Hello, I am 61 years old and have been taking various SSRI/SNRI antidepressants for about 28 years for anxiety/sleep problems/depression. After taking 60 mg cymbalta for about 14 years, my psychiatrist advised “the time has come to stop taking cymbalta”. I did not push back, unfortunately, and in May 2018 I began tapering using the bead counting method. My brand of cymbalta had ~360 beads, and tapering proceeded without major incident. My withdrawal symptoms were relatively minor and were mainly GI issues, itching, various aches and pains that would come and go, and very mild, almost imperceptible tinnitus.
However in December 2019, when I tapered down to 21 beads (~3.5 mg), I developed shortness of breath. This was especially prominent when lying down in bed. I increased to 26 beads (~4.3 mg) and the breathing issues resolved so I continued tapering but more slowly. In August 2020 it happened again at 19 beads (~3.2 mg). I increased to 27 beads (~4.5 mg) and breathing again returned to normal. I continued tapering but shortness of breath happened again in March 2021 at 17 beads (~2.8 mg). This time adding back beads did not resolve the problem so I kept adding beads until I reached 30 beads (~5 mg). I quickly realized this was a big mistake as it kicked off brutal anxiety to go along with the shortness of breath.
By this time my psychiatrist stopped practicing and in mid-April my general practitioner prescribed 20 mg lexapro. This relieved my anxiety and breathing issues, but after 10 days of taking lexapro I awoke with screaming, awful tinnitus. After about six weeks it became unbearable and my doctor switched me to Effexor. This did not resolve the tinnitus so my doctor referred me to a new psychiatrist who switched me back to cymbalta (30 mg) on September 1. He reasoned that I did not have tinnitus for the many years I was taking cymbalta, and that cymbalta is also less prone to causing tinnitus. Unfortunately switching to cymbalta has not resolved the tinnitus, although it is not as severe as when it started on lexapro. My psychiatrist now thinks my best bet to beat the tinnitus is to get off antidepressants all together. He suggested switching to Prozac and tapering off of that. I proposed first trying tapering cymbalta to an intermediate dose that is less than 30 mg but greater than about 5 mg, in an effort to find a dose that is free from both tinnitus and shortness of breath.
So several days ago I began tapering at 1 bead a day. Unfortunately it seems that my nervous system has become sensitized because several hours after taking the -1 bead dose I had some itching and my tinnitus became louder and more steady. After reaching -3 beads my tinnitus was pretty bad so today I went back up to a full 30 mg dose to try to stabilize.
This all leads me to believe that I will not be able to find an intermediate dose since the mere act of tapering aggravates my tinnitus. So it seems I will have to taper off completely to have any hope of stopping the tinnitus as suggested by my psychiatrist. But I’m not sure how I can do this due to my difficulties with shortness of breath let alone the worsening of my tinnitus by simply removing a few beads.
I’m now feeling pretty hopeless about my situation. Can the learned folks here please suggest a course of action? Should I try again to taper off cymbalta? Should I switch to Prozac and taper? Or should I just stay on cymbalta and hope that my tinnitus resolves itself over time or at least decreases in severity.
To further complicate matters, a close friend is a pharmaceutical clinical scientist with some 30 years experience who suggested that my body may be craving the full dose of cymbalta that I was on previously. She has suggested that I might find relief by bumping up my dose to 60 mg. Does this sound like something worth trying?
I would be very grateful for any advice that can be can provided.
