3 replies to this topic

[Sarah J]

You haven't quit yet but you want to
Before you stop taking Cymbalta, ask what your doctor's proceedure is if you stop taking it. Especially if you were on for situational depression and KNOW that you worked through those issues. ASK BEFORE COMING OFF OF THIS DRUG. If they are not aware that some people have REAL problems, call around to other doctors and ask what their policy is to help people off of Cymbalta. This is essential because the doctors who know that some of us have a hard time will help you.

Check out what your doctors take is on stopping Cymbalta and then do some of your own research. If you have brain zaps, vision changes, any other side effects within a few hours of taking a dose late, you might have some problems with withdrawal.

Do not take Cymbalta doses every other day. Take it every day or not at all. Go under the supervision of a doctor you can trust. Make sure your doctor is aware that Cymbalta has a very short half life. While the drug leaves your system in a few days, your brain will be seeing out the serotonin and norephinephrine possibly for a long time. Your doctor needs to know what happens when you forget to take it or take it late.

Being a warrior and deciding that you are stronger than the drug means you are determined. But this is a powerful drug, if you are going to stop taking it, please, before you do make sure there is some support from your doc or a new on in place and then go on the Cymbalta withdrawal mission. Don't do it alone.

Your doc is an ass and you already quit:
Consider talk therapy. Talk therapists actually can provide preliminary diagnoses to your GP, psych doc, etc. Plus they can help you talk through this stuff. Talk therapists are not only for depressed people. If you are in withdrawal already, people here can offer you tips/support but a person in real life, like a talk therapist, who is there to help you without meds can see things objectively, and possibly notice anything about you that might need medical attention. Plus, they deal with people who take antidepressants and know of doctors (that aren't yours) that HELP people through times like these. This is a great way for people who are dead set against taking another medication to get over Cymbalta. But they may find that you do need some sort of medication to help you through. There should be no shame in this.

Consider seeing a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Yes, they have these that specialize in psychiatry. They can prescribe some medication. They actually listen to you more than most doctors.

You don't have to accept and take the medication that doctors offer. Your right as a human being is to decide how you get treated and with what. Cymbalta doesn't work for you, you don't have to take it. But don't go cold turkey and alone. If you are not a lucky one that has no problems, you will lose valuable time that could be spent living life. You can discuss alternate medcations, but my suggestion is to tell them you are only interested in tried and true drugs that have been around for more than seven years. Tell your doctor you are not interested in the latest greatest and you want proven results that you can verify and research. You are a patient and human being, not a pharmaceutical lab rat.

You're in distress and need your doctor's help I know first hand how hard it is to explain how horrid you feel, but before you call your doctor please make a list. Telling them you feel awful is the same as telling somebody you need something as soon as possible. Be specific and realize that your doctor is not the one to tell this stuff needs to be taken off of the market. You are angry, but you need to get better. Make a list of the positive things of Cymbalta and the negative ones. Trust me, your negative list will be more, but the things that were not horrid might help them find the answer as to how to treat you correctly.

You are angry and emotional probably because your body is freaking out on you. Try to be as calm as possible with your doc and use diagnostic terms, not emotional ones. Emotions/feelings confuse doctors. Facts and symptoms are what they need in clear concise terms. If you have a fax, or have a neighbor who works from home borrow theirs. Make a list of the pros and cons of cymbalta, fax it to your doctor. They will have something to read right in front of them to consider. If they dismiss your symptoms, RUN LIKE HELL. Also, if you tell them that you were fine when you took it and not when you stopped, they are going to tell you to take it again. You want/need to stop taking this for a reason, state clearly what that reason is. Tell them, I stopped taking this because I was emotionally flat, had projectile bowel movements after I ate and slept little. Tell them how Cymbalta is not improving the quality of your life in facts/symptoms and not emotions.

Cymbalta withdrawal does not happen to everybody. You might get lucky. But for the ones that Cymbalta Withdrawal kicks in the ass, you really need some real life/real people support around you. Your life is too valuable to suffer.

If you do go cold turkey and are not seeing marked improvement by the end of week two, get to your doctor or call every doctor in the phone book and ask what their policies on dealing with Cymbalta withdrawal are, before you step foot in their office.

I hope that you all obtain and get to the peaceful place in your life that you deserve. But please, doctors want facts and symptoms. Once you get better, you can then advocate your hatred of Cymbalta, just know that you will get more help if you don't try to do this with your doctor. Your mission with your doctor is to get better. It sucks, but that's the way it is.

[Sarah J]

Great post Sarah J .....

Not everybody has problems with cymbalta, it's less than 20% of us, probably, that do have problems. It's also only 4 years old, so it's right about now that more and more people will need to stop taking it for one reason or another, so that percentage may go up. Most doctors haven't had any patients yet that have had problems so all they know is what they get from the drug reps, which by the way are salesmen trained by Eli-Lilly to sell drugs, not to give out vital information about drugs. They even have trained answers for a doctors questions about side effects and discontinuation syndrome, down playing the severity. Also many doctors do not do their own research about the drugs they prescribe, so quite often we will find our doctors clueless and not willing to check it out for them selves. For good reason they are also not very interested about "what I saw on the internet ......" quite frankly there is a lot of mis-information on the internet, I'm not speaking only about cymbalta here.

Thanks Greybeard.

Another thing I have learned is to NEVER tell your doctor what you read on the internet. they don't care about people on the internet. Facts/Symptoms - that is where you get furthest with the doctors.

I can't find it now, but I saw somewhere that pharmaceutical reps will have to be licensed soon. How stringent that process is, who knows. But just because you are "good looking salesperson" won't cut it if they can't pass the test. Progress, if not slow.

[schmb01]

Sarah, excellent post. That information carries true with any medical condition that you have when seeing your doctor. It is a good idea to write down your symptoms too, and their frequency, so that when you talk with the doc, you have an accurate log.

Doctors are not Gods, and we have to learn to be our own advocates. If you are not getting treated with respect, or they are brushing off things that you know are important, fire them, and find one that will listen. You only have 1 you, so be your best caretaker.

[Sarah J]

Thanks Babby, this has been a really long rough road for me.

Unfortunately, it took me having a clear head to figure most of how to get the most out of your doctor visits.
Knowing that something was not right but not being able to articulate it ate up too much of my life.

To the newbies - best to all of you.