2 replies to this topic

[Tinajuli]

Hi all,

I have tried to wean myself off of Cymbalta trying different dosage reductions. My doctor was of little help as she has "never heard of any withdrawal problems" of Cymbalta. But at least I could convince her to try a slow withdrawal after having had a severe breakdown by reducing the dose by half (60mg>30mg).
I went down from 60mg to 43mg by taking 10 beads out every 2-4 weeks, depending on how long it took me to get stable again. But by the time I had reached 43mg I was really exhausted. I can't go on in little steps like this because I just can't take more than a year of suffering for 2-4 weeks, then having one week of relief, then suffering again.
I have to function at work, and I am already missing too many days. I am deeply, deeply exhausted. Plus the last reduction was so very hard: I get severe sadness and fatigue, every time I reduce the dosage. No nausea or brainzaps, luckily, which is maybe due to me taking Omega-3 in high dosages. The extreme sadness is something I can't take after having experienced depression. It makes me panic although I know it's only a symptom of withdrawal. Is anybody out there who has experienced that sadness + crying spells, too?

I had started Cymbalta for depression and it had helped very much, went to a therapist for 2 years, too, and I really wanted to get along without the anti-depressant now. The problem is that due to Cymbalta my period has nearly disappeared - and I'm only turned 38! Plus my knees hurt a lot and the drug has made it impossible to do sports. I used to run for an hour 3-4 times a week, that was my way to relax and keep fit. I'm without energy since I started Cymbalta, 15 mins of running leave me completely exhausted, which is really unusual for me.

My doctor doesn't take forums like this seriously, which sucks, but at least she realised that it was not my depression returning when I proved to her that the symptoms of withdrawal disappeard after some weeks.
She has agreed to try Prozac to help with the withdrawal and I am now on 20mg Prozac.

I took 10mg Prozac one week (without reducing Cymbalta).
Then I reduced Cymbalta from 43mg to 40mg which is a brave step for me. It turned me into an emotional mess, though, and out of desperation I increased the Prozac to 20mg a day yesterday. I will stay at home today and tomorrow, to see how I get on. But I feel awful about missing another two days at work.

My doctor isn't a big help. She keeps repeating that this might be the depression coming back after all.
Please advise me! This severe sadness that I have to go through every time I reduce might actually make me depressed again in the end! My partner and I separated 2 years ago and I can't see myself meeting somebody else while still having these crying spells all the time!
Is it possible to go on reducing Cymbalta while staying on the same dose of Prozac (20mg)? Or do I have to increase the Prozac in order to replace the Cymbalta?
How did you get along with that extreme sadness and fatigue?

Thank you so much for reading all this and telling me how you did it.

Tina (from Germany where it is hard to find a forum like this!)

[truckprincess]

do you plan to stay on the prozac or hope to taper off of that when you are stable after the cymbalta? The reason I ask is I know some have mentioned that prozac helps the withdrawals from cymbalta but as you keep increasing and the longer you take it you will go through the same type of mess trying to go off the prozac. I know for me I haven't hit the crying episodes yet and did manage to get from 60mg to 30mg. I was having difficulties trying to take out pellets to taper down to the 30mg so finally said screw it and just took the 30mg and kept with it. I just had to take Rugby motion sickness for a few weeks to help ease the withdrawals and it did wonders for me. I will begin tapering from 30mg here soon and have heard that's the really hard part but we are all different. But others have had the crying spells and you can't let them talk you into thinking it's the depression because it's the medication. I had it when I missed two days and was a horrible mess. I can suggest for the fatigue is some ALA supplements. It really has helped me. It took a few days to kick in but has made a big difference. Again we are all different but it may be worth a try for you. My doctors tapering plan was a joke and had planned me to be off in 3wks. It's taken me 8wks to get where I am all by trial and error on my own. At first I was going to ask for prozac to help ease the wd's but decided I would try some natural supplements instead. I didn't want to add in another drug that I would have to mess with. I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful just throwing out some suggestions though that maybe you might want to look into. I hope it gets better for you. I know it's all hard.

[Tinajuli]

Hi,

thank you so much for your answer!
No, I'm taking the Prozac only to help with the withdrawal. I heard that it's easier to taper off of it than from Cymbalta - but if it isn't I'll rather stop taking it! ...or take less?
I'm worried about my emotional reactions to the smallest reduction. I mean, I got sadness and crying spells by only going down 1mg! Somehow it was easy to get down from 60 to 50mg but from then on I have been fighting really.

I don't get physical reactions like brain zaps etc, luckily. Only really heavy fatigue. I can't say that I wish I had physical reactions instead of emotional ones because those brain zaps would scare the hell out of me too. But I find the sadness and crying spells very hard to deal with because they affect my social life a lot! What kind of withdrawals did you go through so far? And which are the ones you took the Rugby motion sickness ones for?

I'm taking supplements, too: flor-essence tea (detoxification), Omega 3, vitamine D, vitamine B complex and something that might be a joke, I don't know: Have you heard about The Road Back Programme? It might be just using the desperation of people who feel very silly afterwards but I thought screw it and ordered the stuff. They advise to take a supplement that kind of calms the reactions that take place in your body as soon as you take an anti-depressant, and when you go into withdrawal. It has to do with the JNK gene. (If you know whether that company is a joke, let me know!) What are ALA supplements? I really need something to help me with that fatigue, because work gets really hard when you're constantly extremely tired.

Suggesting 3 weeks of taper is crazy! How are you dealing with your doc now? Somehow every single doc I have talked to looked at me as if I was exaggerating when I told them about the withdrawals. They also had their sensibilities when I dared reading about Cymbalta and telling them about it. Same for comparing my withdrawals with the ones of other people on the internet. They talked to me as if I was a hysterical woman who enjoys filtering out the scariest things and then suffers from exactly those things because of self fulfilling prophecy.

You said that it took you 8 weeks to get where you are now. Do you mean that it took you 8 weeks to get rid of the withdrawals after changing from 60mg to 30mg? How did you manage to work? Did you tell your boss about it? Or did you call in sick often?

What is your plan for tapering down from 30mg? Having had problems with reducing by only 1mg I am scared to think what would happen if I dared going down by 10mg! On the other hand I was able to go down 3mg with the help of Prozac, so maybe it's possible after all to take bigger steps. I would want to!

Take good care of yourself, too, and let me know how you get on with your taper down from 30mg. I'd really like to know. Maybe you're lucky and it's not harder than it has been so far after all.