7 replies to this topic

[amber]

This is day 3 of being Cymbalta free. I have suffered from occasional bouts of depression for most of my adult life. Most bouts of depression followed major life changes, tragedies and challenges. After seeing the commercials, I talked to my doctor about Cymbalta. Without hesitation, he put me on 60 mg per day. Initially, I felt better. At least a little more balanced. Within a couple of months, however, my depression worsened. Thoughts of suicide entered my head constantly. I am a single parent to a wonderful daughter. I am very close to my own mother, and have a loving and supporting family. Logically, I know I wouldn't go anything to harm myself. I would never want to hurt my family and loved ones like that. It bothers me that I think about this though. The thoughts remained with me for months. I felt my existence inside was very dark. I would have fits of rage, crying tantrums, rediculous road rage, etc. I talked to my doctor about this and he decided that perhaps putting me on another 30 mg would solve this problem. Well it certainly did not. For over a year I took 90 mg per day of Cymbalta and my quality of life decreased tremendously and continued to spiral downward. I have been exhausted every day and could barely make it through a work day. I worked at a very prestigious law firm where the demands were high and tolerance for error was zero. I couldn't concentrate, started having trouble with my work relationships, family relationships and was dismissed from law school. Needless to say, I have absolutely lost almost everything due to this drug. I stopped taking it and I am on day 3 of my withdrawal symptoms. I can hardly type this email because my brain zaps are so intense. I am very emotional, angry, and having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel right now. I will keep you posted as the days go on. I don't mean to sound negative here but I am not feeling optimistic at all right now. I feel defeated by this drug.

[jeff3298]

Amber
Please be careful. I hope you are not going from 90mg to zero! If you are don't! This drug is way to powerful to do that to your brain, I know I tried it and I know EXACTLY what you’re feeling. Work out a plan of action and have several back up plans.
If you went from 90mg to zero fix that first, go back to 90mg for a few days and get stable for a week or so, then drop to 60mg for a week and then 30mg and so on. I am not a doctor but this worked for me and you do what you can do. Once I got to 30 I tried dropping to 15mg and that was too much so I did a very slow taper, the Catharine taper. It worked for me.
BE CAREFUL with Cymbalta, it is way to powerful for a cold turkey drop like that unless you are one of the few who can tough it out, but why go through the zaps and pain?

Be careful, read as many other post as you can and learn as much as you can and get a game plan!

I will be praying for you Amber!

Jeff

[amber]

Thank you so much for the kind words and support Jeff. Unfortunately, you read right. I am going from 90mg to zero - cold turkey. I just can't do it anymore. I don't have any refills and I don't have insurance anymore. At least for now. Even if I did though, I feel that this drug has already taken way too much from me. I really do. Every time I feel sad, angry, etc., I just remind myself that it will pass. It will go away. When I originally went to the doctor for treatment, I don't recall feeling nearly as down and depressed as I have been while on this medication. On a good note, I started my own business and I working from home now. This helps because I can take a breather whenever I need to and can work at my own pace. I do have deadlines to meet but at least I can do the work at times during the day and night when I feel up to it. If I had to work at an office from 9 to 5, I honestly don't think I could do it. The brain zaps, feelings of rage, and feelings of overall physical illness are simply to intense. I will definitely keep you posted. Who knows -- maybe Cymbalta will win again and I will be back at the doctor (this time paying cash) begging for a refill. I really don't want to go down that road. I hope I can do this.

[CathyH]

Amber......Like others have posted, I am really, really concerned about your going from 90mg to nothing. Again, to reiterate, cymbalta is an extremely powerful drug, and the withdrawals are highly intense. I went from 30mg every other day to nothing, and I barely made it. Just scraped by, barely. I made it, but it was so damned hard. I would just hate to see you go through more than you have to. If you can, give this withdrawal some time, meaning weaning if you can. It's worth it. Cold turkey from 90mg has got to be brutal. I can't even imagine it. Don't do it if you don't have to.

[amber]

For the first time in my life I actually felt like hugging my monitor tonight. Silly I know :oops: . I just want to say thank you so much to those who have responded and thank you to everyone for sharing your experience. I know I can do this with the support of everyone here. No one understands how bad this is unless they actually go through it themselves. It is nearly impossible to explain brain zaps, fuzzy head, and unexplained feelings of rage to someone who hasn't been there. While my friends and family love me, they tend to give me the crazy alien type of look when I explain this. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who take the time to share your experiences. This will help me through. I has helped so many people. I feel like utter crap right now -- emotionally and physically. I have hope though.

[debp06]

Keep on keeping on, Amber! If you believe in prayer, definitely ask God for His help to get you through this!!

[jeff3298]

Amber
Going from 90 to zero I did that, exactly as you have, I had no more meds and the pharmacy would not refil them for another week. It got real bad day 3 and really really bad day 4. I was lucky and got them day 5 and back to 90mg. That is how I found this website, I thought I was going nuts with brain zaps and fuzzy and freaking out etc.

Please be careful!
If you have or can afford take supplements of b complex, omega3 and eat right. Do everythign you can to help your nervous system and brain.
And I will give you a big hug back! You can do it!

I will be praying for you
Jeff

[iliao93]

Hi Amber, I ditto the others...I was on 90 and it took me several months to get down to 30(where I am now) with a slow taper. Even with that I had some strong withdrawl symptoms. I am going to paste a previous post on financial assistance from the E.L. Cymbalta web site at least it an avenue to investigate, see if it's right for you. Also There is a great tapering schedule all figured out & I can find that for you if you are interested. We are all different; you might have an easy time getting off and just breeze right through, on the other hand it could get rough or anywhere in between. Keep on posting and reading here as much as you can. There is a lot of wisdom scattered over this site shared by some awsomely compassionate, careing people.
Be well !
P.S. Don't be thrown off by the "Lilly Cares" jargon, we know they don't. They just have to hype thier image! Please use all the free assistance you can from them, they owe a lot of payback.

Re: cymbalta helps me but i cant afford it, need advice
by iliao93 on Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:26 pm

You can find this info from the Cymbalta.com home page, at the bottom of the page under Patient Assistance Program.
Here it is in part:
Direct Patient Assistance
The health care needs of people throughout the world are diverse - from those of societies seeking to increase the effectiveness of health care through sophisticated, innovative technology to the needs of communities concerned with securing basic health care to help keep people alive. In 2006, we donated over $314 million in products to patients and agencies throughout the world.

Lilly Cares™
LillyMedicareAnswers - Important Update
Lilly Oncology
Xigris Treatment Support
Humatrope
Partnership for Prescription Assistance, PPARx

Lilly Cares™
Lilly Cares is a patient assistance program provided by Lilly through the Lilly Cares Foundation. As part of the company's efforts to provide access to our products for legal U.S. residents regardless of their ability to pay, we created a program to offer free medication, through physicians, to patients who are otherwise unable to obtain our products. Lilly Cares assists patients who are uninsured and whose income is less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. In 2006, the Lilly Cares Foundation, Inc. program responded to over 162,000 patients, valued at more than $161,000,000, for Lilly products. Most Lilly products are available through the program.

Eligibility is based on the patient's inability to pay and lack of third-party drug payment assistance, including insurance, Medicaid and government, community, or private programs and cannot be eligible for Medicare. Applications are available to anyone and must be completed and signed by the patient and the physician. Patients can download a blank application from the Lilly Cares website or applications can be faxed to you by calling 1-800-545-6962.

The link for this page : http://www.lilly.com...ducts/access/di ... tient.html


I know most of here are doing everything we can to get off this but no one should suffer needlessly just for the lack of funds!
Please use the info here to get your meds, they are proffiting plenty from all of us on here and can sure afford to give some to those who deserve help.
Bobbie