Taking the Dive
#1
Posted 24 July 2008 - 12:48 AM
As for the lack of success stories here, if you read through the threads, they are here. I'm one of them, and have been off of Cymbalta for over 4 months. Many people stop in for awhile, get through the worst, and then don't post again, which is one reason you don't see a lot of other success stories. Also, most people here are like you, new to the process of getting off of this drug, and struggling and needing support.
Since you don't want or need advice, I will spare you too much detail. There are things to help you, as you may have seen on other posts. The range from medication to supplements/nutritional ideas.
It is wonderful that your wife is supportive, but if you find that you need some solace from others that have experienced what you are going through, this is a great group of people too.
Best of luck on your journey~
#3
Posted 16 August 2008 - 10:57 PM
And the dizziness, faintness and disorientation is the worst! it is the withdrawal but it can be debilitating for sure, that's when I go lay down and put in a movie.
Just stay strong, and rely on your wonderful wife, she married you for a reason..it is called love:) and I am sure she wants nothing more than for you to feel good again, hang in there and lean on her, I am leaning the hardest I ever have on my hubby of 27 years, he is in it for the long haul no matter what and I am sure she will be there for you as well!
Please take care and treat yourself gently right now, you have gone this far and you will make it!!
All the best to you and your wife,
Jen
#4
Posted 18 August 2008 - 12:59 AM
I took my last dose of Cymbalta Wednesday night after being on it a year. So far I have been super dizzy. My head feels odd. Is that what brain zaps are? Friday and Saturday were the worst so far. Even when I missed a dose I would feel like this. I hate it! My doctor should have never put me on it. I don't think my issues called for such a strong drug. I wanted to stop taking it a long time ago but I was afraid of the with draws since even missing just one dose would make me feel so bad. I hated to think about what it would be like to quit. Then I read a lot and understand that there isn't much difference from weaning off and stopping cold turkey. So I figured the sooner the better. I will get off of it and I will treat my slight depression and mild anxiety in other ways that won't include a prescription. I am doing all the research and learning all that I can. Knowledge is power! And I want power over my own body. I want to be in control, not these with draw symptoms.
I accidentally found something that helps a lot. It is L-Theanine. It is an ingredient in the Berry flavor Amps made by Mt.dew. It is NOT in any of the other flavors. It seems to help with the dizziness and groggy head feelings. I am doing what research I can. My plan is to conquer depression and anxiety with natural methods. L-Theanine is also found in Tea and mushrooms. Although I haven't found what mg is in those two. Here are some sites I looked at. Of course there is tons of reading to do here. I haven't read everything on every site. All in good time.
If anyone drinks the berry (focus) amp, please let me know if it helps you at all during your withdraw symptoms.
May God bless us all and help us through this. HE sure wasn't the one that gave me them pills...but I pray He helps me get them out of my body for good!
http://web-us.com/l-...ety_reducer.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine
http://www.drugs.com...l-theanine.html
http://askville.amaz... ... d=10166964
#5
Posted 18 August 2008 - 01:37 AM
I have been doing some serious thinking of how I am going to get off the 20mgs a day, I see so many posts about going the prozac way and I think I would like to try that...however, I have a very nice doc but I think she is not very informed about this evil drug, in one of my other posts I mentioned that she didn't even know that Cymbalta came in a 20mg until I told her, her nurse actually called my pharmacy while I was on hold and came back and said the doc was surprised it came in that dosage! I am afraid if I mention the prozac way she might get confused, however, I am willing to print out a bunch of posts from here to show her it can work.
The other way is to just tell her I want to stay on 20mgs and get enough of it to do my own weaning with the help of my hubby (smart engineer type to help me count the micro beads:) I was thinking of going down to 10 and then 5 and then off. If you have any advice on that I would much appreciate it.
One more thing, I have not left the house since Aug. 3rd, I was becoming very agoraphobic on the Cymbalta and I am a bit more so now, just because I am more dizzy and off balance, I feel tremendous guilt over this... I think I will have to slowly re-enter the world at large in small steps. I was so changed by this med, I was a full time active person, went everywhere, tolerated crowds and now just going to the corner drug store is a daunting thought... I feel like I have come to a plateau on the 20mgs so maybe it is time to cut it back, it has been 2 weeks.
Anyway, let me now how things are going, I lurk here often :geek:
Best to you,
Jen
#6
Posted 18 August 2008 - 08:16 PM
Jen
#8
Posted 20 August 2008 - 08:44 AM
#9
Posted 20 August 2008 - 10:48 PM
#10
Posted 23 August 2008 - 09:57 PM
I am waiting for the day I can stand, shower, shop, well do just about everything a person needs to do WITHOUT dizziness, ,it is awful. I truly think my anxiety and panicky feelings are because I am so dizzy, I am afraid of it, feels like I am losing control. For the past 3 years or so my life has been completely put on hold just from the dizziness alone. Oh gosh I am so out of it right now, I just can't type anymore, I just wanted to give a shout out to ya:)
Best as always,
Jen
#11
Posted 23 August 2008 - 11:01 PM
#12
Posted 23 August 2008 - 11:51 PM
Bobbie
#13
Posted 24 August 2008 - 12:41 AM
You be good to yourself...you here?
Be well,
Bobbie
#15
Posted 26 August 2008 - 02:50 PM
What an awesome coincidence that you brought up lucid dreaming! Just the other day I had done some reading about it. I really thought there was no way I could ever do that even though I LOVE to dream. Well I remembered some of the tips that I read about. Although I didn't have a lucid dream I KNEW I was dreaming and I pinched myself in my dream and it didn't hurt...and i remember thinking "yeah this is a dream" lol and I remembered that when I woke up. But that is all that I remember. I don't suppose that is a lucid dream but it was VERY cool to know that I was in a dream.
There are so many good things that are happening all because I stopped taking Cymbalta. I hope that you are doing good today. Thanks for responding to me. All the support that I have gotten from my friends, family and even strangers, is what has pulled me through this.
#16
Posted 26 August 2008 - 11:55 PM
Give yourself some energy for your body and the energy for your music will be there!
Be Well,
Bobbie
#18
Posted 01 September 2008 - 12:09 AM
#19
Posted 01 September 2008 - 12:38 AM
Thinking of you and everyone on here, thanks for your support as always,
Best,
Jen
#21
Posted 02 September 2008 - 11:17 PM
So DC...I know you can do this, with all your dealing with you give me hope.
Keep up the good fight my friend.....Bw Well,
Bobbie
#22
Posted 07 September 2008 - 08:03 PM
Hang in there with the Prozac...10mgs was probably way to low for you. I quit Cymbalta from 60mgs cold turkey, and my dr started me at 20mgs, with instructions to go up to 40 after 1 week if I felt I needed it. I ended up staying at 20mgs for about 5 weeks and then stopping it with my dr's permission. I'm about 4 weeks off the Prozac now, but I wish I had stayed on it a little longer because some of the withdrawal symptoms (especially the brain zaps) have come back. So, don't quit the Prozac too soon!
#23
Posted 16 September 2008 - 04:23 AM
Hi everyone! I know I have been a terrible poster lately. Sorry!
I am doing really good. Most of my symptoms are gone. I am however back to my old self. I get so irritable! I hate that about me. Helping me be nice is the ONLY good thing that Cymbalta did for me. By nature I have no patience, I get annoyed very easy and tend to get snappy with people. But I am working on it. I am taking the Stress tabs everyday. They do help a little. I take my Ativan when I need to. And only when I NEED to. I am not about to get addicted to anything else. I still have mild funky brain zaps once in a while if I don't take a Theanine pill. If anyone is having these awful brain zaps PLEASE get a bottle of Theanine. It is the ONLY thing I have found that makes the brain zaps go away. Make sure it is made by Suntheanine. Otherwise you take the chance of it just being tea extract. I bought my bottle from Vitamaker. There are many online stores that sell it and even on Ebay. Theanine also promotes relaxation. I strongly encourage everyone to at least read up on it. I have some links that I posted on here somewhere! lol
30 days ago I didn't think I would make it through this nightmare. Today I am feeling great!
#24
Posted 21 September 2008 - 08:30 PM
DAY 34:
Hi everyone! I know I have been a terrible poster lately. Sorry!
I am doing really good. Most of my symptoms are gone. I am however back to my old self. I get so irritable! I hate that about me. Helping me be nice is the ONLY good thing that Cymbalta did for me. By nature I have no patience, I get annoyed very easy and tend to get snappy with people. But I am working on it. I am taking the Stress tabs everyday. They do help a little. I take my Ativan when I need to. And only when I NEED to. I am not about to get addicted to anything else. I still have mild funky brain zaps once in a while if I don't take a Theanine pill. If anyone is having these awful brain zaps PLEASE get a bottle of Theanine. It is the ONLY thing I have found that makes the brain zaps go away. Make sure it is made by Suntheanine. Otherwise you take the chance of it just being tea extract. I bought my bottle from Vitamaker. There are many online stores that sell it and even on Ebay. Theanine also promotes relaxation. I strongly encourage everyone to at least read up on it. I have some links that I posted on here somewhere! lol
30 days ago I didn't think I would make it through this nightmare. Today I am feeling great!
Hi JennyL, I've been awful on posting too I'm on my first week Cymbalta free. The first five days lulled me into a false sense of comfort! Then Saturday hit and the zaps, emotionality, irritability, pain and all of "IT" hit me smack in the face! Naturally my family members sensing my vulnerable state (all both of them) decided to show their asses :roll: ! Hey...why should I get a break, unless I'm holding everyone's hands and being ever so careful of their feelings, in other words kissing ass...well then I'm just a horrible, bad, selfish, mean person :!: . Well I digress...but got that spewed out of my system.... :oops:
I am very interested in the L-Theanine..and know all supplement manufacturers are not equal. I think you get what you pay for in most cases. Don't misunderstand me please...I don't think they have necessarily have to cost big bucks to be good...just that usually producing quality usually isn't cheep. Anyway I was doing some searching and ran across this:
http://WWW.jigsawhea... ... anine.HTML
Would you give it a look see and tell me how it compares to what your taking?
Thanks Bunches
#25
Posted 22 September 2008 - 03:11 PM
#26
Posted 22 September 2008 - 03:11 PM
#27
Posted 04 October 2008 - 03:26 PM
I am very interested in the L-Theanine..and know all supplement manufacturers are not equal. I think you get what you pay for in most cases. Don't misunderstand me please...I don't think they have necessarily have to cost big bucks to be good...just that usually producing quality usually isn't cheep. Anyway I was doing some searching and ran across this:
http://WWW.jigsawhea...Com/products/l_ ... anine.HTML
Would you give it a look see and tell me how it compares to what your taking?
Thanks BunchesBe Well !?
Bobbie
HI! I am so sorry I haven't been on here. I clicked the link but got nothing. I wish I would have got on here sooner. I am taking 100% theanine made by suntheanine.
#28
Posted 04 October 2008 - 10:13 PM
http://WWW.jigsawhea...cts/lAnine.HTML
I just wondered how the price compared to what you pay. I ended up ordering the suntheanine from vitacost:
http://www.vitacost....rom-Suntheanine
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