4 replies to this topic

[svaughn]

OK taking 60mg. went down to 40 for 2 weeks then 20 for 2 weeks then 20 every other day for week then done. BOTTOM HAS DROPPED OUT. I will not go into it bc i know you all know. Now i was rx klonopin to ease symptoms and at first it was great but it has not been doing what it was. So the DR says today go back to 20. take for 2 days and skip..basically just play by ear. Now i did not want to go back but apparently didnt have a choice bc i have to live and care for me and my daughter. AND of course he says opening them is a big NO NO...but how would i decrease from 20. can someone please explain about opening it and putting it a new capsule and where do you get that.

For it to do all this is SCARY...and i just dont think they get it...they say well its the withdrawal symptoms..NO SHIT...i know that..I mean dr is nice and understandnig and doesnt look at me like i am stupid when i tell him about brain zaps and says we will get thru this but i am so unsure and scared. I mean i dont see how it is possible to go back to 20 and go real slow going off. even if that means a 20 every 2-3 days. So how can i make the 20 smaller and break up?
I mean has this one and all the other ones warped my brain? i feel like it has. ugh. good luck to all. glad to see people who know what i am feeling!!!! it mean sooo much.

[svaughn]

Okay me again...asking that i want to know...does it really work going that low..i mean i have read that some went down to 5mg?? but if so i need someone to tell me exactly how to do it??ok thanks.

[MaureenV]

Okay me again...asking that i want to know...does it really work going that low..i mean i have read that some went down to 5mg?? but if so i need someone to tell me exactly how to do it??ok thanks.

Hi - I went down to 1mg before dropping completely - had some brain zaps etc for nearly a month - but very mild and very manageable.

For a start, forget taking anything every other day. All you do is start your body withdrawing, then introduce the drug to your system again, next day you start withdrawing again. It's one of the most common problems we see on here - you achieve virtually nothing by doing it this way.

Whatever you take, take it every day.

Hope you read my post about it not being a problem opening the capsules, if not, have a look, it was answering your other post yesterday.

Not sure where you buy them in the US, - health food stores or chemist etc - a search on the website of some of the larger ones near you may help, or hopefully someone from the us will post saying where they got them.

When you open the capsule (easy to do - just ease the two halves apart) you'll find a zillion little beads inside (180 in a 20mg).

Good idea to have a large plate or somesuch underneath to catch any spills. Holding the two halves of the empty gelatine ones, tip half the contents of the 20mg Cymbalta into each - as the capsules are clear is easy to see if they're relatively even. Even if you're a little bit out, it doesn't matter too much as you're still getting 20mg over two days.

This is the fastest and easiest way - you've then got the dose for two days.

To be honest, I wouldn't go straight to 10mg each day. I went from 20 to 15 to 12.5 to 10 etc etc, way down to 1mg.

Once you get down to smaller doses counting the beads can be faster and more accurate but more than 5mg it was much, much faster to do it visually, and I had several days dosage in a matter of minutes.

You stay on each dose until you feel perfectly o.k., then drop a bit. If you get no further symptoms after a week, you could try dropping again. For me, the symptoms hit again by late in the day I dropped, but had gone by about another six days. This was doing a very, very, slow taper, which I had to do because of my work.

First, get your hands on some clear gelatine capsules.

There'll (almost) always be someone here to respond.

regards, Maureen.

[svaughn]

Hi - I went down to 1mg before dropping completely - had some brain zaps etc for nearly a month - but very mild and very manageable.

For a start, forget taking anything every other day. All you do is start your body withdrawing, then introduce the drug to your system again, next day you start withdrawing again. It's one of the most common problems we see on here - you achieve virtually nothing by doing it this way.

Whatever you take, take it every day.

Hope you read my post about it not being a problem opening the capsules, if not, have a look, it was answering your other post yesterday.

Not sure where you buy them in the US, - health food stores or chemist etc - a search on the website of some of the larger ones near you may help, or hopefully someone from the us will post saying where they got them.

When you open the capsule (easy to do - just ease the two halves apart) you'll find a zillion little beads inside (180 in a 20mg).

Good idea to have a large plate or somesuch underneath to catch any spills. Holding the two halves of the empty gelatine ones, tip half the contents of the 20mg Cymbalta into each - as the capsules are clear is easy to see if they're relatively even. Even if you're a little bit out, it doesn't matter too much as you're still getting 20mg over two days.

This is the fastest and easiest way - you've then got the dose for two days.

To be honest, I wouldn't go straight to 10mg each day. I went from 20 to 15 to 12.5 to 10 etc etc, way down to 1mg.

Once you get down to smaller doses counting the beads can be faster and more accurate but more than 5mg it was much, much faster to do it visually, and I had several days dosage in a matter of minutes.

You stay on each dose until you feel perfectly o.k., then drop a bit. If you get no further symptoms after a week, you could try dropping again. For me, the symptoms hit again by late in the day I dropped, but had gone by about another six days. This was doing a very, very, slow taper, which I had to do because of my work.

First, get your hands on some clear gelatine capsules.

There'll (almost) always be someone here to respond.

regards, Maureen.

I cant fine time released capsules around here. just regular ones. I have a BUNCH of 60mg samples. Could i discard the contents in those and use those empty capsules when dividing up my 20mg? is that ok to use the empty capsule from the 60mg.

[MaureenV]

I cant fine time released capsules around here. just regular ones. I have a BUNCH of 60mg samples. Could i discard the contents in those and use those empty capsules when dividing up my 20mg? is that ok to use the empty capsule from the 60mg.

Hi shannon, just answered this in the other thread.

The way most of us look up this site is by the new entries, rather than going through the individual threads, so don't worry about your post not being seen in an individual thread - I'll see it wherever you post it.

regards, Maureen.