanted to wean off of the med because of the weight gain and to see if I can live without taking an anti-depressant in the first place since I haven't in 8 years. I tapered off the medication just like I did with the Lexapro, going from 90mg to 60mg for 2 weeks then 30mg for two weeks and 8 days ago 0mg. I started getting the migraines/brain zaps when I went down to 30mg, but contributed to them to having my menstrual cycle. I called my pdoc 5 days after completely stopping because I couldn't handle the emotional mood swings I was having, not knowing that these could be caused from withdrawl I thought that I really need an anti-depressant so I told him I needed something else. He has started me on Wellbutrin 150mg 4 days ago and he lightly mentioned that some of these mood swings could be caused from the withdrawal, but they will Definitely go away in a day or two. Boy was he wrong! I went online yesterday and found all these sites talking about everyone experiencing the same awful withdrawal side effects as me (migraines/brain zaps, nausea, nightmares, sweating, etc.) it is reassuring to hear that I am not the only one, but no one hear really talks about ways to combat the withdrawal instead of really really slowly weaning by opening up the capsules. Now I am about to graduate from nursing school in 3 months and I know that this is REALLY REALLY not safe!!!! These capsules are encoded which allows them to be released slowly into our blood streams. Without the capsule, the beads can cause havoc on your mucus membranes and stomach lining, and it is also being released to fast into your blood stream which has even caused overdose in some people. I called my pdoc yesterday to tell him off these horrible withdrawals and he simply said that he has "never heard of this happening to anyone before" he tried to make up several excuses as to why these symptoms could be happening such as electrolyte imbalance from working out and as went as far to suggest that maybe these are just side effects of my depression (PS I have had physical side effects from depression before and none include massive constant migraines and awful nausea to the point where I want to lie on my bathroom floor waiting to vomit). He started to suggest that I go on different medications to try and combat this, I shot down that idea immediately because the point is to get off the medication not go on 10 more !!! Well, after this looooong story I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to try and deal with the withdrawal symptoms besides opening up the capsules. Some articles suggest a wide variety of herbs and vitamins, have any of these worked for anyone? I am on day 9 or 8 I can't even remember anything anymore and I just want to try and push through this before I have to start up school again. So frustrated and I don't know who to believe or trust, especially because my pdoc doesn't really seem to believe me and just wants to prescribe more pills (what a surprise!). Thanks again, Glad you guys are out there too !
Dear Lost and Frustrated:
I have always thought there are 2 types of Depressed people. The first group is the people who are chemically depressed, they have imbalances in brain neurotrasmitters. The second group is the people who are chemically balanced, but the environment (family, work, school) are making them depressed. Since you say that you hated school and your mood improved when changing schools, that made me think you belong to the second group. And “maybe†you don´t need antidepressants, but to work in the way you think, and the way you see your environment.
I was also always thin. With cymbalta I gained 52lbs. And became even more depressed because of being overweight.
I didn´t have insomnia while taking cymbalta. I am having insomnia now that I am weaning off of cymbalta. I fall asleep at 3:00 at night. Mood swings have been another withdrawal symptom. Mine went away.
You say that “no one here really talks about ways to combat the withdrawalâ€. The thing is that people on this site are not doctors. All we can do here, is share experiences, and kind of do “trial and error†to see if what has helped others can help me. If doctors and psychiatrist who have the scientific knowledge do not know ways to combat withdrawals, then it is harder for us “patients†to know. From what I´ve read on this site, when doctors hear withdrawal symptoms, they increase the antidepressant dose (thinking depression is coming back), or they give additional medicine for each additional symptom.
I am very interested in knowing more about why opening the capsules is not safe. I even asked in another post but didn´t get an answer. What I´ve been doing is opening the capsule, taking some beads out and reclosing it. What does it mean that the capsules are “encoded�??
Again I am not a doctor, but it seems to me that your weaning was pretty fast and the drops were too big. It has taken me 11 weeks to go from 60mg to 19mg by doing small drops. I´ve had my real bad weeks, but found that if I gave my body and brain to adjust to new dose, the symptoms would get better.
The way that I know if something is a withdrawal effect is this “strategyâ€. After I started weaning, every time a symptom appears I try to remember if this was a symptom I had when my Depression began and I wasn´t taking antidepressant. If the symptom is new, then it is withdrawal to me. For example when my depression began, most symptoms were psychological, they were not physical. For example the migraines. I never had severe migraines in my life prior to cymbalta.
What has worked for me has been healthy nutrition and exercise. I do not take herbs or supplements (only a multivitamin with Bcomplex). I always try to get nutrients from food and not pills, because I feel they are absorbed better. For example I do not take a omega supplement. Instead I eat flaxseed, salmon, soy milk. Concerning exercise, it has helped me so much to improve my mood and decrease my anxiety.
Hugs
Cookie
Help
