4 replies to this topic

[AdamCarstensen]

Morning everyone,
I as many others here have been, am completely shocked to find this site - well, not as bad as the other shocks I've been getting, but you get the point.

I moved to Belgium about 3 years ago and last year I started to feel tired all the time. At first I attributed it to too much computer time, too little exercise / bad diet, or just too much work. I kind of did some exercise (no motivation) and went through a rough diet with my wife which made me feel better during, but after I slipped back into my slump.

I started doing some reading on clinical depression - a bit skeptical because I thought (and still do) that it's mostly just pharmacies getting rich off the sad depressing lives of the masses. I ran into a lot of stories from people who didn't want to hurt themselves, and were generally happy with their life - just amazingly tired and worn out - like they were strung out on life. Many of them said no matter what they tried they were still exhausted and hesitantly started taking anti-depressants to great effect.

I figured I had nothing to loose and made an appointment with my wife's Doctor (a Belgian). He saw me and after some chatting and pantomime (my French sucks), he recommended Cymbalta because it would give me the "SUPER BOOST!" and bring my energy levels up to normal. He recomended (due to my size I guess - not many 6'2" 240lb guys in Belgium) that I take 60mg - I trusted his judgment and agreed. I will never take medical advice from anyone except Greg House again without first consulting google.

I took the stuff and after the first week of nausea - I started to feel a bit energetic. Perhaps this was psychosomatic - no idea. After a while however, the effects changed. I stopped feeling more upbeat and started to feel supressed - my thoughts were dark and scary. I have always had a bit of a rage problem, but occasionally I would just snap. No warning of offset, my body would flush as hot as when I was in Iraq, and my anger scared my family. I once almost threw the dog through a window because he wouldn't stop barking. That's pretty F'd up for anyone, but especially me - I love Mr. Burrs.

I decided after doing some research on the effects of Cymbalta that I would stop taking it. My doctor clearly has no idea what he's doing if he's prescribing this stuff to ANYONE - so I didn't consult him. I just stopped taking my pills immediately. At first I thought my feelings were the weening effects of the drug, and not the withdrawal symptoms, but quickly my feelings changed into what's been described here so vividly by others.

Sat - Day 0 : Felt pretty foggy and depressed (why I STOPPED taking the meds).
Sun - Day 1: Felt a little happier, but my stomach was killing me.
Mon - Day 2: Worst feeling ever, I drug myself out of bed and went to vomit for a couple of minutes, followed by random but severe body twiches. Called in sick from work.
Tue - Day 3: Same as day 2 but now I'm getting dizzy spells, one hit me going down our dual flight of stairs and I went rocketing to the bottom. Ouch. Still sick from work.
Wed - Day 4: Stomach pain, feel like I'm drunk all the time, dizzy, shocks, oh and surprise surprise - I'm shitting blood. That's cute. Still stick from work.
Thur - Day 5: Same as above.
Fri - Day 6: Starting to feel better. My bowel problems are better, my stomach pain is about 40% of the starting feeling and I'm not feeling so drunk. A lot of my clarity has returned, which sadly makes me feel the stomach pain and the shocks more intensely, but feeling is better than not feeling - bonus. Oddly enough my dizziness is getting more pronounced. I was mid sentence with my wife and clutched onto the coat rack to keep from falling. It was really embarrassing. I'm glad I didn't have company over.

I hope that soon the stomach and dizziness diminish enough to function correctly soon. I feel like now I could go into work and get something done, but I would be bloody miserable the whole time - I'd rather wallow in my office at home, but for those who don't have the option of not working I felt like I could get by if necessary after about 6 days.

I'm just hoping that the pattern holds true and I can expect some more clarity and less shocks tomorrow.

I hope this help someone else out there going through the same thing. Sometimes, these little life lessons are important though - I learned some stuff about myself during the whole ordeal - but I'm keeping that to myself.

I'll update this in a few days with how I'm feeling then. I'm sure most don't think to come back when they're feeling better.

Cheers,
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Adam

P.S. Everyone talks about the Brain Shocks - I'm getting horrible full body shocks that tense my muscles and it feels like electricity runs down my spine. I uncontrollably tense all of my muscles and they contract quickly. If I'm typing for example my elbows come in and I sit straight up (guess my back muscles are stronger than my stomach muscles). It happens in spurts, like 5-6 in a minute, and then nothing for a while - sometimes I'll get a random one. I've had minor problems with this for my whole life, but now it's very pronounced. In the last 2 days I have emptied 2 glasses of water on my desk / self and one cup of coffee - really annoying.

[schmb01]

Adam, I'm so sorry that you had to join this little group, but glad that you found us. One thing that jumped out at me, was the bloody stools, and if this is something that happens again, please don't ignore it. It isn't something I've read about from anyone else here with withdrawal, and it may be unrelated to coming off of Cymbalta. You didn't mention your age, but there comes a time for all of us to have that lovely little procedure done to make sure everything is okay with the colon. We have to pay attention to our whole selves, and Cymbalta can sure make that hard to do.

I hope you have read other posts here regarding supplements and things that may ease some of your discomfort.

Good Luck, hang in there, and to quote Jeff "It isn't you, it is the drug"!!!

[AdamCarstensen]

Thank you to everyone for the reply, I'm only 27 so I don't think that I am at high risk for colon cancer, but I guess a prostate exam isn't a bad idea.

My problem now is that after going to several physicians here, I feel like most of these doctors got their degrees from a McDonalds drive through. I think I'll be headed over to the UK next weekend if I can manage it and see a real medical professional about a number of things.

I think it's great how nice of a community everyone has built here, and it's really reassuring because the withdrawal is truly debilitating, but the worst part is not having anyone who understands.

In response to your suggestion Greybeard - I think that switching medications and weening would have been the more responsible thing to do, but since I'm already in sharp detox, I can't imagine the idea of doing it to myself again. I wish I wasn't so bloody stubborn, but oh well - I kicked Smoking cold turkey after 15 years, and I had a small substance abuse problem once which was hard to get over, and I only managed it cold turkey - it seems the best for my style of suffering.

What is truly amazing is the lack of knowledge from the medical profession in general about the medicines they prescribe. I would be very happy if doctors had to have individual certifications about specific drug effects / side effects and known drug interactions before they were legally allowed to prescribe these medications. As it stands the idea of a physicians prescription is a complete joke.

Thanks for your understanding everyone,
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Adam

[AdamCarstensen]

Well it's the morning of day 12 right now. For the last 3-4 days I've slowly started to feel quite a bit better. I even mowed my lawn yesterday and cooked some delicious stuffed Manicotti (spell checker doesn't like Italian food), but I've just got a really nice reminder of how horrible this stuff truly is.

This morning I woke up and I feel like I have an 80-90% recurrence of almost ALL of my symptoms. The stomach pain is the worst - at least you've got that going for you Grey .

It's really so horribly depressing because I thought I was going to be over it more quickly than others - I guess I'm just your average guy after all. I'm trying to eat some delicious whole grain cereal right now that I normally woof down in under a minute, but the nausea makes me want to just curl up in a ball under my desk with my puppy and sleep until it's over.

Anyone have any panacea for the nausea specifically? I can deal with everything else, but the stomach thing is wrecking me.

Thanks in advance,
-
Adam

[Sarah J]

Well it's the morning of day 12 right now. For the last 3-4 days I've slowly started to feel quite a bit better. I even mowed my lawn yesterday and cooked some delicious stuffed Manicotti (spell checker doesn't like Italian food), but I've just got a really nice reminder of how horrible this stuff truly is.
It's really so horribly depressing because I thought I was going to be over it more quickly than others - I guess I'm just your average guy after all. I'm trying to eat some delicious whole grain cereal right now that I normally woof down in under a minute, but the nausea makes me want to just curl up in a ball under my desk with my puppy and sleep until it's over.

Anyone have any panacea for the nausea specifically? I can deal with everything else, but the stomach thing is wrecking me.

Adam - so glad to know that in between what seem to be "classic" parts of withdrawal, you are having some good days. Which is positive. It seems redundant to remind you that a positive outlook helps, especially when you are experiencing Cym-Barfa withdrawals.

12 days - you have come really far! Omega 3 does help with the "stomach" issues, this will sound really strange, when you are experiencing the nausea, instead of trying to stop it, go with it, let your body purge this stuff out of you. Of course it is not very comfortable, but your body is working to "kick" out the toxins. Foods that are "heavy", pasta (gluten), are harsh to digest. I went for a couple of weeks where I just ate eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Easy to cook, lots of natural Omega 3 and protein.

Hang in there, the withdrawal process shows no rhyme or reason and really is very different for everybody. It is depressing when you think you are through the worst, to only have it backfire on you. If the nausea is still bothering you by the time you read this, you might want to try Bonine or Dramamine, the motion sickness pills, over the counter.