11 replies to this topic

[bruha242]

I am on my first week of being cymbalta free! This sucks!!! my brain feels like a bouncy ball inside my skull! I can not concentrate at all! Just like I have read on other post,"this brain buzz sucks!!!" This fatigue is also killing me!I At the end of the day I don't know if I can drive home from work. I only work a few miles from home. I work 80 hours a week and ne my brain to do my work. I have to actually lay under my desk through out the day just to try to make it through! I take 500 mg vicodin to help with the nausea. It seems to help for a little bit, but not enough.
I am so damn emotional. I went from not crying for years to braking down in to tears at a drop of a dime for no reason! Every time I move my eyes it feels as though there is an earthquake in my head! I defiantly am getting very short tempered! I am just done with this crap! If any of u have some suggestions I would really appreciate it! I might try the Benadryl today. I just can't afford to get to sleepy!
I was on cymbalta (60mg) for about two years before starting to ween off.

[Sarah J]

bruha242- sorry that you are having a hard time. Don't know why you are taking Vicodin, but I can only imagine it would make you very sleepy and make the brain fog a little worse??!!!!

I am no doctor, but the nausea many of us experience when first coming off of Cymbalta I attributed to the poison "coming out" and I did not try to fight the nausea, I went with it.

It is very disorienting when your brains are not cooperating with the work you have to do. Trying to work as you normally would and doing Cymbalta withdrawal in the early stage with an eighty hour work week? I hope you might be able to take a couple of days off and see where you are, if you are feeling better, great, if you are tons worse, please get some help from your prescriber. You might be one of the people who gets through the worst quickly,

Many people here just tough the rough stuff out, a few people experienced relief from withdrawals by taking one dose of Prozac.

Sorry, there are no magic number of days to tell you when this will be over, some people get over it quicker than others. I hope you are one of them.

[bruha242]

One of the resons that I take the vicodin is due to a broken back! When My back is killingme and I take a vicodin it helps with the brain buzz big time!

[Sarah J]

Sorry to hear about your back, what an ordeal for you to still have to try to work.

Did you start taking Cymbalta to help with the back pain?

[bruha242]

Istarted taking Cymbalta to help with the leg pain that I have from nerve damage in my back. I am the vice president of my company. If i were to take off We would really hurt. I am doing this very very slowly. but I am here trying to get things done! I would defintly rather have my back hurting me the most it ever has then go throw this withdrawl crap!

[Sarah J]

I am self-employed and understand how hard it is to take time off of work without repercussions. I stopped Cymbalta on January 13, 2008 and right now my receivables are low from the initial withdrawal where I was pretty much useless trying to work.

Cutting back on caffeine helps some. My new doctor prescribed me an anti-anxiety medicine called Clonopin which helped with the withdrawal, it smoothed out the rough edges a little bit.

Hang in there and make sure you eat light foods, if you can eat at all. Perhaps some nutritional drink shakes with vitamins might help you out. You need all of the good nutrition you can get right now.

[bruha242]

Thank you all so much for your replys. It helps just to know that there are so many other people out there going through what I am. According to Cymbalta's web page the with drawl symptoms are no where near as bad as I am getting. They need to warn people about this crap! One of the reasons I stopped taking it after two years is that my anger was getting so bad! I would keep my cool when a customer was pissing me off, but after they left or hung up the phone i would destroy everything in my office! My pay check was going to replacing things that i broke! lol i have never been a violante person!

[schmb01]

I had to jump in here and comment on the pain med. I take Oxycodone for a neurolgical disorder, and I think it actually helps with the brain zaps, and makes me stay somewhat focused. I wish it also made me tired, but sleep seems to be a thing of the past for me right now.

Sarah mentioned the protein drinks, and you may also want to consider taking an Omega 3 supplement. (A good one, not the $7 variety from WalMart) It has a natural Prozac type of effect and I feel like it is helping me.

Wow, 80 hours per week, AND withdrawal? I bow to you, because there is no way I could have done that. I realize you have a very important role in your company, yet seriously, how bad would things be if you took off an extra day or 2 to make a long weekend? You have to realize that you need to take care of you first.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Babby

[bristen]

I sooo feel for you. I have not been able to work in over a week (thank goodness for good employees)!

[bruha242]

Today has been the worst day so far. I acctually had to throw up at work with people all around me. I stll worked 10 hours though. LOL I am seeing my doctor tomorrow to talk about taking some prozac! I am taking the omega 3 right so keep your fingers crossed! I will definatly update everyone tomorrow on my progress! 1 week down, how many more will I have feeling like this? Sleep well to every one.

Ryan

[schmb01]

Sleep? What is that? I wish I could sleep!

I think the prozac is worth a try for sure. Oh, one thing about the omega 3, you will experince lemon flavored burps. (If you bought the Nordic Naturals)
Sorry to hear that you threw up! I have started taking Zantac 150 every day, and it seems to be helping with my stomach issues.

[Sarah J]

Ryan, best of luck to you today with your work. It was devastating the first week of withdrawal, I could not even focus or walk across the room, and I love my business and the work I do. My thoughts are with you that you will be on your game again soon.

You and I are in the minority with the sleep thing. Most people stop Cymbalta and can't sleep at all. Like you, I wanted to sleep ALL of the time off of it, it was the only time I had any peace during withdrawal.

It really pissed me off that I had to go on another antidepressant to get off of Cymbalta, but it was essential to me to get my brains jump started again and function. I am in awe of the people who do get through this without any help at all, but I waited 45 long days to feel human and could not risk losing my clients or my life for that matter.

Posting this link regarding the Prozac to help. You can print it out and fax it to your doctor.
The first one recommends a SINGLE dose of Prozac.
http://depression.ab.../withdrawal.htm