79 replies to this topic

[LindaMexico]

I need to get off Cymbalta. I believe it is causing my extreme dry mouth (read can't speak sometimes, usually puckered up, terrible taste in my mouth), dry eyes so bad I have to sleep with a wet rag over them, constipation, increasing depression, insomnia at night but fatigue all day...

I have read so much on how to do it on the net, i.e., use Prozac in conjunction with weaning, cut down 1/4 of a capsule every 7 days until by the end of a month you are totally off, cut down 5 percent every week allowing for a year to get off, count the beads in the capsule, don't count them, put them in liquid, put them in an empty capsule. Good grief, I really don't know how to do this.

Furthermore, I am an American retired and living in OLD Mexico so I don't have good medical advice.

What really has worked for you all to minimize withdrawal? I know I will experience symptoms because I can't go 24 hours without my usual 60 mg dose or I start having dizziness, headaches, neurological zaps, nausea and more. I would never have started on Cymbalta had I known how hard it is to get off of. I was on Prozac before and it stopped working about 5 years after starting it. I've been taking Cymbalta for 4 years now.

[Mb In Indiana]

Linda,
Good luck, Im with you on this one! I want off this drug, havent been on more than a year but want it out of my system. If I had known the withdrawls process I would never have gone on this drug. So I wish us both success as we try to figure this process out. Marybeth

[LindaMexico]

Linda,
Good luck, Im with you on this one! I want off this drug, havent been on more than a year but want it out of my system. If I had known the withdrawls process I would never have gone on this drug. So I wish us both success as we try to figure this process out. Marybeth

I think I will try to cut back about 10 percent and see how I do, unless somebody else has a better idea. It's about 9 pm my time so it's about time to count those %$!@*^% beads. Sorry you are going through this in a strange land. At least I have a husband and friends here for me.

[Caroline]

Hi Linda and MaryBeth,
At least you found this site from the start. I couldn't figure out the headache I got when I tried to quit cold turkey. Blinding,worse than a migrain on day 3, then aches, sweating, bloating, horribly short fuse etc.... Here is what has helped me go from 30mg to 10 in about 4 weeks. I visited my prim care phys told him I wanted to stop Cymbalta. He was fine with it. Asked about how to quit, told him of my withdrawal. He gave me the docs version of weaning every other day, every 3 days etc. I told him about the 20mg dose available in the US, he prescribed that but then reduce every other day etc. From what I have read here and in the book by James Harper, Getting off Psychiatric Drugs tapering is the way to go. Since I started tapering no side effects except a slight dehydrated feeling/dry eye days 1-2 after drop. I was on Cymbalta for 2 years, only 30mg for anxiety.
I have used the following supplements to minimize withdrawal symptoms; Omega 3-6-9 (whole foods brand) Vit E (365 Brand sold at whole foods) biotin and G2 (low cal gatorade) I am so happy to not have the terrible most miserable headaches I experienced a few weeks ago. I take 1 400 mg Vit E, 3-4 Omegas in the morning and at lunch 2-3, gatorade in the morning. So far so good, like you I cannot wait to have this drug completely out of my system.

Good Luck- stay here for support and advice. Go slow (hardest part for me ;-) )
C

[Caroline]

MB and Linda,
I forgot to mention how I split my beads...nothing fancy I ball park the reductions. I went from 30 to 20 to for 14 days, then split the 30's in half for 15, took that for 10 days or so now splitting my 20s in half for 10's. I will eyeball the 20's to get down to 5mg somehow...can't imagine counting the beads. I somehow acts like mercury balls if you drop and old style thermometer!

Take Care,
C

[LindaMexico]

Hi Linda and MaryBeth,
At least you found this site from the start. I couldn't figure out the headache I got when I tried to quit cold turkey. Blinding,worse than a migrain on day 3, then aches, sweating, bloating, horribly short fuse etc.... Here is what has helped me go from 30mg to 10 in about 4 weeks. I visited my prim care phys told him I wanted to stop Cymbalta. He was fine with it. Asked about how to quit, told him of my withdrawal. He gave me the docs version of weaning every other day, every 3 days etc. I told him about the 20mg dose available in the US, he prescribed that but then reduce every other day etc. From what I have read here and in the book by James Harper, Getting off Psychiatric Drugs tapering is the way to go. Since I started tapering no side effects except a slight dehydrated feeling/dry eye days 1-2 after drop. I was on Cymbalta for 2 years, only 30mg for anxiety.
I have used the following supplements to minimize withdrawal symptoms; Omega 3-6-9 (whole foods brand) Vit E (365 Brand sold at whole foods) biotin and G2 (low cal gatorade) I am so happy to not have the terrible most miserable headaches I experienced a few weeks ago. I take 1 400 mg Vit E, 3-4 Omegas in the morning and at lunch 2-3, gatorade in the morning. So far so good, like you I cannot wait to have this drug completely out of my system.

Good Luck- stay here for support and advice. Go slow (hardest part for me ;-) )
C

I have a lot of those vitamins right here at the house already. I will take them.

I knew I had to get help before starting weaning because of my reaction when I missed a dose by even a few hours. I started researching today after my maxillofacial surgeon told me I needed to do something different in terms of an antidepressant. This is actually quite scary, isn't it?

[LindaMexico]

Ok, here's my scientific approach. I counted out twenty beads from a capsule of 60 mg Cymbalta. Those got put aside and I took the rest in pomegranate juice. I am going to see how that goes for a week. Then I will pull out an additional twenty beads if I am doing okay at the end of the first week. If I am not doing ok, I will add in 5 or 10 mg of Prozac to help tide me over. Or just go more slowly in taking away beads. I'll report how I am doing tomorrow evening.

[LindaMexico]

Nearly 24 hours later and I am doing fine. Last night I took 20 beads out of the 60 mg capsule of Cymbalta and I swallowed the rest. In several days I will take out 20 more beads and up the prozac a bit. I hope this keeps working. It will take awhile but hopefully I won't be sick.

[LindaMexico]

Last night I took out 25 beads and this morning I took the same amount of prozac. So far so good. No withdrawal symptoms.

[LindaMexico]

Not quite 48 hours and I am doing fine. Will probably decrease some more beads tonight, maybe 30, and keep up the 5 mg of prozac.

[LindaMexico]

Thanks for the warning that sometimes you get hit three or four days out. I sure hope I don't but am not aware, at least. I have a friend with a jewelry scale and I hope to get to her house to pick it up so I can weigh my beads. I think my digital postal scale is not able to weigh such minute quantities but I haven't tried it either. It sounds like counting the few beads isn't a very good method.

btw, 48 hours later I still feel good and hope the bit of prozac I am taking in the mornings is helping.

Please keep posting on how you are doing.

[LindaMexico]

I've read quite a few messages around here of people taking prozac, and it does seem to help. It'd be great to be able to weigh your capsules to see how much to take out. That must be how they make them. There seem to be different sizes of beads in them. I hope that will work for you.

I said today was day 16 without, but it's actually 17. I lose count. As I was weaning, I wrote in a tablet each day my dosage and what day of weaning I was at. That helped me keep track of where I was and where I was headed.

Once in awhile I see a message around here of people that were ok for 2 or 3 weeks after tapering down to 0, and then it hit them. I might not be out of the woods yet. Right now I feel pretty much back to normal, but I am still at a loss for words every now and then. I hate that, but I know it could be so much worse.

Karen

I doubt if I would be at a loss for words but I might say the wrong ones!! I just finished my dose of Cymbalta. Fingers crossed here. I don't like those reports of delayed withdrawal symptoms!

[LindaMexico]

Three days later and I am doing fine.

[LindaMexico]

I decreased the beads a few more tonight. I am feeling fine. I'll update tomorrow.

[LindaMexico]

I decreased the beads a few more tonight. I am feeling fine. I'll update tomorrow.

Doing fine this morning.

[LindaMexico]

I'm so glad you're still doing ok!!

Karen

I've very tired today and had to have a nap. But I have also been exercising a lot and losing weight, so who knows if my fatigue was due to weaning off. Tomorrow morning I am going to divide my Prozac into thirds instead of fourth and take that, hoping it will help me deal with withdrawal effects. I've never had trouble getting off prozac. I will take it for a month or so once I am off the Cymbalta. This is my homemade weaning program so who knows whether it will work. Seems as good as any other programs I have seen! How are you doing?

[LindaMexico]

Do you sleep good at night? Did you gain weight while you were taking your whole dosage of Cymbalta? A lot of people on this forum said they gained a lot of weight taking it. I was taking gabapentin for about 9 mos and gained 25 pounds. I got off of that in a 2 week period and started taking Cymbalta, and I dropped about 10 lbs without trying. I had been walking 4 miles twice a day to try to lose it and had lost 15 of it and then lost the last 10 effortlessly. When I got on Cymbalta, I hardly exercised at all. I didn't care whether I did or not, whereas before I was rather obsessed with it. Now I'm back to walking 4 miles a day. It hurts really bad though. I was told I have peripheral neuropathy about a year ago. I feel like I've got pins and needles in my feet, but neither one of those meds helped me very much, and the side effects of Cymbalta were too bad, and it is too expensive. Right now I don't really want to take any pills and canceled my appointment with the doctor that was treating me. He doesn't know I quit taking Cymbalta.

I'm doing good and feeling totally back to normal now. So far. I walked this morning and then dropped a heavy bottle of shampoo on my foot in the shower, so now my foot is swollen and bruised and hurts. Otherwise I'm fine.

Hang in there, and I hope you keep doing good.

Karen

I am a yoyo weight gainer and loser. I don't know if Cymbalta caused a weight gain or not. I lost weight when I first went on prozac. Later gained it back. My husband has peripheral neuropathy from chemotherapy and it is quite bothersome for him. He tried taking Neurontin for a while but it didn't help. I think it is criminal to put somebody on Cymbalta for NP!

[LindaMexico]

So sorry your husband has PN. I only went to a podiatrist. I should have gone to a neurologist, but there's not really much they do for it, so I don't really see any point in spending a lot of money on tests and calling it idiopathic. My next drug was going to be Lyrica, but I'm not going to. My dr put me on 120mg of Cymbalta after cortisone shots in my feet didn't work. He put me on Cymbalta the end of May and didn't ask me to come back. July 14 I started weaning.

Karen

A friend of mine with PN advised Bill to do this (which we haven't tried since we can't get it here in Mexico): Massive doses, 2000mcg a day of sublingual B-12—and I can tell you from my own experience that it really, truly does help. I order mine from Amazon; I’ve never seen it sold in Mexico. Neither taking pills the usual way nor the shots help—it has to be the sublingual tablets. Fortunately they actually taste good!

Give it a try and let me know. Gotta be better than @#&^$(@!$ Cymbalta.

[LindaMexico]

Four days off and am doing okay.

[LindaMexico]

I am on the morning of my 6th day. Last night I took about 50 beads out of the cymbalta capsule and had the rest. I increased my Prozac just a tad this morning. I am feeling fine.

Karen, I wouldn't go for that light therapy. I think it is a big scam! But that is just my opinion.

[LindaMexico]

I am on the morning of my 6th day. Last night I took about 50 beads out of the cymbalta capsule and had the rest. I increased my Prozac just a tad this morning. I am feeling fine.

Karen, I wouldn't go for that light therapy. I think it is a big scam! But that is just my opinion.

The end of my sixth day and doing fine.

[LindaMexico]

I'm so glad you're still doing fine. Maybe you'll be like me and have an easy time getting off this junk, and it's very rare. Well, at least on here. I guess people that don't have a problem getting off of it aren't usually here. I just stumbled on this place googling cymbalta withdrawal to try to find out how to get off of it. Then I started tapering the very next day and hung around reporting my daily progress. I'm 3 weeks clean and feeling fine and sure hope it stays that way.

I figure the light therapy is a scam. This guy says he has a test he'll do on you to see if it will work on you and not waste your time or money. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it. I'd rather have my own than keep going in to use it and pay a bunch. I just don't want to take anymore pills that cost so much and don't do much good.

Karen

Ha! What do you want to bet that the light therapy test is positive for everybody who takes the test??

I think I would be a mess if I weren't weaning down on the Cymbalta. I think the way I am doing it is the way to go but time will tell!

[LindaMexico]

You're probably right that everyone tests positive. I heard him on the radio with a commercial that he can help people with fibromyalgia. Then right after him there was an MD talking about what he could do for that. One with drugs and one without. Hmmmm...

Yep, I think weaning is the way to go, and I've seen people that do the prozac method and say it does help. I hope it will for you too. I would have gone nuts if I'd taken months to get off this stuff, so I just kept dropping.

Karen

I'd like to end the dry mouth and eyes but can't stop my life to get off of the train at once!!

[LindaMexico]

The middle of day 7 and doing fine. I have been having some unusual nightmares.

[LindaMexico]

Yesterday and today I have had some withdrawal symptoms. Minor nausea and feeling a bit lightheaded. I have upped the amount of Prozac I am taking to 10mg and will maintain the same amount of Cymbalta for a few days. I am still able to function though. I'll update tomorrow.

[LindaMexico]

So sorry some nausea hit you. That's a bummer. I never got that and was so glad. I did have some lightheadedness but not too bad. Mostly when I did my 4 mile walk, but I didn't do that much, because taking Cymbalta made me not care whether I walked or not. Before Cymbalata I was obsessed and walked 4 miles twice a day even though my feet were killing me.

I hope you get to feeling better, and it's good you're sticking with your current dose of Cymbalta, and you should probably do that until these symptoms are gone. At least the nausea.

I'm glad you can still function. Hang in there.


Karen

Tonight I am feeling better. I think upping the dose of Prozac probably really helped. This is hit and miss and I'd rather be too low than too high on the dose. Thanks for caring, Karen.

[LindaMexico]

Day nine and I feel better than I did the last two days. I added a few tiny beads to my dose of Cymbalta and upped my prozac to 10mg. I will even exercise today.

[LindaMexico]

I'm glad you felt better today. It's amazing what just a few tiny beads either way can do!!


Karen

And maybe the added touch of Prozac didn't hurt either. I'm still feeling good this afternoon. I wonder how many days to stay at this dose? Wow, is this gonna be slow.

[LindaMexico]

I've seen people say that Prozac does help. Hey, whatever works. I can't remember if you said you've taken Prozac before and if that's what you plan to continue taking once you're off Cymbalta.

I think what people say here is to stay at a dose until you're over whatever symptoms you started having when you cut down your dosage. If you go too fast, you won't know what dosage gave you the symptoms if they take a few days to hit you. If you feel fine tomorrow, try taking those few beads back out that you added back in and see how you feel or wait another day. I know you're anxious to get off of it, but if you rush it too much it could feel worse.

This morning when I got up, I felt weird. It didn't last very long, but I thought oh no here we go... I ate breakfast and was fine. I've had an itty bitty headache that wasn't worth taking anything for but was enough to notice. It's gone. I walked today, and it was a bit too warm and humid for me. I think that got to me a bit. I don't do well with heat. I like the air conditioning. Fall will soon be here, and that's better for my walks.

Take care and hope you continue feeling good. How much Prozac can you take?

Karen

[LindaMexico]

I did take Prozac before. I stopped five years ago when it "pooped out" on me and wasn't working. I switched immediately to Cymbalta. Right now I am taking 10mg of Prozac. I started with five and then upped it to 7 or so and now am at 10. I have easily gone on and off of Prozac. I am going to try going off of all antidepressants because of my dry eyes, mouth and constipation, if I can. No other class of antidepressants appeals to me at all. Did I mention I am a retired psychologist?

I feel okay tonight. I am very tired which must be a withdrawal effect. Overall today has been a good day. Tomorrow is day 10.