Help
I've been Cymbalta free for a week now and have experienced most of the symptoms described on this website--the ones I've read about anyways. The symptoms that have effected me the most have been the nausea, brain zaps, memory loss, and motion sickness. The nausea and motion sickness have kept me up at night, making sleep nearly impossible. I was averaging about 2 hours of sleep and 6 hours of tossing and turning; and the two hours of sleep I was getting, were not REM sleep, they were a lighter sleep that gave me very vivid and depressing dreams that I thought were real when I woke. When I woke, it was hard for me to differentiate between what was real and what wasn't due to the lack of sleep I was getting. The second day of being Cymbalta free I missed an entire day of classes since I was too dizzy and nauseous to walk, let alone drive to school. I refused to miss another day of school, so I attended my classes the next day. Unfortunately, I could not take notes or retain any of the lectures. Concentrating was out of the question. The harder I tried to concentrate, the worst my motion sickness, brain zaps, and nausea became. Even as I write this rant I've become tired and am loosing my memory. I forgot how to spell the word NAUSEA, even though I know the word well and had no problem writing it at the beginning of this--when I had more energy. A post that would normally take me 15 minutes has taken me more than 45 to get this far; with a couple breaks as well.
Well I wanted to share my experience and also what has some of the stuff that has helped me. For the nausea and the motion sickness I've been taking a combination of a ginger root supplement and dramamine original formula. It has definitely been helping and I am grateful for it, because it was this website that I got the idea from. Dramamine and ginger root were helping with a couple symptoms, but they were not helping with what I needed most, sleep. So against what my body was telling me, I played in my mens league basketball game--I wasn't 100%, but I was able to play a descent game and got a great workout. The brain zaps were pretty much gone while I was playing, and they were less frequent than normal for the rest of the night. And the best part was I got a solid nights sleep. The next morning I felt amazing; that feeling only lasted a couple hours, but hey, I'll take it. I've worked out three nights in a row and it's led to getting some good sleep. I'm hoping that my workouts will also speed up withdrawal process since I'm sweating so much out; only time will tell.
As far as the memory loss and lack of concentration, I have had no luck--I'd love some suggestions. Let me know of any ideas or proven methods out there; and good luck to any and every body else who is going through Cymbalta withdrawal hell.
