I have a long and complicated history with Cymbalta, so I hope everyone will bear with me.
I was first placed on this drug in 2006 (60 mg) as a replacement for Zoloft. I had been in a car accident and my academics were really suffering, and Zoloft just wasn't doing it for me anymore. Cymbalta seemed like a wonder drug at first. I took it for years and did great. Then I began to wonder if I really still needed the drug. So in late 09 I began tapering off. I mentioned this to my doctor and she gave me the go ahead to begin tapering down, but didn't offer any real advice on how to go about it. I went from 60 to 30 for 2 weeks, then to 20 for two weeks, then I would begin splitting them open and removing half the beads, then stopped. I made it about 5 days before the dizziness and the zaps were just too bad. In this time, I began having horrible anxiety. I cried my heart out all day on the phone to anyone who would listen. I went back on Cymbalta, 90 mg (the highest dose I had ever been on), but I couldn't shake the anxiety. I went to a college two hours away from home and after the first year, never really had any problem with the homesickness. But now I was breaking down every time I had to go back. Eventually I switched doctors and am currently on 30 mg Cymbalta and 10 mg Lexapro (this has been my routine for about 2 years).
I would like to think that at some point in my life I won't need all this medicine, but I am so scared to have to go through the withdrawal again. Is there anyone with a story similar to mine who has had success? I do have a history of depression and anxiety in my family on my dad's side, but until my brother and I, it was mostly ignored and untreated.
