36 replies to this topic

[jenn0926]

I hope I'm in the right the forum guys for I have never done this before but here goes..... I too am going into my second week off Cymbalta. Like so many other stories I've read tonight, I could no longer afford my medication and had no other choice but to stop cold turkey. I had been on Cymbalta 60 mg for 6 years and had missed a dose here and there so I had "somewhat" of an idea what I would experience going cold turkey....brain zap's, nausea, etc but because it wasn't more than tolerable I thought I could ride my way through the withdrawals until it was out of my system completely (I must have been out of my mind!) 10 days ago (Sunday before last) I took my last one and decided not to ever take it again....only to be banging on my doctor's door 4 days later believing I was having an extreme reaction. The brain zap's were so severe I couldn't focus, concentrate, anything! When I talked to my doctor and explained that I couldn't afford Cymbalta but I had to have something before I completely lost control she prescribed a generic Celexa 40 mg. I took the Celexa for 3 days and was alittle better (no more brain zap's but still had nausea and just feeling detached or disconnected) and then Saturday happened. I had a seizure...I have never seized in my life. I was sitting on the couch at a friends house and had been sleepy/lazy feeling all day and by that night I started feeling really sick and everything turned white and the next thing I knew I had 4 people just as white as I was standing over me totally perplexed. I thought I had just passed out or blacked out but they described to me that my left arm drew up tight and my left cheek spasmed with teeth clenched. CT/Blood work all ok and I'm slowly coming back to life...still have different symptoms daily but able to function....I hope I'm halfway there!

[Junior]

The bad thing is doctors prescribe antidepressants like candy. They do a world of good for some, but i just dont want to be on them forever, or go from drug to drug when one stops working

I agree. A/d's are being well and truly over prescribed...and not always for their true purpose either.

As far as not wanting to go from one to another... wiser words have never been spoken. I began to experiendce what is known as 'poop out' earlier this year so switched to another a/d. Four months and major side effects later (I wanted to slit my wrists) and I came off that. Then tried Cymbalta. Ughhh. 3 weeks on nothing and my system just went haywire. I'm now back on my original one (aropax/paxil) and will stay on it for a while to stabilise before looking at doing a slow taper.

Welcome to the board btw :)
Junior

[Junior]

Gosh Jenn,

You've already had a rough ride. I hope things improve for you from now on.
Welcome to the board :)

Junior

[nursedeborah]

Jen,
Welcome, and that's really frighting what happened to you. I for one would have just prefered to get
samples of this crap, and do it the way Ii have learned here, but that's just me.

I only hope that your doing much better, as this has reallly been hard for me, and I have beed weaning
myself off this stuff since Aug 15 or the 31, my memory was so bad I can't remember.

Just keep coming back, we are here for you! You don't have to do this alone. OK!!!!

Debbie

[jenn0926]

Yep...I'm still here. Since my last post Tuesday night I really thought the worst was over. I'm reading through all the different posts tonight and it's scaring me to death yall! I'm only almost two weeks into this and from what I'm reading it could be months before I'm through! I went a couple of days really thinking I'd hit the peak of symptoms until today. I either laughed when I should have been crying or crying when I should have been laughing. AND THE HOT FLASHES!!!! Nothing like withdrawals from Cymbalta to confuse me on whether I'm going to early menopause or thyroid disfunction!! I will never touch this stuff again.....I am determined to make it through this and I will, I just don't know how much damage I will have created along the way! I almost afraid of who the real me is going to be once this is all said and done. Hope I like her :)

[MaureenV]

Hi Jenn,

I've absolutely no doubt you'll both get there, and like the person you meet at the other end!!

Regarding the hot flushes, though. I got some of those when I was trying to get off Cymbalta the wrong way, alternating 30mg every second day, so mine were probably not as bad as others have had, but also I'm on HRT so that may have moderated them.


If you're concerned it's early menopause though, one thing I found about them was that they were completely different (for ME) from menopause ones, which were far, far harder to tolerate.

With the menopause ones, it's not just like feeling hot, it's more a weird feeling building up inside your body, often just from the waist up; combined with that there's a dramatic (for me) increase in heart rate; by the time the 'feeling' reaches your head, the heat 'breaks out', then you've got that revoltingly hot feeling for a few minutes - so hot that you break out in a sweat all over, running down inside clothes etc, sufficient to make clothes and hair damp. After a few minutes, my heart rate would settle down, then my body would 'over adjust' to the heat and I would not only be cold, but cold and wet. This whole process would be on a cycle of approx 25 minutes - I could almost set the clock by them. From what I've read, most people's menopause hot flushes would only last from between a few minutes and 10 minutes. Some are like me and have them at exact intervals, others it can be more random.

As I said, MY Cymbalta ones, apart from being milder than other people's, were also slower to build, I would spend longer hot (maybe 20 mins), then they were slower to disappear, and didn't leave me shivering, wet and cold at the end. They reminded me a lot of the blood pressure drug ones I used to go through.

Again, I must state that because I didn't go cold turkey, and because I am on HRT, any Cymbalta ones I had were not as bad as others have experienced, but if you're worried they're menopause ones, you might want to compare what's happening to what I experienced with the big M ones.

hang in there ....

Maureen.

[nursedeborah]

Jenn,
I sure give you credit for how your doing this. I couldn't even function on the stuff when they had me
on it, and then I had my first experience without the drug, and had clangging in my head. It also used
to put me into this awful place mentally where I would wake up in the am, and be so tired I would go
back to bed, and felt like I had no blood in my body for the first day as all I could do was sleep, the
second day was not any better,and then by the third day I would start to come out of whatever it was.

This stuff really did so much to me,and I am really starting to see some of the things, when I read
what other's are saying. It's like it took my memory away completely, but now I am really seeing or
remembering so much of what did happen to me while on this crap.

I am doing so much better than I was before. I started my decrease in Aug, but still on 20mg plus 22
beads.

Well guess I am rambling, and didn't even realize it, still have those days.

How are you doing?

Debbie