[Butterflywithdrawal]

Hi
I have been on Cymbalta 30 mg once a day for around three years. Although I have been trying to wean off it, and with my doctors consent have been taking it every other day for around six months .
When I would go over 3 or so days without it, I would get a bad headache, sweating or feeling hot, and just feeling like I had a minor flu. As soon as I took the pill again within a few hours or
by the next day all those symptoms would be gone.
Now I have been completely off Cymbalta 30 mg for at least 3 weeks. The first week was mostly brain zaps , headache..By the second or third week I am starting to get more heat/sweaty feeling, my stomach feels slightly off,
and am growing less tolerable over these symptoms. I don't do much as I don't have a job and just finished college, so I have not much to do...I find myself some days sleeping all day or staying up till one or two on the net.

I am not sure if I am experiencing simply withdrawal symptoms or if it is a mixture of both withdrawal and depression..Or if what seems like depression symptoms is normal for withdrawal period of getting of psyche drugs.

I also have chronic pain issues due to herniated disc an take vicodin and a muscle relaxer soma, as well as klonopin. When I take those my mood obviously feels better but it kinda feels like the symptoms are less apparent. I also have no symptoms of very little if I slept 5 to 8 hours during the day (but who does that). I want to do more when I don't feel the symptoms, but I want to do less when I feel them, cause I just feel SICK.

My psyche doc, has said before that the symptoms I feel aren't withdrawal or basically "In my head" due to me "Thinking I must go through withdrawal due to stopping a medicine" which I find extremely wrong as I honestly
had no clue what side effects to expect etc, so how could I just decide these are what should be "Withdrawal symptoms." Do the docs say this to get patients to think they aren't experiencing the perhaps damaging
effects of psyche meds? Or do they just think you are still depressed?

Last time he gave me a prescription for 20mg of celexa to start taking instead of cymbalta. I didn't bother filling it, because I just want to be off the medication, not start another. Unless this is a way to get off one, and eventually the other new one.
Which if so, wasn't explained to me.

Also right now I am waiting to get insurance coverage from my alumni association and if I get it, I may not be able to get it till March. I can't afford to buy cymbalta without insurance... And the reps stopped coming to the office with samples, of which
I often got , due to my schools insurance plan having a rather low limit per school year for prescriptions.

I know celexa can come generic, but I'm just not sure how this is going to help.

p.s. I also took 10 mg of Lexapro for 3 years with cymbalta....I took it once a day , and then for the last six months have been taking 5mg every other day... I have been out of lexapro since the end of dec as well...

The symptoms described go up or down depending how busy I am etc...

I am not asking for medical advice... I just want to know if anyone has experienced this and how they got through it or got their doctor to help them through it etc.

Thank you

[Amber0401]

Hey butterfly thanks for your input. You hit a chord with me on the doc sayin it's in your head. Perhaps he/she should do some research and learn that there are people who have been off cymbalta for a year and still feel withdrawal. Fact is doctors are people too and just because they've studied medicine doesn't make them all knowing. Everyone is different and experieces withdrawal differently. Cymbalta has a short half-life which makes you feel withdrawal alot faster than othe drugs. I could always feel it by 6pm or so if I hadn't taken my pill. For you to feel different after three days is expected.

Your symptoms are identical to what I've seen others including myself go through while gettin off this stuff. From what I've been told by friends who have gotten off the stuff, it took about six months for their withdrawal symptoms to go away. It is also common for a doctor to prescribe you something in order to wean off cymbalta. I myself have been offered Prozac since cymbalta cannot be written for lower than 30mg here. Bein an ex-benzo user myself I can tell you this... vicodin + benzo + cymbalta withdrawal = serious emotional rollercoaster. Don't think you are strange to be feeling so weird at week three given all that. If your doctor can't tell you that I would seek a new one. I've seen alot of bad doctors and it took me time to find one who I could trust. Once I found a good doctor I learned there really wasn't much a doctor could even do for me. There was no magic wand or pill they could give me to make my suffering go away. If you have made it to week three then you can do it butter! You've been through so much already to just give up now after all that work would really suck. But do know yes LOTS of other people have the same exact feelings as you, it's not in your head, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In fact if you don't have too much going on now then it is the perfect time to do this. I see so many who have too much going on and can't make it through this withdrawal because of their kids or job. Hang in there and get through this now. It's ok to sleep all day sometimes. Your body is suffering and you're exhausted from what your feeling. Who wouldn't be tired? I'm 25 and I sleep all day from it at times. But one day I know I will wake up and not be tired anymore. It won't last forever hang in there

[TexasWeatherGirl]

Butterfly....YOu're comments resonated with me as well. I'm on day 6 with no Cymbalta. The first three days were AMAZING!! I felt like me!! To the point that I was coming home from work and had the energy and "happiness" to dance around my apartment to new songs I had found!!! Then Saturday in the midst of a shopping spree, it hit. I had gone on a lower dose several months ago and then got upped again...so I knew exactly what it was. Dizziness, nausea, flu-like feelings...weird "out of body/slow brain" feelings. And all I could do for the next three days was sit. No energy or nothing. Like you, I also have a herniated disk and interstingly, it started hurting again this weekend too. Now, that could be from all the dancing around I did or I wondered...was the pain being masked by the Cymbalta to the point that i never felt it?? Just hoping that resolves itself soon b/c having that pain doesn't help with all the others. And like you, I have wondered are the "sad" emotions the withdrawal or the depression coming back?? And I guess the answer is, who knows? There are moments where I just want to say "fine, I'll go back on the 20mg and live my life out that way." But, then I continue to realize that that way isn't me. So, I'm going to try and fight through this. But it really aggravates me when drs say "It's all in your head" for whatever reason. If this type of HELL is all in my head...then we need to re-evaluate some new issues then! IRonically, my sister had an ankle replacement surgery a few months back and now can't eat anything b/c everything upsets her stomach. Of course, the dr threw pills at her first and when that didn't work he told her that it was her system getting rid of the morphine. yeah...she has lost more than 30lbs in 3 months b/c she can't eat more than 4 bites of anything. While I admire that she's lost the weight, it's not the right way. While I digress...my point is that I'm losing faith in our medical field, one that I used to be part of. Just seems like there are so few that genuinely want to help anymore....or maybe that's all in my head too!

At any rate...hang in there!!! We're all behind you!!!

[Butterflywithdrawal]

Thank you to both of you!

Your responses give me hope and made me shed a tear... Cause I'm not alone and that it isn't all inside my head!!!

Well I just got my period, so I think some of those emotions were from PMS. Now after a few days I don't feel as weepy or tired... I also don't feel the withdrawal as strong.
So perhaps the hormone changes in my body due to that , increased the withdrawal feelings...Or it was more intense because of PMS symptoms.

I'm going to continue to stay off cymbalta .... I mean going on it again, would only mean I would have to go through this again... I just don't plan to do that, unless I can't live like that anymore.

I might take the psyche doc up on the celexa offer to get me off cymbalta... I just don't know then, if I will have to go through the same things getting off Celexa... You know? I guess I'll ask him that when I see him again.

As for him being a good or bad doctor, I believe he is good, but I also believe he is very something IDK. He was referred by my neurologist whom is very good, and my mom has been seeing for her MS for over 20 years.
This is why I feel my psyche doc is good, but maybe I need to act a little less sheepish and more firm when talking with him to get him to understand....

Thanks, I value both your post and wish you so much luck and support getting through this too!

[Amber0401]

Np we all have crappy days. Today has been especially bad for me. Just spent the day grabbing my head crying because I can reach where it hurts.