7 replies to this topic

[dirkp]

hi folks,

first of all i would like to thank the initiators of this forum and all users for writing valuable content - i guess this forum helped me a lot.

i was prescribed 30mg for back pain ... luckily i had a friend who told me that dicontinuing antidepressants is not done by just stopping using it. because of his hint i searched the internet for tips and found this forum. because of some horror stories (brain zaps etc.) i read here i was close to stopping my medication after the first days. i continued because weaning off slowly (opening the capsules and counting the balls) or switch to prozac as i read in this forum seemed to work.

alright, after 6 months on 30mg cymbalta i felt better and decided to wean off slowly. i lowered my dosage 1/3 every week, (30mg, 20mg, 14mg, 10mg, ....). at first i just opened the capsule, put off the balls, splitted them to 3 eaqually sized heaps and put two heaps back in the capsules (i bought some empty capsules at the drugstore and crafted a paper-fullel to refill the capsules). at the end i counted the single balls and filled them back in the capsule. luckily this worked - i had no side effects - no brain zaps and no anything! even in the three months i am completely off cymbalta now i have no withdraw effects, so i hope there are none come in the future. my plan b was to ask my doctor for prozac or order some prozac from some online pharmacy, but luckily i didnt need to switch to plan b.

so i hope my post helps some reader to wean off cymbalta! i wish all the best to anyone weaning off right now!

regards, dirk

[fellow sufferer]

Hi everyone!

I just wants to say that I can't thank you enough for all you have shared on this forum. It has been over two months of weaning myself off of the 30 mg I was on of Cymbalta for...I don't quite remember...either 4, maybe 5 years. It has been about 15 days of no cymbalta at all, and i definitely see a light at the end of the tunnel. It surely has been hell and I sure can relate to the rest of you with all of those awful side effects. MY brain is still foggy (and weird feeling/brain zaps but much milder and infrequent) and I am still quite bloated and way more emotional than while on cymbalta. But considering i took the drug for anxiety/PTSd & depression i guess thats to be expected.

It isn't over for me yet, by a long shot but I am soooooo much better and you will be too. Eventually. I'll still be around on this blog and hope that we feel better on every level day by day.
All the best to you,

xo

[dirkp]

When you got closer to the end, did you start removing less beads each day? I worry that if I go from -10 beads, -5 beads, then done that it might be too fast. Thought I might try -4 beads for a little while (about a week), then -3 beads for a week, and then so on. I know everyone is different, but could you tell me what number of beads you were on when you stopped? Thanks.

Hi Kaitlyn,

yes - as i wrote in my first post i decreased the amount of mg's (respectively balls) by 1/3 each week - because same as you i was scared to take away the same amount of balls at the end.

So for example if you are down to 30balls a week that is roughly:

week 2: 20 balls
week 3: 14 balls (-6 balls)
week 4: 10 balls (-4 balls)
week 5: 6 balls (-4 balls)
week 7: 4 balls (-2 balls)
week 8: 2 balls (-2 balls)
week 9: 1 ball (-1 ball)
week 10: zero (-1 ball)

HTH + Good luck to all

Dirk

[MaureenV]

Hi Kaitlyn,

yes - as i wrote in my first post i decreased the amount of mg's (respectively balls) by 1/3 each week - because same as you i was scared to take away the same amount of balls at the end.

So for example if you are down to 30balls a week that is roughly:

week 2: 20 balls
week 3: 14 balls (-6 balls)
week 4: 10 balls (-4 balls)
week 5: 6 balls (-4 balls)
week 7: 4 balls (-2 balls)
week 8: 2 balls (-2 balls)
week 9: 1 ball (-1 ball)
week 10: zero (-1 ball)

HTH + Good luck to all

Dirk

I agree. I did a very slow (10 week) wean from 20mg (after being on 30 / 60 / 30 mg) to zero, tried to stop at 10mg without success, then went down 1mg at a time with only very mild symptoms each time.

I stopped completely at 1mg (9 balls) but if I had my time over again, once at 1mg, I'd drop one ball at a time.

Although the withdrawal effects are obviously much milder at that stage, you can be so fed up with them than even mild effects can be very trying.

It took nearly 3 x weeks for the brain zaps to disappear completely, although again I must stress that all symptoms were much milder than trying to do 30mg alternate days.


regards, Maureen.

[QueenTimely]

Glad to hear it! I'm almost there, I think -- down from 60 to 15 over the last few months.

hi folks,

first of all i would like to thank the initiators of this forum and all users for writing valuable content - i guess this forum helped me a lot.

i was prescribed 30mg for back pain ... luckily i had a friend who told me that dicontinuing antidepressants is not done by just stopping using it. because of his hint i searched the internet for tips and found this forum. because of some horror stories (brain zaps etc.) i read here i was close to stopping my medication after the first days. i continued because weaning off slowly (opening the capsules and counting the balls) or switch to prozac as i read in this forum seemed to work.

alright, after 6 months on 30mg cymbalta i felt better and decided to wean off slowly. i lowered my dosage 1/3 every week, (30mg, 20mg, 14mg, 10mg, ....). at first i just opened the capsule, put off the balls, splitted them to 3 eaqually sized heaps and put two heaps back in the capsules (i bought some empty capsules at the drugstore and crafted a paper-fullel to refill the capsules). at the end i counted the single balls and filled them back in the capsule. luckily this worked - i had no side effects - no brain zaps and no anything! even in the three months i am completely off cymbalta now i have no withdraw effects, so i hope there are none come in the future. my plan b was to ask my doctor for prozac or order some prozac from some online pharmacy, but luckily i didnt need to switch to plan b.

so i hope my post helps some reader to wean off cymbalta! i wish all the best to anyone weaning off right now!

regards, dirk

[MaureenV]

I’ve heard Dr. Laura on the radio say, “I can’t cure normal.” Feeling bad is normal – it is an indication that something in your life is not good. It is our heart and mind and body telling us that somewhere something in our lives needs to fixed. Feelings need to be felt. We keep pushing down our feelings trying not to feel them and it only prolongs the pain – a feeling completely felt will eventually dissipate. A feeling completely felt is dealt with, one way or another, perhaps a change is made, perhaps you just face and release it.

For ten years I have taken antidepressants – pushed by my doctors and my family. I have experienced chronic drowsiness, inability to focus, insomnia, headache, dizziness, sweating, decreased sex drive, dry mouth…I am not even sure what else. These are heavy drugs! The worst part is that all it did was enable me to tolerate stuff in my life I should have put a stop to years ago. I was not facing my problems or dealing with them. I was numbing out so that I could get through another day. Eventually it caught up to me and then what? Now on top of all the problems I was having I had to face the guilt and shame of not being present in my own life for ten years – or the lives of my children. I have missed out on so much and I do not want to miss any more. Not another day.

I have been off of the drugs for a month now and I have not felt this good in more years than I can count. I am fully “here” – finally. I can feel the difference in my body and in my ability to concentrate and be present with people and myself. I can sleep for a whole night. My children can feel the difference. I can tap into what I need and want and have a complete thought for a change. I can ask for what I need (because I am not numb inside) and function in this world taking responsibility for having my own needs met. All because I stopped taking antidepressants and was able to finally get some clarity about my life. I did not wait for “things to get better” before I made this decision. I realized that “things” may never get better because I was too anesthetized to do anything about the mess I had created. I still feel really sad inside and I just hope and pray that I can deal with what I need to deal with without resorting to drugs. I just can’t do it anymore! I am wondering if there was a “peak” point in the withdrawal process that was particularly hard for people? Is it four weeks? 2 weeks? 6 weeks? Any thoughts…?

It's different for everyone, and the only guide as to how it might be for you is to know the dose, the time you spent withdrawing etc etc. We'd need ALL of that before anyone else could comment on how long it's likely to take.

regards, Maureen.

[Solitude]

I’ve heard Dr. Laura on the radio say, “I can’t cure normal.” Feeling bad is normal – it is an indication that something in your life is not good. It is our heart and mind and body telling us that somewhere something in our lives needs to fixed. Feelings need to be felt. We keep pushing down our feelings trying not to feel them and it only prolongs the pain – a feeling completely felt will eventually dissipate. A feeling completely felt is dealt with, one way or another, perhaps a change is made, perhaps you just face and release it.

For ten years I have taken antidepressants – pushed by my doctors and my family. I have experienced chronic drowsiness, inability to focus, insomnia, headache, dizziness, sweating, decreased sex drive, dry mouth…I am not even sure what else. These are heavy drugs! The worst part is that all it did was enable me to tolerate stuff in my life I should have put a stop to years ago. I was not facing my problems or dealing with them. I was numbing out so that I could get through another day. Eventually it caught up to me and then what? Now on top of all the problems I was having I had to face the guilt and shame of not being present in my own life for ten years – or the lives of my children. I have missed out on so much and I do not want to miss any more. Not another day.

I have been off of the drugs for a month now and I have not felt this good in more years than I can count. I am fully “here” – finally. I can feel the difference in my body and in my ability to concentrate and be present with people and myself. I can sleep for a whole night. My children can feel the difference. I can tap into what I need and want and have a complete thought for a change. I can ask for what I need (because I am not numb inside) and function in this world taking responsibility for having my own needs met. All because I stopped taking antidepressants and was able to finally get some clarity about my life. I did not wait for “things to get better” before I made this decision. I realized that “things” may never get better because I was too anesthetized to do anything about the mess I had created. I still feel really sad inside and I just hope and pray that I can deal with what I need to deal with without resorting to drugs. I just can’t do it anymore! I am wondering if there was a “peak” point in the withdrawal process that was particularly hard for people? Is it four weeks? 2 weeks? 6 weeks? Any thoughts…?

[MaureenV]

Thanks - I went down to 20 mg per day for about a year. Then I started taking them every other day for about 6 months. Then I just stopped cold turkey...my symptoms have not been too bad - but I was wondering if it could get worse (as time progresses) before it gets better.

To be honest, I haven't seen anyone with your particular track record. Six months is a long time to be doing alternate days, and I would have thought if you were going to have particular problems you would have had them then. Most people who are going to have the greatest difficulty getting off Cymbalta find the alternate days just does not work for them.

Perhaps in your case your body metabolised them more slowly than for most people, in which case you're 'effectively' going cold turkey from 10mg per day. I tried doing that, unsuccessfully, although the symptoms were not too bad, the brain fog meant I spent all day working and pretty much ended up not achieving anything.

When I eventually stopped (at 1mg) (after dropping 1mg every four days or so) I had mild symptoms which lasted nearly three weeks. So in comparison, a month is still not a long time to be off, and you may need to allow longer, but you SHOULD, I would have thought, be feeling continually better. If you're not, is it possible that the way you're feeling is underlying depression, and not actually a withdrawal symptom?


regards, Maureen.