No replies to this topic

[Cassiopeia]

I've been on cymbalta for 8 years. I absolutely loved it when I was first on it. The doc prescribed it after trying 3 other antidepressants unsuccessfully. To my surprise all of my chronic pain went away too!

Now the pain has returned, so I asked my GP about increasing the dosage. BAD,BAD,BAD idea. I increased to 90mg on September 28th and began experiencing extremely debilitating headaches that were never in the same place, sweating like a fountain - literally dripping sweat all over, hair soaked and dripping, clothing soaked all within seconds. Nightmares like no other. I scream "help me, help me" all night which freaks my family out. Now I started with this overwhelming rage - only towards my husband for some reason. I am not an angry person, a pacifist through and through, so this startled me and everyone around me the most. Brain tremors or shivers that scared the heck out of me.

I contacted my GP and he sent me a message through the receptionist to go back down to 60 mg immediately, which has taken the nightmares and rage away but I still have the other symptoms.

I came here for advice on how to wean off the cymbalta altogether since it seems to have stopped working, only to find the wonderful symptoms may return as I wean off! Wonderful, especially at this time of year. I've thought about waiting until after the holidays but the sweating is so embarrassing. It's not easy to walk down-wind of everyone in the mall so they don't smell the BO! If I'm going to have symptoms anyway may as well wean off now, right?

I was thinking of divorcing my husband after only a few weeks of an increased dosage. Its so sad that I could very well have followed through if I continued at the higher dosage. It just boggles the mind. (Is that a very bad pun?)

I am also on Welbutrin so I'm crossing my fingers and toes that I don't have to go through all that again.

I just want to say thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences so I now know not to go off cold turkey, which is what I was planning to do. My GP is on Christmas holidays so I was going to research it and go ahead on my own instead of waiting until probably February for the next available appointment.

I sincerely appreciate that this forum is here to support others in the same predicament. Thanks to you all.