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[GracefulOne]

HELLO…Hope that wasn’t too loud and hurt your head because if you feel like me, I feel my brain stem is about to explode since d/c my 60mg of Cymbalta ‘cold turkey’ on Monday 2/4/07.

According to my psychiatrist there is no need to titrate off this medication, however, I left him a message on 2/6/07 as the withdrawal symptoms were significant. Upon him calling me back I was instructed to take 30mg for a week and then discontinue treatment thereafter.

Well yesterday was a week and I quit 'cold turkey' again.

I've noticed alot of my symptoms that I'm experiencing seem to be very consistent with anxiety. Has anyone else experienced these feelings...just out of sorts...can't remember anything...forgetting where things are located...if I don't write it down it will just sit and stew in my head for fear I will forget it...not being able to sleep, etc.

After talking to my husband who suffered from severe anxiety as does his identical twin, he told me to try taking a Xanax and see if I felt better. What a difference a Xanax made! I finally slept last night and upon waking didn't feel like my head was spinning! I'm amazed at how much better I feel, however, I know that I'm just trading one problem for another at this point, but according to my husband (who is a PsyD) because the half life of Xanax is shorter than Cymbaltas half life, one should not have as significant of withdrawals from it.

A little about me, I have been on Cymbalta for approximately 3 years. I had been on a dose of 120mg and then went down to 60mg and upon stopping cold turkey I have been paying for it dearly.

I have always had situational depression since early college and am now 31, however, I wonder if I was misdiagnosed and really didn't have anxiety. I was on Lexapro for a few years and it was a great drug, until I was prescribed ULTRAM (TRAMADOL) for a foot surgery and took it with my Lexapro resulting in Serotonin Syndrome.

Anyway, while being manic for a good few weeks before anyone figured out that I was having a drug interaction was fun (no history of Bipolar BTW) the result left me in a huge depression. I was originally dx’d as Bipolar and placed on a host of mood stabalizing cocktails and wasn’t feeling better…finally stopped all of them and at least felt like I was not walking around in a cloud and taking all day to get dishes done and then the depresseion hit. I started on Cymbalta and it was truly a life saver.

Problem is now, my husband and I want to try and conceive and my psychiatrist told me to go off of it, hence all the above said w/d symptoms…good times…

In addition, in the past year I have had four back surgeries, the last being a two level lumbar fusion and have alot of nerve pain from said surgeries, so not only am I paying for it with the w/d’s but also an increase in my pain levels.

I know this too shall end as I was able to finally titrate off of a Fentanyl pain patch 5 months ago, (after trying to quit it cold turkey as well) however, amazing how a little old anti-depressant has the same withdrawal symptoms as an extremely powerful (100 times more powerful than morhpine) opoid medication!

It is so wonderful to see that I’m not alone…and while I think that Cymbalta is a wonderful medication, it’s sad to think that we as consumers are not being made aware by the FDA what the repurcussions of taking this medication are prior to signing on, especially considering that this is a medication that is being used to treat alot more than depression.

Anxious to see what other symptoms my fellow ‘lab rats’ have experienced and what has helped in reducing your symptoms.

[Becky8171]

I haven't read your whole post yet but I had to respond to what I read so far!

Has anyone else experienced these feelings...just out of sorts...can't remember anything...forgetting where things are located...if I don't write it down it will just sit and stew in my head for fear I will forget it...not being able to sleep, etc.

YES!! All the time! I've started to write notes on my hand when I'm driving and can't get paper. Important things, stupid things, everything! See why I had to respond right away.