My primary care doctor prescribed 60mg Cymbalta for me for chronic muscle pain in my back - a problem I've had for 13 years. I had tried everything else so I was willing to give this a try.
Within days, my mind was racing and I could not sit still. I felt like I was coming out of my skin. I started biting the insides of my cheeks and grinding my teeth so hard at night I had lockjaw every morning. I already had a mouthguard for light clenching but all of a sudden I was like a pit bull with that thing. I had insomnia. I had read that it took a couple weeks to get used to the side effects, so I thought I just had to wait it out. I tried Trazadone and Flexiril to sleep - neither worked. Trazadone gave me nightmares and Flexiril did nothing. Under normal circumstances a Flexiril is like a tranquilizer dart to me. I had an Rx for Xanax which I mostly take to fly, and I asked my doc if I could take that each night and he said yes. That helped, plus I doubled my dosage of Elavil (which was just a baby dose) which I take for migraine prevention, and this helped me sleep.
About this time, a couple weeks in, it was clear that these side effects were not getting better but worse - but my doc went on vacation for like 2 weeks. I became angry and rageful. Impatient, yelling at my young kids. The inside of my mouth was destroyed. I am normally a happy and patient person, and I take pride in how gentle and patient I usually am with my kids. I got in to see my doc upon his return when I had been taking the Cymbalta for a month, and he agreed that I had to get off that stuff. He put me on a taper plan which would have gone on for many weeks. After a couple weeks on the taper I was still feeling all of this and I asked him if I could just be done, and could I take the Xanax more often since it seemed to be the only thing that helped. My doc said absolutely, take the Xanax 3x a day. The Xanax is tremendously effective and I feel more normal than I have in a long time on this plan.
So that's where I am - the Xanax is working, the rage is subsiding, or both. I am starting to feel my other emotions come back, but without the Xanax it is as though my governor has disappeared: if I am happy I am really happy, angry is really angry, sad is really sad. It's been one week since I've gone totally off the drug.
Prior to trying Cymbalta, I suffered from PTSD but this is largely under control for me through cognitive therapy. Other than the anxiety I have not had any mood disorders and I never felt like I needed to medicate the anxiety (well, other than dysfunctionally prior to therapy, but the trauma was 20 years ago and I consider myself a whole and healthy person despite still dealing with some of my "stuff").
My question is, why did this drug affect me like this? I am sensitive to meds in general, and I know that the norepinephrine is the agent that can affect these reactions, but everything I read about Cymbalta causing these reactions seems to apply to Bipolar I or Bipolar II diagnoses. Now I feel worried that this drug has somehow changed my brain chemistry and I am not going to get back to normal.
Any input or experiences would be very welcome, thanks in advance.