4 replies to this topic

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Dear Friends:
5 years ago a major Depression struck my life. The symptoms were so awful and severe that I quit my 7 year job. I went to the best psychiatrist in town, I remember telling him that I prefer not to take any pills.. However he recommended this new & effective pill called -Cymbalta-. He talked about the scientific research and trials made on people that proved that this medicine really worked. Sounded so convincing!. So I started Cymbalta 5 years ago. Shortly my symptoms improved, although I never went back to be the person I was before.

I never thought about stopping Cymbalta until I found this site. The more I read, the more I realized that this improvement I feel is artificial (a pill is producing it) and in the long run it is messing my brain.

Since I read this site, I realized I had to quit Cymbalta, but I keep delaying the lowering process because I´m scared to go through the withdrawal symptoms, that sound worse than Depression itself. And at least cymbalta helps me to get up everyday, helps me socialize a little, exercise, things I couldn´t do while on severe Depression.

I ask myself if talking cymbalta for 5 years was worth it??? How could this drug that helped me in -the worst moment- of my life, also could make one feel so awful at the end?? How could it be Heaven & Hell??
How will I feel when I quit? Would I feel my Depression symptoms coming back or even have additional symptoms?
What if I took it for the rest of my life, so I would´nt have to deal with withdrawal symptoms??


Sooner or later I will have to stop cymbalta. I would like your advice on how to do it???
1. Since I am on 60mg what would be a smart lowering/tapering plan?? What dosage should I decrease to now??? for how long???
2. I read there are 540 beads in a 60mg capsule. How many beads are there in a 30mg capsule???

Thank you so much for listening....would like to hear your opinions
C.

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Any thoughts? or advice?

[MaureenV]

Any thoughts? or advice?

sorry I missed that post of yours. Have people coming in .... yikes, 12 minutes, so will get back to with my thoughts later.


maureen.

[MaureenV]

Dear Friends:
5 years ago a major Depression struck my life. The symptoms were so awful and severe that I quit my 7 year job. I went to the best psychiatrist in town, I remember telling him that I prefer not to take any pills.. However he recommended this new & effective pill called -Cymbalta-. He talked about the scientific research and trials made on people that proved that this medicine really worked. Sounded so convincing!. So I started Cymbalta 5 years ago. Shortly my symptoms improved, although I never went back to be the person I was before.

I never thought about stopping Cymbalta until I found this site. The more I read, the more I realized that this improvement I feel is artificial (a pill is producing it) and in the long run it is messing my brain.

Since I read this site, I realized I had to quit Cymbalta, but I keep delaying the lowering process because I´m scared to go through the withdrawal symptoms, that sound worse than Depression itself. And at least cymbalta helps me to get up everyday, helps me socialize a little, exercise, things I couldn´t do while on severe Depression.

I ask myself if talking cymbalta for 5 years was worth it??? How could this drug that helped me in -the worst moment- of my life, also could make one feel so awful at the end?? How could it be Heaven & Hell??
How will I feel when I quit? Would I feel my Depression symptoms coming back or even have additional symptoms?
What if I took it for the rest of my life, so I would´nt have to deal with withdrawal symptoms??


Sooner or later I will have to stop cymbalta. I would like your advice on how to do it???
1. Since I am on 60mg what would be a smart lowering/tapering plan?? What dosage should I decrease to now??? for how long???
2. I read there are 540 beads in a 60mg capsule. How many beads are there in a 30mg capsule???

Thank you so much for listening....would like to hear your opinions
C.

The vast majority of us seem to be on a version of Cymbalta which has the 'standard' number of beads, but I've read here of someone who had a different version which had fewer, so first thing to do is check which version you have. No need to count all of them - tip them out on to a dark plate, visually divide into sections and count one section. The other capsules someone mentioned had only about 1/4 of the beads, they must have been larger, so if you reach an approximate count that matches 540 for 60mg or 270 for 30mg then at least you know you've got the one that has 9 x beads per mg.

If you haven't sorted the details as to why you were depressed in the first place, chances are it will return. It's a bit confusing, because depression itself is a withdrawal symptom in people who were never even taking it for that in the first place.

many people seem to be able to drop down to 30mg without too much difficulty. Much as slow tapering is ideal/recommended, personally I don't think there's any harm in giving it a go for a MINIMUM of a week. You can do this with your 60mg capsules by dividing the contents into each half of the capsule and stuffing a bit of bread in each end. A visual split done carefully is very accurate, and besides, if you're taking 29.5mg one day, you're taking 30.5 the next, so no big deal.

IF, at any stage during that week you feel symptoms hitting you too hard, you can immediate bump the dose back up to 60m and start to wean more slowly once you feel o.k. IF, you feel o.k., you should wait until ANY withdrawal symptoms have disappeared before attempting to drop further, because dropping before your body has adjusted means the next drop can hit you like a ton of bricks.

Let us know what you think


regards, Maureen.

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Dear Maureen:
Thank you SO MUCH for the information. It will be very useful. It is really scary that people that took cymbalta for different uses than Depression, have had Depression as a withdrawal symptom. It means that cymbalta does mess up neurotrasmitters. I like the -dark plate- advice, since the beads are white?....I am exercising a lot, which has helped me with Depression. I hope I can still be able to exercise when I start lowering the dose. It is weird, because I haven´t started lowering the dose (I´m still on 60mg) and still I got rage (that´s not me). I´ll try to keep you updated on my progress
Thank you again
C.