[poppylvr]

Hello all! I am very happy to have found this forum. I've been lurking for a bit and thought it's time to join and share.
I am a 54 y/o female. I began taking antidepressants with a brief stint on Triavil in 1975. In 1986 (I think!) I was hospitalized for the first time with severe depression, and I was released from a 3 week stay on a boatload of meds that did not work. Just a couple of months after that, fluoxetine - Prozac - was released and I began it the day it was released. For me, Prozac was a blessing from God. It alone relieved my depression and I functioned well over the next 20 years.
Sadly, in June 2007, after a couple of months of not being right and then developing an overwhelming craving to start using opiates again (I had 7 years clean & sober from IV morphine habit then), my long time psychiatrist told me that the Prozac had quit working. He is at least honest about the real way shrinks pick antidepressants for us - he basically eenie meenie miney mo'ed, and because I had some complaints with chronic back pain picked Cymbalta.
I started at 30 mg last June. It brought me from a 9 of lousiness on the 0-10 scale up to about a 7. So he increased it to 60, then 90, then 120 over a couple of months. I never felt as well as I had on Prozac and my damn drug cravings continued, so in January he said well, let's try something else. Stop the Cymbalta by going down every week or two to 30 and then stop after a couple of weeks on 30.
120 to 90, no prob. 90 to 60 no prob. 60 to 30, began with the weirdo head stuff - like my eyes were lagging behind when I turn my head. This was accompanied by dizziness. After several days of this I was miserable & he said go back to 60. I remained at 60 until June or so, and then tried again. This time I had a compounding pharmacy make me up 10 mg capsules. I was able to go to 50 for several days, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. Last week I started trying to drop off the 10 mg/day. Holy Cow! SIGNIFICANT dizziness - driving is nearly impossible. Nausea, lack of appetite, and yet all I want to eat is crap - pure carbs (oh by the way I have diabetes too :x ). Napping brings me out of it for awhile.
So what I am doing now is taking 10 mg about every 36 hours. It seems that that is the time frame when the dizziness really starts to bother me. Of course I can't do anything simply - I am also taking Suboxone to kill the cravings for drugs. Because I'm a former junky & more is better, I am now up to 8 mg/day on the Suboxone, which worsens my foggy head, & fatigue. I am resolving today to start sliding back down to 2 mg Suboxone. CYMBALTA WITHDRAWAL IS AS MUCH OF A PAIN IN THE A** AS NARCOTIC WD'S!! :shock:
MY QUESTIONS: I have read that folks are having sucess with Prozac. Anybody know if Prozac will work again after having quit working before? I have been told by my shrink that I will most likely always need an antidepressant (Have had 4 hospitalizations from several severe setbacks when I tried periods of time without Prozac in the past. Big fam history of depression, my mom suicided from it). After this awful experience with Cymbalta wd, I am unwilling to try anything else with a history of potential withdrawals, even though Effexor worked very well for my son.
other big question: HOW LONG CAN THESE WITHDRAWALS LAST????? I'm still not Cymbalta free, even tho I'm close to a homeopathic dose. I want to get my clear happy non fuzzy non nauseated non tired brain BACK!
Thanks for reading my novel. It's nice to find other folks in the same boat.

[poppylvr]

Greybeard said:

Welcome to the forum poppylvr,
May I ask where you found a compounding pharmacy to make up those 10mg cymbaltas? I know a lot of people here would find that information very helpful. 8-)


Just realize you will get past this stuff, I have heard these withdrawals are worse than narcotic withdrawals, but they do get better!!!

Best of health to you,

Peace,
Greybeard

Thanks Graybeard. I use a local Mom & Pop pharmacy that specializes in compounding.

[Attorney_Victim]

Poppylvr,
Sorry I didn't post sooner, I just now saw your original post. I can answer your question about the Prozac...YES, the Prozac will help with the withdrawal symptoms even if quit working for you previously! I know this from experience. After several yrs on Prozac, it quit working for my depression, which eventually led me to Cymbalta. On Day 4 of withdrawal (cold turkey from 60mgs) my psychiatrist prescribed the Prozac specifically to alleviate the "Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome" (medical term for withdrawals). The Prozac did help with the symptoms! She prescribed 20 mgs for 1 week then up to 40 if I thought I needed it. I stuck with 20 because when I went up to 40 about 2 wks in, I immediately felt very manic. I continued taking it for 5 weeks then stopped with my drs permission. I had no trouble at all stopping the Prozac (since it has a much longer half life, it self tapers from your system).

You are very lucky to have found a pharmacy that made you low doses of Cymbalta...some of us would have killed (literally, ha ha) to have that!! Maybe others should ask their local "mom and pop" type pharmacy to do the same...that would be awesome if people could have that done. Most people who count pellets and wean to 0 have few problems. So, you might be able to get 5 mgs capsules (and maybe even lower) and then you probably wouldn't need the Prozac.

I have a question for you...did the Cymbalta make your addiction cravings worse? I ask because many people have reported addictive behaviors (gambling, shopping, etc) while on this drug, and these are people who had no history of addiction or obsessive/compulsive behaviors. So, I wonderd how the drug might affect those who are recovering addicts.

Good luck to you!!

[poppylvr]

Attorney_Victim said:

Poppylvr,
I have a question for you...did the Cymbalta make your addiction cravings worse? I ask because many people have reported addictive behaviors (gambling, shopping, etc) while on this drug, and these are people who had no history of addiction or obsessive/compulsive behaviors. So, I wonderd how the drug might affect those who are recovering addicts.

Good luck to you!!

Hiya A-V, and thanks to all who answered.
I think the Cymbalta DID increase my cravings to an irresistable point, and then I stated the Suboxone. Sadly, I had 7.5 years of good strong clean & sober time, active in my 12 step group. It seems needlessly cruel that the damn Cymbalta attacked me in such a uniquely vulnerable spot.

I saw my doc yest 9/9/08. He agrees with ya'll that Prozac will stop the discontinuation symptoms, and said he thinks that Prozac has as much of a chance of working again as any new AD has (if that makes sense). So I started back up on generic fluoxetine 20 mg yesterday.
The good news: I have not had ANY Cymbalta since Mon am. Within an hour or so of the 1st fluox pill, the dizziness went down from an 8 to a 0.5. I noticed a marked improvement in my mood. The very first time I started Prozac back in 1987 within about 3 days it was working for my very severe depression. So what I experienced yest, was pleasant and hopeful and if it's placebo effect, so be it, bring it on .
Today however.....Took second fluox pill. No Cymbalta dizziness...but about 1 hour later began with headache 2-3/10, and then first feeling nauseated & then actual siginifcant vomiting. Doc had warned me I might have trouble with n/v, & sure enough, I did. I have even called in sick to work, which I HATE to do.
Right now, nearly 5 pm, beginning to feel nauseated again, but haven't eaten since I lost breakfast.
I'm so confused and upset right now. I don't know how much of the nausea is from the fluox, the cymbalta wean, the diabetes (one of my diabetes meds makes me real nauseated if my blood sugar drops) plus the Suboxone added in to stir up the mix. I'm very distressed. I plan on taking a half dose of Sub tonight (a very powerful addictive narcotic in its own right), and I need to try to get something in my stomach to counter the diabetes nausea.
SHIT! I just want to back up to 2 years ago when the Prozac was still working, I didn't crave narcotics & I had barely heard of Cymbalta. I hate it when I get into these magical thinking things...GGRRRR.
Here's hoping I'll feel better & be more rational tomorrow. The rest of my plan is to hold off on the Prozac tomorrow, hold off on the Byetta shot tomorrow (suggested by my diabetes doc) and to hope for no dizziness and especially no nausea or vomiting. Please wish me luck, all.

[poppylvr]

An update: Sept 15
Have not had one of my 10 mg Cymbalta caps since Thursday & today is Monday. I was feeling a little dizzy yesterday, but nothing like last week.
I have been taking 20 mg Prozac every other day, and as of today am now taking it every day. Because of my long severe history of depression, I will be staying on Prozac which worked very well for me.
Learned yesterday that the culprit in my severe nausea & vomiting is absolutely the Byetta injection for diabetes. Not sure what that means in terms of my diabetes care.
Good luck to all who are doing the wean off this hateful drug.

[poppylvr]

An update: 17 days after my last dose of Cymbalta. I feel good, back to normal. I am not having any problems with dizziness, vertigo or nausea. I am taking Prozac 20mg per day. Prozac is an old friene, and I feel good on it.
Strangely, I miss the wild dreams I had while using Cymbalta. I also notice after the fact that it was pretty darn good at covering up the general aches & pains of being 54. I had gone months without needing ibuprofen or tylenol while on Cymbalta, and now I am back to needing them again for my creaky achey old self.
MORAL OF MY STORY: Hang in there! I hope each and every one of you gets to feeling this good once off Cymbalta. I am pleasantly surprised to have no long term after effects. May you all do as well as I have.