3 replies to this topic

[BlackheartL7]

Hi, I'm new here (hello everyone) and have been weaning myself off of Cymbalta for several weeks now. I've been taking it for about 2yrs starting with 60mg initially but cutting back to 30mg for a little while (mostly due to cost), then 15mg for a couple months before spending the last several weeks meticulously removing spheres on a steady basis. I've been using the sphere counting method to cut down and I plan to stop taking the cymbalta altogether in about a week, I'm under 4mg now. I've had my days for sure but I'm doing relatively well right now. I was wondering if its really necessary (when on a really low dose of cymbalta, a couple mg's) to wait before starting a new antidepressant? Does anyone have experience doing this?

My Dr. wanted me to wait at least 3 or 4 days after being totally off Cymbalta to switch to Paxil. (I have been on Paxil before). I know there's a danger of seratonin syndrome with two antidepressants but at the extremely low cymbalta dosage and a 10mg paxil script it dosnt seem like that should be a real danger. Any other reason why I should wait to start the new one? I dont like to be off of antidepressants because of the anxiety I experience in addition to the depression.

If not Paxil has anyone had good experiences with any particular antidepressant? I've been on so many and the side affects (especially sex drive and weight gain) seem to be an issue with almost all of them. Sad part is I did really well on Cymbalta (best of any of them so far as far as effectiveness goes, no sex drive issues but I did gain about 40 lbs-which I managed to lose again recently) but its so expensive and when I ran out and couldn't pay for my refill (no insurance) I experienced what the cold turkey withdrawl felt like. I made it only 3 days before I couldn't take it and had to borrow money for a partial refill, that's when I decided I wanted nothing to do with this drug anymore and to wean off and switch. Especially since the company that makes it and often the Drs as well fail to acknowledge how serious a withdrawl is associated with Cymbalta...makes me very angry. So any advice from those Cymbalta has worked for about anything else that has worked for them that is hopefully less of a horror show to get off of and maybe not a $200 plus a month prescription.

BTW I'm sorry about the 20 questions and randomness of this post, I'm still working on getting off of this drug and I can't help it....my thoughts are jumping around a bit

[DonMH]

I would wait until completely off Cymbalta. I do not know how drug firms can fix such prices. We should have a government review of price fixing in the Pharmaceutical Market. Try L-Theanine -this should help with irritability and sleep.
Good luck and God bless.

DonMH

[BlackheartL7]

I would wait until completely off Cymbalta. I do not know how drug firms can fix such prices. We should have a government review of price fixing in the Pharmaceutical Market. Try L-Theanine -this should help with irritability and sleep.
Good luck and God bless.

DonMH

I'll check into that...thank you

[cookie]

Did you experience any withdrawal symptoms the first time you quit Paxil????

After 7 years I was told to switch from cymbalta to lexapro. To me they are more or less the same.