3 replies to this topic

[MaureenV]

Thank you so very much! That's a GREAT solution! We should go after the pharmaceutical companies to demand that they provide tapering dosages.

God Bless you!

Kathryn

That WOULD be a great solution, however before they do that, they'll have to acknowledge to the medical world that there are significant problems out there for many people who try to drop from either 30mg or 20mg.

Sadly, they're not going to do that in a hurry.

Julie, not sure why you had such difficulty with dividing the 20mg dose??? Buy buying clear gelatine capsules I found it relatively easy to divide it. I just did it so they were at the same level in the clear capsule. Doing a random count from time to time confirmed it was accurate.

I think this is where the clear capsules really are necessary though, unless you want to go through the tedious process of counting the beads, which I only did once I got to less than 5mg. (5mg being only 45 beads).


regards, Maureen.

[MaureenV]

Maureen, last night I cut four more beads out! How slowly did you cut your beads. I feel really anxious today,

I went from 20mg to zero over about 10 weeks. (Was on 30/60 -discovered this site when doing alternating 30 - needed to only take 20mg to feel o.k. again.)


I had some 60mg caps and some 30mg caps so the adjustments I made were partly to do with how these doses divided. I bought some empty gelatine capsules, which are clear, and which made the dividing easier.

The key to weaning is to not drop again until you feel perfectly well after a drop.

For some people, it takes nearly a week for the withdrawal symptoms to appear, so you need to do a bit of trial and error to see what it's like for you.

Remember, the objective is to get off Cymbalta with the minimum amount of symptoms, not the greatest speed, although I don't think there's been a single one of us here who's done the tapering and hasn't got a bit impatient at times and tried to go a bit faster, only to have to backtrack a bit.

regards, Maureen.

[MaureenV]

I've divided the 180 little white bids by 4. I'm going to try to take a 1/4th of a pill over the next 4 days and see if that helps with withdrawal symptoms.

Hi Michelle,

I read your earlier post, too.


Try not to be too influenced by what 'professionals' tell you; there IS some accuracy in what they're saying, but the consequences for those of us who've done the tapering this way are inconsequential, and the benefits huge, and here's why:


Yes, the little beads ARE frequently a different size, but if you take a 20mg capsule, the SUM of the little beads comes to a 20mg dose. You're dividing that by four, so you've got 45 beads in each approx, which is approx 5mg. What the heck if one is 4.95 (because it's got a disproportionate number of tiny beads), the next 5.05 )because it's got a disproportionate number of larger beads) etc etc (and they're probably closer than that anyway)? You're still light years ahead of any other option for coming off Cymbalta.

I did most of my tapering by dividing up the contents visually with clear capsules, so was going on volume, not number, but when I double checked a few times was surprisingly accurate.

What do you suppose a compounding chemist is going to do? Exactly the same as Eli Lilly do - select the beads at random given that the large number per dose means that ON AVERAGE the dose is going to be correct.


regards, Maureen.

[River Gal]

Julie,

Thank you so much for this info. May indeed come in handy, and is GREAT to know.

I think a common theme of success here is the slow taper, as you've indicated, and as I'm trying. Wishing luck to us and everyone out there who is trying...