3 replies to this topic

[toomanydrugs]

I've been on some sort of SSI's for over 12 years now. It started out as post-partum depression. I was put on zoloft which helped for a little bit. I was then put on prozac and wellbutrin, where I tried to commit suicide. Went on th effexor XL, which worked for a brief amount of time. Finally, I was given cymbalta. Originally, I thought it was a wonder drug. All of my depression, and other issues seemed to have disappeared. I've been on cymbalta for over 6 years. I started out at 60mg but quickly increased to 120mg. I thought that most of my issues were hormonally related. I have now been in menopause for two years. My Gyn thought that I was a perfect candidate for Hormone Replacement Therapy (by providing an even flow of hormones). That was disasterous, I immediately stopped using HRT. Finally, last week I told my pychiatrist that I want off of all drugs. He is weaning me from 120mg to 100mg for two weeks. It will continue to decrease my dosage over eight weeks. At first I was good, but 5 days in and the pain in my joints and hip are excrutiating. My eyes are blurry, and I feel like I am shaking from the inside. I'm feeling sluggish, and desperately want to go home and lie down. I've taken some advil to alleviate the joint pain and make it through the day. At night, I've taken .5mg of lorazipan to help me sleep. I know it's going to get worse, but I am determined to be drug free. Writing my feelings helps, thank you for listening to me.

[2WheelHorse]

Hi TooManyDrugs
I saw your post and offer this, which is part of what I posted on a different forum:
I've tried cold turkey / rapid dose & Dr. recommended dose reduction methods and ultimately failed. I made it as long as two weeks without taking Cymbalta (120 to 60mg to zero) before suddenly spiraling into despair, clobbered with symptoms. Since then I have adopted the bead counting method and am almost down to zero with minimal withdrawal symptoms. Bead Counting might work for you if you have the patience and don't mind the tedious process of emptying capsules and counting the tiny white beads each day. I learned about bead counting on this forum and my pharmacist approves. She has also strongly admonished me against rapid dose reduction. Her question for me was always "why would you want to do this to yourself?” "After all, being on Cymbalta is not life threatening, so why not just do this very gradually?"
BEAD COUNTING METHOD Based on a 60mg capsules containing 200 white beads:
- From 200 beads: reduce each day by 10. E.g. Day1 is 190, Day2 is 180, Day3 is 170 beads..... Etc. Do this until you get down to 150 Beads
- From 150 beads: reduce each day by 7. E.g. 150, 143, 136, etc... Do this until you get down to 100 beads remaining
- From 100 beads: reduce each day by 5. E.g. 100, 95, 90, 85, etc.... Do this until you reach zero! 45 Days gradual journey to freedom from C

So far, this method has been virtually painless aside from touches of lower mood and being irritable at times. For me, much better what I had inflicted on myself by going too fast in the past. I wish you success!!

[GKdream]

2WheelHourse -
Thank you for posting this info.
My Wife is a RN and well we both thought it would be a good idea to get me off of this stuff, as I have only been on it for about 6months.
She was really pissed when I started feeling the brian zapps and said that was not good (As i forgot to take it for two days). She told one of the Head RN's at her job and her boss told her that she was CRAZY for letting me take it! I am on it for anxiety as I have IBS and get anxiety when getting nauseated so I pretty scared about all the stuff that I read on this. I have also been looking in to saint john's wort to see if I can take that.... Again thank you for the info and TIME TO START COUNTING!!!

[2WheelHorse]

Hi GKDream. It was nice to read your comments and I hope that you will keep updating. It will be interesting to know if the bead counting works for you as well as it has for me. I'm nearly a week since taking the final beads and there were no problems. I can confirm, that for me, Cymbalta was effective at helping with my pain and the anxiety caused by the pain. My problem is herniated disks and stenosis. I'm cautious about saying this is a "bad" drug because it actually helped me through some tough times. Over the past decade I have received many different treatments to address the pain and manage deteriorating disks. One of the treatments was Narcotics (oxicontin, Duragesic patch). I became addicted and nearly destroyed my life. I am completely free from that now, thanks to nothing short of a miracle - Jesus Christ working through people around me. I was put on Cymbalta by my family Doc while in transition from Narcotics. I failed horribly at tapering from narcotics and wound up in rehab. That chapter is closed now. My pain has gotten progressively worse so I decided that the side effects of Cymbalta were no longer worth the diminishing relief. As Cymbalta reduced, pain increased. Hence I think it must have been working. I am now scheduled for surgery because the disk problem has progressed to the point of necessity. All said, I am glad to be off Cymbalta and I will forever avoid any medication that leaves me in a vulnerable position if stopped. My wife is an RN also and she is a SAINT!! Without her support and care and loyalty, no telling where I would be now. Please keep in touch.

PS: I'm thinking of starting a new topic titled "Off Cymbalta in 40 days without the torture".
The idea is this: I read about people suffering through 6-7 weeks of horror. That's 49 Days. With Bead Counting, tapering from 60mg (200 beads) at the rate of 5 extra beads per day would take 40 days. Provided this works for others like it did for me, Why would anyone (who has the choice) pick weeks of torture over 40 days of gradual tapering that is virtually transparent? Does anyone have a counter point? I would like to understand if I'm missing something. I don't want to post anything that is unrealistic.