[MrsDiss]

Hi. I was doing some research on some symptoms I've been having and stumbled upon this site. I've been reading a lot of the posts and have to say, it's pretty scary. I have been on 60mg of Cymbalta since January. I was on Lexapro for anxiety, and liked it very much, but my neurologist switched me to Cymbalta because I was having migraines and headaches and he said it would help. It didn't help my migraines or headaches and it didn't really help my anxiety either. My husband and I would like to have another child, so I decided to ween off of it - I also figured I might as well since it isn't really helping. The neurologist told me to go to 30 mg for 1-2 weeks and then stop it and I should be fine. Well, I started the 30 mg on Monday morning and this evening I was sitting on the couch and had heart palpitations/irregular heartbeat. Once that stopped, I still felt like my heart was racing, even though it wasn't, and had a weird, out of breath feeling in the back of my throat, even though I wasn't out of breath. I still have that feeling now and this started at 7:45 this evening (it's now 10:10). I called my PCP because I was scared and then fit me in. She took a history, asked some questions and did an EKG, which was normal. My BP was also normal. She's sending me for blood work tomorrow morning and wants me to get a couple of other things checked. She said it could be my thyroid, or it could be from the cymbalta. I didn't even think of the cymbalta. Why is it they never tell you about withdrawal symptoms or awful side effects? I've been losing a lot of hair lately - well really since a few months after I had my daughter. They say hair loss stops after a few months, but it's still happening, and pretty badly. My weight has also been fluctuating a lot and by more than a few pounds. I have also been nauseous and I have a headache like everyday. After reading some of your posts I'm starting to think all of this relates to the cymbalta. But I'm scared because some people have said it gets worse once you're off completely. Do these side effects ever go away? I woke up a few times last night with a migraine and I've had an awful headache all day. I'm also nauseous. I'm sorry this is so long, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of this and scared. Does anything help these things? Will they get better? Is there a better way to wean even though I hadn't been on it all that long? I'm also not sure of the dose equivalent, but I was only on 10mg of lexapro, but they put me on 60 of cymbalta. Any advice, help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[cookie]

Hi Diss

I´ve had ALL the withdrawal symptoms that you mentioned: shortness of breath, palpitations, heart racing, severe hair loss, nausea, weight changes, headaches.

I am not a doctor, but it seems you quit too fast. It has taken me a whole year to taper slowly, and it got particularly difficult from 30mg to 0mg, so I made small drops in this stage. Cymbalta comes in a 20mg presentation, maybe you could´´ve drop from 30mg to 20mg, then take 10mg (half of the 20mg pill), and so on.

Please do not despair, me and most people on this site, have gone through similar symptoms. Maybe you could go back to a certain dosage of cymbalta and start weaning from there???? Tell your doctor the symptoms you are having and ask him how long will it take to dissapear.

Some people use prozac to aid cymbalta withdrawal. I haven´t done that, but I´ve read in this site about it working for some people.