[stratocaster]

Okay I started by taking Cymbalta about a year ago and it made me sweat, and about every two to three weeks I would get this feeling of being hot and cold at the same time and just feeling lousy for several days. After several doctor visits, antibiotics etc.....I finally figured it must be one of the medications that I was on. Namely Cymbalta. I started by weening myself off of it and then went to the doctor and she suggested using another anti-depressant. The cymbalta was being taken for neck pain after surgery and because I was feeling a little emotional because of the constant pain. I started another anti depressant called Viibryd. I started with 10mg for a week and felt a little funny, went to 20mg for a week and didn't care for how I was feeling, but was told to give it a chance. The next week I went to 40mg and after 3 days I went into a panic attack so bad that I couldn't go to work. So they began weening me off of that back down the way I came....I went through some awful withdrawals every week. Waking up every hour with an anxiety attack and horrible nightmares for about 4 days. Then my doctor gave me some .5mg of clonazipam and I slept for the first time. But then the clonazipam got to where it didn't work much either. I'm on week 3 of 0mg of anything and I have days when I feel fine, then suddenly will have an anxiety attack out of the blue! Mostly in the evenings. I still wake up at least once a night, sometimes with an attack and sometime not. My doctor has pretty much given up on me and wants to send me to a psychiatrist for "drug management" and when I ask her what that means she just hums and haws. She won't do anything else for me and I feel all alone. Of course she isn't going to let me have anymore clonazipam so after this is gone I won't even have a way to calm before bed. I am at my witts end!! Can someone out there give me some suggestions?

[Juliei]

Hi there

I was on Cymbalta for several years for depression. I tapered it off and switched to a new anti-depressant valdoxan that works on the melatonin levels as anxiety and sleep issues are big ones for me. From the way I understand it Cymbalta is a NSRI so it will help moderate adrenalin. So stopping it means that anxiety levels can increase. Mine have totally done the same - I can't sleep, panic about not sleeping, wake up an hour after falling asleep. I am virtuously always on the edge of a panic attack and just want to run away screaming some days. Treatment for an anxiety disorder is usually anti-depressants so I am hoping that this will wear off in time as the Valdoxan has more impact (I was warned that it may be 6 weeks before I feel the full effects of it). In the meantime I asked for more sleeping tablets from doc - just zolpidem which are quite mild and I can even half them if I want to. My plan is to ask for another month of those and wean off them properly to minimise sleep anxiety. I also have found that simlpe codiene does take the edge off the anxiety during the day as well as stressam, which was prescribed by my doc for a month and is a mild medication that doesnt cause any form of dependecy. I hope that the anxiety will have calmed enough by the time those meds are finished.

Good luck!