48 replies to this topic

[darren]

Quit taking Cymbalta all together now. Been 3 days without any. Withdrawl hasn't gotten any worse. Still have vertigo at times. I really think my Omega 3 and Vitamin D3 have been helping. Also the strange thing that seems to help is Gatoraid G2??? I have been walking 3 miles per day and drinking the G2 as I walk and it seems to help. The vertigo seems to be better after drinking the G2. Maybe just a freak thing but I think it helps.

Good luck to all

[Imdone]

Good luck Darren!

I'm down to 45 mg today, from a high of 90, so it's been 45 days of minus 1 mg per day! How's that for tenacity! And I intend to stick to my plan too of 45 more days. No depression at all and very little side effects. I had more fatigue at the beginning, very little fatigue these days. No brain zaps here....haven't had a one.

[Rico]

I have been on Cymbalta for a little over 2 weeks. 30mg. 1st week 60mg. after that. I hate the way I feel and want to quit. As I haven't been on it very long should I go cold turkey or taper? Thank God I found this site. I want this poison out of my body.

[Imdone]

Rico, You could try cold turkey since you were on it such a short time at a low dose. If the withdrawal becomes unbearable, open the pills and start tapering by counting beads in your pills. See https://www.cymbalta...h__1#entry20147 for how to count beads.

[Imdone]

I continue to get 2 withdrawal symptoms: lots of itching and loose stool. I'm pretty sure the itching is from the withdrawal from Cymbalta as I got it the last time I tried too. I read somewhere this is liver toxicity. I guess I'll drink more water and avoid alcohol. The loose stool is totally unusual for me but it has been every day for weeks now. Another reason to drink lots of water. I guess that is just plain old detox. I'm going to get The Road Back book and see if I can do something about all this detoxing. I have been on Cymbalta for years so I guess I'm pretty toxic.

[Imdone]

1) Method you're using
Bead Counting method. Minus 1 mg per day.
2) Starting dose
90 mg
3) Current dose
32 mg
4) Withdrawal symptoms you're having
deep tiredness
5) Whatever else you think is appropriate
Noticed that the pain in my legs is GONE. This had been daily for years! I also am less stiff. Two weeks ago I quit taking daily Tylenol for leg pain as I sensed the pain was gone.

One week ago I felt motivated enough (and it's been a long time since I felt that motivation) to start the South Beach Diet. I'm doing GREAT on the diet and eating so healthy! The first 2 weeks cut out most carbs so that and the resulting detox have really sent some fatigue my way. Last night I slept 11 hours. Today I feel great though. Things are looking good. Only 32 days to go on the tapering!!!!

[Imdone]

1) Method you're using
Bead Counting method. Minus 1 mg per day.
2) Starting dose
90 mg
3) Current dose
25 mg
4) Withdrawal symptoms you're having
some tiredness
5) Whatever else you think is appropriate
Noticed that the pain in my legs is GONE. This had been daily for years! I also am less stiff.

Two weeks ago I felt motivated enough (and it's been a long time since I felt that motivation) to start the South Beach Diet. I'm doing GREAT on the diet and eating so healthy! The first 2 weeks cut out most carbs so that and the resulting detox have really sent some fatigue my way. Only 25 days to go on the tapering!!!! Have lost 7 lbs on the SBD!

[Imdone]

1) Method you're using
Bead Counting method. Minus 1 mg per day.
2) Starting dose
90 mg
3) Current dose
18 mg
4) Withdrawal symptoms you're having
extreme tiredness, cognitive lapses
5) Whatever else you think is appropriate
Not sure whether the extreme tiredness is the tapering or the stress I'm under or the combination. Slept a l lot of this weekend and am still tired. Almost feel like someone should be taking care of me....that would help. Little energy for cooking, shopping, or cleaning, but I am muddling through. Hope I feel better tomorrow. I think my body has kind of "had it" and needs extreme rest, which I tried to give it this week-end, but Monday is a big deadline so I will have to get it together tomorrow. I am going to keep tapering though....I'm so close I can taste freedom!

[cookie]

For those experiencing irritability, cloudy vision and ringing in ears.....have you checked your liver function?

[andreafaith28]

Was taking 30mg. Down to 17mg.
I take out 5 pellets per day. There are an average of 300 per capsule.

I haven't been nauseated or had brain zaps. I'm just exhausted at night.
I'm so forgetful that it's ridiculous. It's like there is nothing left in my brain. I can do my work, but if I have to really think about something I have to write everything down.

Also, my sinuses! I have never had such awful sinus problems!
I had my first fit of rage the other day. I didn't feel angry- it was just there. So strange. I didn't know how to control it either. What scared me the most is that it was towards my 3 year old. Please know I didn't do anything to her- I had to breathe deeply and walk away.

I'm ready to be finished!

[CindiEponabri]

Noticed that the pain in my legs is GONE. This had been daily for years! I also am less stiff. Two weeks ago I quit taking daily Tylenol for leg pain as I sensed the pain was gone.

Oh, this is so encouraging... thank you. I was taking Cymbalta for depression and pain (mostly in my legs) and I'm looking forward to the pain being gone as well.

Cindi

[CindiEponabri]

1) Method you're using
Counting bead method, kinda... I take out about 1/4 of the beads out of one of the two capsules for each day's dosage, for a week. The following week it will be 1/2 of the beads of one capsule.

2) Starting dose
120mg

3) Current dose
105mg (roughly)

4) Withdrawal symptoms you're having
more pain, anxiety, dizziness, tired, nausea, cold/flu symptoms, nightmares, itching,


5) Things that have improved.
Seizures.. we had thought they were being caused from the Oxycotin, but now I see it was from the Cymbalta, because for the most part they are now gone. I have a little one every now and then.
Taste of food and improved appetite, and less indigestion
More energy and ambition. I don't feel as much like a slug anymore
I have actually gotten some things accomplished when before I didn't do much other than sleep, watch TV and play Facebook games.
I am looking forward to the future and I'm actually making plans for months and years ahead.
I'm getting angry and trying to find solutions when before I would just be numb or cry.

Cindi

[Imdone]

Only 5 days to go and I will have gone from 90 mg to 0 mg! Cindi, I have been having cognitive issues now that I am down to so little Cymbalta. But I also notice that they came and went, like the tiredness has over the last 85 days of my withdrawal. What I have noticed is that my ability to get things done has slowed. Concentration is worse. But I am getting old (age 62), so I'm not sure it's not that. But I am suspecting that without the antidepressants, my brain is wishing it had more serotonin and I am suffering a bit of fatigue and slow thinking due to that. But like I said, it comes and goes. The fatigue has gotten a lot better (it was severe when I first started), so I say: Onward! I will see this through to the end and trust my body to eventually fully recover. Damned if I'll ever take this crap again, even if I'm a bit slower without it.

[Imdone]

I MADE IT!!!!!!! 90 days ago I started using the bead-counting method to get off 90 mg of Cymbalta. Today I took the last 3 granules, then threw the half-empty bottle of Cymbalta into the garbage, with utter glee!!!

Thanks JDRN. I didn't quite do it your way, but my way worked fine. I had the greatest problems early in my withdrawal (severe fatigue and itching). Towards the end I had very little withdrawal side effects.

My advice to anyone wanting to do it is to be thoroughly determined that you will do it, and that will get you through any side effects. And be sure to use the bead-counting method rather than how drs. tell you to do it (way too fast). Not only do you avoid side effects by withdrawing slowly, but I think you also prevent yourself from being hit in the face with depression again. The body needs time to re-wire the brain gradually. Best of luck to all of you.

By the way, I am 62 years old. You're never too old to change your life. I was on a 4-psych med cocktail for 6 years (in a drug-induced fog). It was only reading Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an Epidemic" that woke me up out of my miserable fog and gave me the courage to get off psych meds (He proves to you in the book that they don't work and they damage the brain). I started taking anti-depressants off and on when I was 30 and did until just yesterday. I had decades of depression and then was put on a high dose of an antidepressant that threw me over into "bipolar" supposedly. I don't even believe in "bipolar" anymore as any mood cycling I once did is now gone forever. And the depression is gone forever too, I know it in my bones and it has been proved to me for having no depression the last several years.

Whitaker's book changed (and saved) my life. I highly recommend the book to anyone who still buys the crap that GP's, shrinks, and Big Pharma are still feeding us. Whitaker blows all that crap out of the water and presents the real truth, which will set you free. You don't need these drugs.

God bless and God speed.

Thank you so much to the Admin of this site for providing such a great place to get advice and support in getting off this horrible medication. Thanks to all who have helped me along the way, especially Cookie and JDRN.

[WickedStuff64]

Hello Fellow Withdrawlers:
I was on 20mg of Cymbalta for almost 4 years during a horrific divorce. It worked well for the anxiety and depression I was experiencing, however the excessive sweating was always annoying and in the last year and a half was experiencing short and long term memory recall problems which really started to scare me, not to mention the affect on your vision and the muscle tics. I felt it was time to get off the stuff, life had changed for the absolute better, Cymbalta had served it's purpose.

I slowly self weened from the 20mg by dividing beads as well, until I was down to almost nothing.

METHOD: The withdrawal tapper down, reducing beads very slowly took about 2.5 months.
I have been done for about a week.

Current Symptoms completely free of Cymbalta (Nov. 1, 2011):

- Irritability - Things and people are bothering me(on Cymbalta nothing bothered me, emotionless, happy go lucky)
- Severe Fatigue that comes and goes through out day, makes you feel down
- Body aches everywhere
- Brain zaps
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Extremely weird dreams
- Feeling restless at bedtime, harder to fall asleep
- Muscle tenseness in shoulders, slight burning warm sensation

I am taking daily: (2) high potency B12 supplements, a multivitamin with iron, D3 supplement with high vitamin c and an Omega 3 supplement.

I think when you don't need Cymbalta anymore, it starts to work against your body. I think the sweating is a result of it messing with your endocrine system and hormones, causing an imbalance the same way menopause does.

I will check back in, in a week, hoping over time symptoms get better.

GOODLUCK ALL-

[CindiEponabri]

It's been a few weeks since I checked in.

I'm now down to 30 mg!! Still having some brain zaps, irritability, chills, but many of the other side effects are either gone or much less. I'm also withdrawing from Oxycotin after I started having some bad reactions to it. Those pills cannot be cut in half, so I am substituting Vicodan, which I was also taking), at a slightly higher dosage, so I can give up the oxy. Vicodan will be much easier to get off and will only take about a week to do so, instead of the three months for Cymbalta.

[Cindi]

Hello All,

I have been reading forum items since around November, when I was looking for withdrawal info. Thank you, everyone, for sharing, it has been extremely helpful!!

Method: tapering
Starting Dose: 60mg
Current Dose: NONE

In August-September 2011, I felt so good with life changes (especially after leaving a very stressful work environment) that I decided to get off all pharmaceuticals. There was a time when I was on a cocktail of meds, most probably unecessary) and a great psych doctor helped me taper down to two - Ritalin (for focus) and Cymbalta. The Cymbalta was actually used as a cross-taper to get me off the others more easily. Due to my scattered focus (ergo, the Ritalin), I occasionally forgot to take my meds - and found that I actually felt better mentally and physically. This is when I decided I shouldn't be on the prescribed dose. If I waited too many days, I had withdrawal symptoms (brain flashes, etc.) so I proceeded to experiment:
I began taking the 60mg every other day. I see my doc every 3 months, so I did this about 2 months before he could prescribe a lower dose. I am anxious to finish this out, so I haven't been exacting in keeping track of changes, but around mid-December I leveled out with the 20mg dose and started every other day taking that.

Except for one 20mg dose Friday the 13th,(after 3-4 days nothing) I am now Cymbalta-free. I am not very far along, but things have changed considerably.

Here's what I'd like to share:

I didn't know it was related until I saw it on the forum, but the 60mg to 30mg drop caused me to have extreme hot flashes for about 6 weeks. I had just turned 50, so I thought it was natural timing. However, the flashes were every 2 hours, day and night - then it stopped completely. During the next phase, I did have a few "flashes", but I didn't feel them. People asked if I was wind-burned, and one co-worker (I work in a clinic) took my blood pressure because she was so concerned. Just a few weeks of this, then gone again.

The drop to 20mg and 10mg (every other day dosing) was the worst - brain flashes, sort-of vertigo, wanting to lie down a lot to relieve the feelings, LOTS of aches and pains. The advice to take fish oil capsules helped tremendously, and lots and lots of water. I did (and do) take Vitamin D daily, fish oil caps (2 at a time, some days it was 3 times a day), turmeric (for pain) and tried the benedryl someone mentioned on some days. This helped,too.

I just read someone reported neck stiffness and jaw clenching (hello) and this has been present during the medication years and now - so I look forward to seeing that taper away. I have only experienced blips of reactive rage, no problems with driving or traffic as reported by others. If I was still at my stressful job, I shudder to think how different things might be.

ON the positive side: Yes, I, too, am very emotional. If it's a weepy-day, I will start to cry at anything - happy, sad, beautiful. I see this as a return to the world, so it's fine with me. Skin feels dry and itchy at times, and my eyes, especially, but I am becoming aware of my body more and finding little discoveries as days go by.
I was compelled to take a bath last week, after being a shower-person for decades. It was so nice.

I used to have to put on a head-set with audio every night to give my mind something to focus on so I could drift to sleep...I thought this had to do with my need for Ritalin (which paradoxically calms my mind) - BUT, guess it was the cymbalta - I haven't used my cd player for weeks now. In fact, I prefer to shut off everything and just go to sleep. This has been a true revelation, and I hope it means I can stop using the ritalin next.

No digestive issues as some report, but the "almost-anxiety feeling" since starting this leads me to keep going to the kitchen seeking snacks to alleviate the feelings. I think it's part of the w/drawal symptoms (no food changes the feelings) and I'm trying to just grab more water and stick with fruits and light things.

I suggest some people try adding chlorophyll to their water (any health food store) as it is great for you all around, and will assist the body in healing from the cells up. We refill water bottles with filtered water and squirt the chlorophyll in, so there's always some ready to go on the refrigerator door.

I expect the next few weeks will be possibly the worst, as the last dregs of poison leave my body, but I am excited to know it will come to an end eventually. One more thing - for smokers and coffee-drinkers - (I regret I am currently both - one withdrawal at time, please) - On days when I had awful headaches and rising irritability, I think it was enhanced by nicotine and/or caffeine withdrawals (when you sleep all day, or realize at dinner you haven't had a coffee yet...) so keep in mind, some other things may be contributing, and try not to give too much power to the cymbalta as the only culprit.

Thanks for letting me share, good luck to all on this path.
It's the right thing to do to find a way away from these poisons.

Cindi

[nolly]

1) Method you're using
half doses for 2 weeks each.
2) Starting dose
90 mg
3) Current dose
7.5 mg
4) Withdrawal symptoms you're having
brain zaps, dizziness, lethargy, cognitive impairment, irritability, crying jags, rage, worsening of anxiety, feelings of impending doom/depression
5) Whatever else you think is appropriate

Hmmm, that I hate this drug? I've been on antidepressants for 16 years and,in that time, have been on quite a few known for their nasty withdrawal symptoms (most notably Paxil and Effexor) but none have been like this. This is HORRIBLE. I don't know if it's this bad because I'm no longer on an SSRI (I take Epival now and I'm not sure if it's not doing it's job or the withdrawal side-effects are too strong) but this is the worst experience I have ever had with medication
My Dr. said that I should just drop off the 30mg. When I told him that I had trouble going off the 15mg, (which he didn't know I had done) he looked at me as if I were being ridiculous. Clearly he doesn't believe how severe the withdrawal is

[zazzed]

thanks so much for the info on bead counting week one of 30mg lots of symptoms I think I'll stay on 30 for another week and then the count down