[sera]

I've been Cymbalta-free for 2 1/2 and am still having withdrawal symptoms, the ones bothering me the most are severe agitation and aches and pains that keep me up at night. Today my doctor suggested I try Zoloft and prescribed 50 mg. The pharmacist suggested I cut them in half and do a half dose for a week to see how I tolerate it. I go back to the doctor in a week.

My biggest concern is the weight gain (I put on 30 pounds in my year and a half on Cymbalta) and I'm really keen to take it off. I'm in such a quandary as I guess I just expect weight gain will occur with this one as well. :cry:

[schmb01]

How long have you been off? 2 1/2 weeks, or months? It takes some time to work through them. Have you tried any of the nutritional changes, such as an Omega 3 supplement? Also, instead of Zoloft, perhaps talk to your doctor about Prozac. Some have been successful using just one dose of it. There are a couple of posts here about that. Look under the "weaning off of Cymbalta" section.

Of course, only you and your doctor can make this decision, but I wanted to at least share a couple of other options with you.

[sera]

schmb01: Sorry, I meant to type 2 1/2 weeks off Cymbalta. I'll go re-read the Prozac posts. I'm just so gun shy after two bad antidepressant experiences: 1st Celexa and the Cymbalta. I've been taking Omega 3s, CLA and Vitamin E every day since late March and want to further explore dealing with my depression through exercise and nutrition before jumping on the anti-depressant bandwagon again.

Thanks for your reply!

[schmb01]

I understand being gun shy for sure! That is why I mentioned Prozac, IF you are only looking for something short term to help you with the withdrawals, since it has been shown to be good for that. If you are looking for something longer term, it may be that Zoloft is an option, I had just not heard of it being used as a short term fix.

Depression is a tricky thing, and although we have all had bad Cymbalta experiences, some may still need a longer term solution to deal with ongoing depression. 2 1/2 weeks is relatively a short period of time with withdrawals, if you compare with some others here. I was still in the throngs of hell at 2 1/2 weeks, and didn't really start to feel stable until about 45 days out, and then I still had a few bumps. I focused a lot on staying calm, using Omega 3, eating lots of eggs, staying hydrated, getting more sunshine and basically just tried to pamper myself. It is my hope that I don't ever have to use an antidepressant again, and I'm doing as much as I can from a natural management perspective to do that. Since you have had a bad experience with other antis, I wanted to offer some ideas so that you could try to avoid something stronger. BUT, I do think that there is a place for antidepressant use, IF the doctors are closely monitoring people, and doing the right things to make sure they are needed.

I guess my rambling point is, give yourself a little time if you can, and if you can't, just proceed with caution and educate yourself about any other meds you use. I know this is hard, yet just hang in there, it should start to improve in the next few weeks.

[sera]

I appreciate your message of hope, especially as I am experiencing pretty intense agitation. I do want to try to see how it goes after withdrawal and living without meds for awhile. I just made an appointment with an integrative medical group a week from now, so I'm looking forward to exploring nutritional options with them.

[schmb01]

I don't know if you drink coffee or tea, but for awhile, I had to cut way back on caffeine, because my agitation was so strong. I drank chamomile tea, and at night Sleepytime tea with valerian. I also took, and still take, 3mg of melatonin which helps me sleep.

There really is hope for you, and keep coming here to vent whenever you need to. I had some pretty strange thoughts and feelings for awhile, and very vivid dreams, so vivid that I sometimes would remember them the next day, but I wasn't sure if I was remembering a dream, or something that really happened! That was scary, and I really felt like I was broken. Looking back, I realize now how much strength it took to come off of this crap. Use others success stories to keep you focused. That helped me tons.

Again, good luck dear, and know that you are safe to come here, because we all know what you are going through.

[Holly]

My doctor wants me to take 40 mg. of Celexa, but I am trying to stay at 20 mg. After the first few doses, I felt my cymbalta withdrawal symptoms improve greatly. However, now I'm starting to get anxiety when it gets close to the time to take my dose. So, of course my doctor's recommendation is that I up the dose immediately. Perhaps this is irrational thinking, but the more mgs. I take, the more dependent I am going to come, I believe. However, she did admit that the cymbalta withdrawals are probably what is causing the anxiety and not the celexa. I'm all for doing what works, but this seems like a vicious cycle of dependency that I will never be free from. I much prefer the mind-numbing to the pain hemorrhage I was having last week when I attempted to stop taking the celexa. She also gave me some Xanax today. We'll see how it goes.

The unfortunate truth about doctors is this--they're not up on this drug's effects. I don't know if they're too busy to research the new drugs, or not curious, but my experience has been that because I've been on other antidepressant drugs, I am not taken seriously. My statements are met with patronizing and impatience. Especially when I present data that they don't want to see. Oh, just mention that you are finding information on the internet, and they smirk. My family doctor, psych, and even my therapist, all practically rolled their eyes when I told them about this web-site.

[Attorney_Victim]

Holly,
I'm not very familiar with Celexa, but I took Prozac to help with withdrawal. I felt like that was a safe choice for me because it has a very long half life. I took it for a little over a month and then stopped it last week without any problems. It sounds like Celexa may have a very short half life, like Cymbalta. If it does, then you probably are getting into a vicious cycle. The anti-depressants with short half lives are the ones that cause problems when you miss a dose or stop taking them. But those with longer half lives, like Prozac, are much easier to stop taking because they "self taper" themselves out of your system.

[Holly]

Again, thanks for the info, Greybeard and Att_V,

How much Prozac were you taking?

[Attorney_Victim]

I took 20 mgs of the generic Prozac. My dr told me I could up to 40 mgs after 1 week if I needed to, but when I tried to increase to 40, I felt a little manic, so I went back down after only a few days. I stayed at 20 mgs for about 1 month and then stopped it last week with my doctor's blessing. I haven't had any trouble coming off it (thank goodness).

After this Cymbalta fiasco, I wanted to come off all anti-deps and see what my depression is like without any meds. I didn't realize until my dr's appt last week that I have been on some form of anti-dep since 2001. And at that time, I remember thinking that my problems were "situational"...now 7 years later, here I am. So, I'm looking forward to figuring out how I feel without any of the drugs!

GB: you are always "on the ball" with the factual info!! Thanks again!

[Holly]

Att_V,
Sounds like we are on a similar journey. Have you ever been concerned that the antidepressants "damaged" your brain, as if you had worn a cast on your arm for too long and the muscle atrophied...? I wonder sometimes. But, I guess time will tell, eh?