8 replies to this topic

[Caryn]

Here's the background:

I've been suffering from depression for years and have taken Prozac in the past with good results until the drug pooped out on me and stopped working.
I've been unemployed since I was laid off in April of 08. Since that time I have practically lost everything and am "barely" hanging on. I haven't been able to find "any" work in 2 years regardless of searching for work everyday. This has made me scared, worried and VERY, VERY DEPRESSED!!!

I see a phychiatrist through a free program for the poor. I get this drug free of charge through this program. This doctor put me on 20mg of Cymbalta 10 days ago and at the end of the 14th day, I am supposed to up the dosage to 30mg.

At no time did she tell me that it was a drug that would be hell to get off of. I only want to take ant-depressants until I can get my life back together and begin working again. After doing a ton of research on this drug, I ended up here and after reading what you all are going through trying to wean off Cymbalta, I'm TERRIFIED of having to go through the same thing!

So far, Cymbalta has helped me with the depression, that is, until the last 2 days or so. I'm not feeling terribly bad, but not great either and I've only taken 10 20 mg's. I was feeling GREAT for the first time in a loooong time after I began taking it for a few days. Not so much now.

Should I go up to 30mg. and risk the withdrawl or quit taking it and ask for another anti-depressant? Considering I've only taken 20mg's over a period of 10 days, will I have the horrid withdrawls you all are experiencing? I know you guys aren't doctors and probably cannot tell me what to do, but some insight or advice would be GREAT!!!

I don't know which is worse, the depression or the fear of withdrawing off this drug and possibly having to go through what you all unfortunately are.

Thanks in advance!

Caryn

[cookie]

Dear Caryn:

I empathize with your story. I have suffered from severe depression for 5 years. Also took prozac in the past with good results. Also have been unemployed all these years and haven´t been able to find work regardless of searching for work. This also made me more depressed.

It is so smart of you of doing reseach before taking the drug. My doctor never told me about side or withdrawal effects.

To tell you the truth, Cymbalta was for me a good antidepressant. My severe depression didn´t allow me to eat, concentrate, socialize, get up of bed. After 2 weeks of taking it my depression symptoms improved a lot. Cymbalta is such a good antidepressant, that it seems I can deduce, this is the reason why it is hard quitting it. The brain gets so used to a pill doing it´s work, that it becomes lazy and when you do not have the drug anymore, the brain doesn´t know how to function without the pill. I am not a doctor. Just a patient that feels this way based on own experience.

The other thing is that after many years of taking cymb., it´s effectiveness wasn´t the same as at the beginning. In spite of taking 60mg of cymbalta for 5 years, I am still not able “to get my life back together and be working again” (as you said).

Caryn it is your decision, to keep on taking cymbalta which improves your depression symptoms or change to another antidepressant. (If it is out there one as effective, and has no withdrawals). It is also your decisión to increase from 20mg to 30mg. Although I would suggest to stay in 20mg if you decide to keep on taking cymbalta.

What I´m trying to figure out from this site. Is if cymbalta gives you, additional symptoms as the symptoms cymbalta was prescribed. I haven´t found if the withdrawal symptoms are the same illness (Depression) coming back or symptoms that people never had before taking the drug.

After my effort of 5 years, I´m trying to reduce cymbalta dosage to a minimum and if I am able, I would like to be medicine free. There must be natural ways to boost neurotrasmitters. I´ve experienced that healthy food, exercise and yoga are great for fighting depression.

Keep us posted on your decision and progress
Hugs
Cookie

[SundayGirl]

Cymbalta got me through some really tough times. I could not have managed without it. So chin up! Even though we seem to describe it as "the beast" as we come off of it, I'd say a lot of positives do come from it's use.

ATB

Sunday

[Caryn]

Thank you so much for responding!

I am supposed to increase my dosage from 20mg. to 30mg. BEFORE I see my doc June 4th.
She gave me 2 weeks of the 20mg. and a 30 day supply of the 30mg. Not sure I want to do this considering what I am in for when I quit this drug. "IF" I do decide to take the 30 mg's, I will not let her talk me into increasing the dosage no-matter what! I don't want to be on Cymbalta longer than it takes me to get a job and get my life back in order. Although I have suffered with depression for years, probably most of my life, it was manageable and most of my depression this time around is related to being unemployed and scared to death of not being able to take care of myself or pay my bills.
Basically it's situational.

My boyfriend, who is my only support (we live together) is pushing me to continue taking the Cymbalta. Basically because he notices me doing better on it than before I took this drug and he can't stand another minute of living with a depressed person! I have no family support at all.

I am having some annoying side effects from taking the 20mg's. I have to sleep on a towel now because I wake up drenched in a cold sweat every morning. Not fun! Also, I'm a bit jittery and can't handle my morning coffee the way I used to. If I drink more than say a cup or 2, I get sick from all the caffein. My eyesight is fuzzy now. Before I only had to wear my glasses when my eyes got a bit tired, but now I have to wear them all the time. Everything that you guys are going through here really scares the s**t out of me. Even more scary is that I'm not finding too many weaning off of Cymbalta success stories. It seems everyone who takes this drug has a major difficulty getting off of it. I'm going to talk with my doc on my next appt. about all these fears and these posts about how hard it might be for me to get off it when the time comes, and hopefully she will be supportive. If not, I'm going to tell her I want off of it!

Thanks again for your responses! Cookie, I can so relate to everything you say about your depression, lack of job, etc.! I'm really hoping you're able to get off the Cymbalta without all the suffering and will be watching for your posts!

Hugs to all of you!

Caryn

[Bon Bon 54]

Hi, my suggestion is stick with the cymb. I, too took prozac..for 14 yrs. 3 times during that time i went off it due to becoming 'immune' to it. Each time i tried something new..and they didn't work..after 6 months each time..i went back on prozac and it worked again like a charm for a long time. I was on cymb for a year. Personally i have no side effects on prozac except spasms while increasing or decreasing. Cymb. made me a zombie, wreaked havoc with my blood sugars, and unlike prozac, drs. insist drinking any alcohol while on cymb. is out completely since cymb is already messing with your liver. I have been off cymb for 8 days now..went from 60 to 30.. stayed there for a week then stopped cold turkey. I won't lie..this hasn't been fun, but it's getting easier each day.
Bottom line..if cymbalta is working..stay there til your life is straightened out..then worry bout w/d.
Good luck,
Bon

[cookie]

Dear Caryn:
I am not a doctor, but I wouldn´t increase dosage unless is needed. If you can stay on 20mg it would be better. More if you say that this depression is situational (nor chemical). Besides if you are already having side effects this will worsen if the dosage is increased.

It is great that you have boyfriend´s support. I read that he is pushing you to continue taking cymb. However I have also read on this site, problems between couples when one start to reduce dose, and starts getting withdrawals. Explain to him what the withdrawals will be so he is prepared.

Although you say you haven´t read cymbalta success stories, I have read about people that have weaned succesfully. It is logical that in this kind of site, most people will have problems quitting, that is why they are on this site on the first place. I could deduce there are people out there who haven´t had problems and therefore, they didn´t have the need to look for this site. Not all people, respond/behave the same with the same meds.

I used to take Doctor´s advice as 100% the only truth. Now I am a more active “patient”. I research on internet and analyze recommendations. At the end, one knows our own body and there is evidence on the internet of stories of people that suffer from the same illness and take the same medicines. It will be very useful if you could talk about it with your doctor.

Hugs
Cookie

[MaureenV]

Thank you so much for responding!

I am supposed to increase my dosage from 20mg. to 30mg. BEFORE I see my doc June 4th.
She gave me 2 weeks of the 20mg. and a 30 day supply of the 30mg. Not sure I want to do this considering what I am in for when I quit this drug. "IF" I do decide to take the 30 mg's, I will not let her talk me into increasing the dosage no-matter what! I don't want to be on Cymbalta longer than it takes me to get a job and get my life back in order. Although I have suffered with depression for years, probably most of my life, it was manageable and most of my depression this time around is related to being unemployed and scared to death of not being able to take care of myself or pay my bills.
Basically it's situational.

My boyfriend, who is my only support (we live together) is pushing me to continue taking the Cymbalta. Basically because he notices me doing better on it than before I took this drug and he can't stand another minute of living with a depressed person! I have no family support at all.

I am having some annoying side effects from taking the 20mg's. I have to sleep on a towel now because I wake up drenched in a cold sweat every morning. Not fun! Also, I'm a bit jittery and can't handle my morning coffee the way I used to. If I drink more than say a cup or 2, I get sick from all the caffein. My eyesight is fuzzy now. Before I only had to wear my glasses when my eyes got a bit tired, but now I have to wear them all the time. Everything that you guys are going through here really scares the s**t out of me. Even more scary is that I'm not finding too many weaning off of Cymbalta success stories. It seems everyone who takes this drug has a major difficulty getting off of it. I'm going to talk with my doc on my next appt. about all these fears and these posts about how hard it might be for me to get off it when the time comes, and hopefully she will be supportive. If not, I'm going to tell her I want off of it!

Thanks again for your responses! Cookie, I can so relate to everything you say about your depression, lack of job, etc.! I'm really hoping you're able to get off the Cymbalta without all the suffering and will be watching for your posts!

Hugs to all of you!

Caryn

Hi Caryn,


I don't want to encourage or discourage you from going on or off Cymbalta; many people experience early side effects with do disappear with time, but I'd be wary of increasing the dose before the ones from taking 20mg settle down, if they ever do.

Keep in mind that this site is where people gravitate to when they're having problems getting off Cymbalta. The vast majority of us here are suffering symptoms and hop on the internet and end up here. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that many people have little difficulty getting of the drug, but there's also plenty of anecdotal evidence that many have great difficulty too. My beef with Eli Lilly is that they will not do the studies necessary to establish just what percentage of people fall into which camp.

You CAN get off Cymbalta fairly painlessly, even if you're one for whom withdrawal effects are going to be an issue. It just may take some time, that's all.

If the drug is otherwise working well for you, you need to take that into account as well.

regards, Maureen.

[Sapphires13]

There are other antidepressants you can take that don't have withdrawal symptoms. Rather than increasing your current dose and then having to go through the hell of decreasing again later, I'd suggest weaning off now before you get too far caught in Cymbalta's nests, and asking your doctor for something else.

[faith hope and love]

hi,Cryn

Here's the background:

I've been suffering from depression for years and have taken Prozac in the past with good results until the drug pooped out on me and stopped working.
I've been unemployed since I was laid off in April of 08. Since that time I have practically lost everything and am "barely" hanging on. I haven't been able to find "any" work in 2 years regardless of searching for work everyday. This has made me scared, worried and VERY, VERY DEPRESSED!!!

I see a phychiatrist through a free program for the poor. I get this drug free of charge through this program. This doctor put me on 20mg of Cymbalta 10 days ago and at the end of the 14th day, I am supposed to up the dosage to 30mg.

At no time did she tell me that it was a drug that would be hell to get off of. I only want to take ant-depressants until I can get my life back together and begin working again. After doing a ton of research on this drug, I ended up here and after reading what you all are going through trying to wean off Cymbalta, I'm TERRIFIED of having to go through the same thing!

So far, Cymbalta has helped me with the depression, that is, until the last 2 days or so. I'm not feeling terribly bad, but not great either and I've only taken 10 20 mg's. I was feeling GREAT for the first time in a loooong time after I began taking it for a few days. Not so much now.

Should I go up to 30mg. and risk the withdrawl or quit taking it and ask for another anti-depressant? Considering I've only taken 20mg's over a period of 10 days, will I have the horrid withdrawls you all are experiencing? I know you guys aren't doctors and probably cannot tell me what to do, but some insight or advice would be GREAT!!!

I don't know which is worse, the depression or the fear of withdrawing off this drug and possibly having to go through what you all unfortunately are.

Thanks in advance!

Caryn

hi caryn, i have been on cymbalta for over 5 years and this is the way i look at it. we should take one day at a time and not be worried about the withdrawls just be thankful you are feeling better. trust me i know what it feels like to be at the lowest and it is not worth the horriable withdrawls if you doing well on the med. i will pray that God will be with you because it is very hard to get thru this by yourself. Much Blessings