Help
I started Zoloft after having a stillborn baby last year and gained 30 pounds, though I'm grateful it helped me tremendously...decided to switch to Cymbalta per my OB since I was having breakthrough depressive symptoms. It helped very well for a few months (same story I've heard from many others), but then it seemed to stop working. I went from 30 mg to 60mg...again it seemed to help for awhile. But I starting gaining a lot of weight, had terrible night sweating and felt overwhelmingly exhausted all the time. I stopped hanging out with my friends and felt really just 'blah'. Worst of all it made me creatively dead...I was no longer able to practice my photography or write in my blog. I realized I needed a change, so my OB suggested I decrease the dosage...went cold turkey from 60 mg to 30. What a mistake! I didn't realize it at the time (thought it was just me being 'crazy'), but I had severe withdrawal symptoms for weeks: migraines, diarrhea, terrible night sweats and bad dreams, and the feeling like my throat was tightening up on me. By October, I realized I just needed off this med as I was more depressed than when I began. My OB initially tried just to switch me to Viibryd...which I only took for a week alongside Cymbalta and HATED the side effects of Viibryd (rapid weight gain, bloating, feeling wired). I did a lot of research and decided I needed to be off all meds altogether and then assess where my mood was.
After MUCH fighting with my OB's nurse practitioner, I finally worked out a wean schedule that had been great. I am totally off all meds for three weeks now and am doing very well. I do get occasional night sweats and throat tightening, but it is manageable. I am irritable...but I am trying my best to deal with it and let my body 'right itself' after almost two years on anti-depressants.
Here's my successful wean:
Week 1: Switched from 30 mg Cymbalta to 20 mg.
Week 2: Added 10 mg Prozac in AM and 20 mg Cymbalta before bed.
Week 3: 10 mg Prozac in AM, and started pouring 1/3 of my Cymbalta beads out and taking at bedtime.
Week 4: 10 mg Prozac in AM, and started pouring 1/2 Cymbalta beads out and taking at bedtime.
Week 5: 10 mg Prozac in AM, and started pouring out 2/3 Cymbalta beads and taking at bedtime.
Week 6: 10 mg Prozac in AM...NO Cymbalta!
Week 7: Prozac 10 mg every other day for a week
Week 8: (was my plan but didn't need it) Prozac twice during the week
This requires a 6 week script of Prozac (though I don't even think I used all mine...I know I didn't). The Prozac never gets up to 'therapuetic level' but it really does seem to meet the serotonin receptors that are going CRAZY during Cymbalta withdrawal.
I have informed my own doctor, along with all the pyschiatrists and physicians I see that Prozac is an extremely helpful way to wean off this med successfully without major side effects. I hope this may help some of you also...I am elated to finally be off this medication!!!!
