[Jenofhearts]

Hi,
I feel your pain and frustration, when I asked my PCP to take me down from 30mgs to 20mgs the nurse called back and said the doctor said it only goes as low as a 30mg dose, well I had already called my pharmacy and found out it comes in a 20mg, a lot they knew... I guess I educated them. Now I just wonder how to go down from 20mgs, I might have to resort to breaking open the capsules and counting the micro beads. At the very least i have a therapist who is much more familiar with the withdrawal process, and if need be she and my PCP could put their heads together and help me from there.
Just curious, everyone talks about benedryl, how did it help you? I am very sensitive to over the counter antihistamines, rapid heart rate etc..
Thanks and all the best to you, post often with your progress

[wendy]

So I just flushed all my leftovers last night, and I shouldn't have done that? I decided that even if I do get depressed again, I will not be going on any of these SSRI's ever again. My doctor told me not to throw them away in case I needed to go back on, but I refuse to go back on this.

I'll be 4 weeks completely clean on Saturday and I'm still crying at everything, feeling aches and pains, having times of depression (oh and a lovely 1am panic attack this morning) and having the zaps. You really have to be strong and tell yourself that it's not you and separate everything that's going on with your body as not being depression, but your body trying to cope with the aftermath of the Cymbalta. If I was really depressed again, there's no way in hell I'd be able to handle this (and I think that can be said for most of us).

[iliao93]

bambilyn said:

I was furious and she said I could possibly be bi-polar, because of all my symptoms, the brain zaps, my mood out of control,

Well, I went to my dr with all the info I had gathered from here and else where and he had the nerve to tell me the same thing! He also said he had not had any problems with any other patient stopping Cymbalta, he was very rude. He has been seeing me for years...he put me on this crap and then he says"I'm not smart enough to help you stop"!
I have had my first app. with a psycologist just to help me keep myself even and to show my dr I am not Bi Polar and in the mean time I am on the search for a new one.
Also had a question, I have 3 private messages in my outbox that seem to be stuck. They are just setting there for days now.
I use the submit button so I don't know what or if I'm doing something wrong?
Any help would be appreciated.
Bobbie

[iliao93]

Thank's Greybeard, I appreciate the input.
I don't know how to begin to find the type of Dr. I am looking for, maybe they don't exist. I need one who is a regular MD but is also open to alt. medicine and nutrition, they need to be a regular MD so my insurance will pay. Anyone have any idea's how to search?

[iliao93]

I do wish you luck Bambilyn, great your feeling better. I'll be interested to hear how your Dr. visit goes.
Be Well,
Bobbie

[marbles]

I worried about being bipolar and even asked the pschiatrist if I was and he said,"no, he did not see any thing like bi-polar....I ask myself what if a person becomes bi-polar? They have feelings also.When they are on treatment they do rather well, I knew a nurse who worked with me one time and she had bipolar.She was very nice and did a good job.I am sure she has her (days).But don`t we all? She would talk to me about depression but seemed content to be more a recluse and just do her job.She told me that her grand children helped her to keep going in life.But to look at her ,she looked as normal as anyone and if she had not told me I would never have guessed.Her actions was as normal and better than some nurses I have had the honor of meeting.I guess what I am trying to say is Thank God we do not have bi-polar but if ever that happened we would get through it.....

[paulett]

I am on my second day of no cymbalta, after reducing from 60 mg to 30 mg for over a week. I have to say that I am having little to no side effects with the exception of being a little on edge. I was on cymbalta for 5 years. I am taking it easy and not doing much or going many places, although the days seem to be very long this way.

My sister has been on 60 mg for over 2 years and her doctor told her to take one every other day for 10 days and then just quit. We both are wondering how that will work but we know we can head into the doctor or go to internal medicine physician, and I have a psychologist who will help if either of us have meltdowns. I don't know what to expect since each of us will react differently.

Perhaps these doctors should go on some of these medications themselves before they make statements such as "there are no withdrawals" from cymbalta. I would think any medication you are taking on a regular basis for years would have some effects on you when you stop taking it.

I am glad to have this site and several other ones for information on side effects and withdrawal effects. I am looking forward to the day to be off cymbalta even though it did help me the first two years on it.

I am taking monavie (acia berry and other fruits) faithfully and have no idea if it will help me through this, but I have been taking it for over a year with good health results so no need to quit that now. One day at a time is how I see it.

[ksmartin]

I certainly understand your feelings. I am currently weaning myself off Cymbalta and I am down to 30 mg. with no or little withdrawal symptoms.

Here is the trick that I learned while searching the web for some help when going through horrific withdrawal from being on Effexor for 3 years--the last 18 mos. at 450 mg. per day. My doctor (no longer my doctor) had no clue about brain zaps or any of the horrible stuff one goes through when withdrawing from SSNRIs.
Ask your doctor for a prescription of Prozac--10 mg. is enough--or 20 mg. if you plan to stay on Prozac for awhile. Take the Prozac each day along with your Cymbalta. Go very slowly on reducing the Cymbalta--at least two weeks for each lowered dose. The Prozac took away most of my brain zaps right away. Then I ended up taking 20 mgs. of Prozac for awhile. Prozac is easy to get off of because it has such a long half life.

I told my new doctor about my success with withdrawal using Prozac to reduce or stop withdrawal symptoms. She has passed it on to the other doctors in the clinic. Best of luck, and if you try this I hope it works.

[paulett]

I spoke too soon yesterday. Last evening things started going wrong and being with no cymbalta in my system, well I seemed to make mountains out of molehills for sure. I ended up taking a 30 mg but couldn't sleep much even with my Ambien. Today I took another dose and it was a hard day without having the sleep I needed. Tomorrow I am going into my doctor and asking for help with a low dose of Prozac. I almost broke down this evening and upped my dose but thankfully, my husband helped me through that feeling. I want to reclaim my life but not kill myself in the process. I am hoping the Prozac pulls me through the next week or 10 days. I truly think that Cymbalta can be life saving for some people, but the drug companies have got to give us the facts on the side effects and withdrawal symptons. I was never told how bad it was to get off Cymbalta until I was well into my third year of use. Again, do we need another "fen-fen"/vioxx class action suite with lives destroyed in the process of people just trying to get well???