My history: I had been taking 90 mg a day for about a year. Before that I took 60 mg for about 2 years. My doc suggested increasing my dose to 90 because I felt like the drug was no longer working well. I did feel better initially after increasing my dose, but then I kind of leveled out again and started feeling tired all the time like I had been before. That was my main complaint about Cymbalta - I was ALWAYS tired. I never slept well while I was on it. My husband told me my legs twitched in my sleep all the time. And it killed my sex drive. So like many of you, I started wondering if I really needed to stay on this drug, and even if I did, if the bad side effects were worth any benefit it was giving me.
My psychiatrist was actually supportive when I told her I would like to get off Cymbalta. My life circumstances are so much better than they were when I started taking antidepressants. I just feel instinctively that I don't need medication anymore. Anyway, my doc told me I should taper down my dose by going from 90 mg to 60 mg for a couple of weeks, then down to 30 mg for a couple of weeks, then stop taking it. She even told me that if I felt like I needed to stretch it out a bit longer, I could take the capsules apart and make smaller doses. But she said it should take me 6 weeks at the most to be completely off Cymbalta. At the time, that sounded perfectly reasonable to me. She didn't say a word to me about the possibility of physical withdrawal symptoms. (GRRRR!!!) She just said if I started having a really hard time to come in to see her, but otherwise to come back to see her about a week after I was completely off the Cymbalta. She acted like it was no big deal! HA!
I did great for the first 4 weeks. I went all the way down to 30 mg in a month, and other than a few headaches I didn't notice any withdrawal effects. But then, after I had gotten down to about 15 mg a day (I was eyeballing the beads to split the 30 mg capsules in half), I got sick. I stayed home from work for 2 days. I had a major headache, sore throat, and just felt like sleeping all day. By the end of a week taking 15 mg, I started to feel better, so I thought I had just been sick and didn't worry about it. Then after 10 days taking about 15 mg a day, I decided it was time to stop taking my Cymbalta. I was feeling great, had a very positive attitude, and I thought wow, this is great! I am actually going to be medication free! I wish it could have been that easy...
The third morning of no Cymbalta I woke up feeling like I had the worst hangover ever. Barely got out the door and made it into work. Could barely function all day. Same the next day. That was when I got online and googled "Cymbalta withdrawal" and figured out that I was having withdrawal symptoms and I realized that I had probably tried to wean off too quickly. So I caved in and took a 30 mg capsule after going 2 days with no medication. I figured I would feel better, but today I feel as bad as I did when I quit taking it!!! I have been taking a 30 mg capsule for 4 days now, just taking a few beads out every day. I did feel a little better the first 2 days, but now I feel HORRIBLE. Back to barely functioning. My morning coffee did nothing for me. I am at work and in agony.
My question now is, how can I still be having these withdrawal symptoms when I went back to taking the Cymbalta??? Did I make a mistake going back on it? Has anyone had a similar experience?
I am going to see my doc tomorrow. I faxed her a letter with details of my symptoms along with a bunch of comments from these forums. I will see what advice she gives me and go from there, but any words of wisdom from others who have been through this would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading my story and for all of your posts. At least I know I am far from being alone in this.
Wendy
