3 replies to this topic

[appleaday]

My primary care doctor prescribed 60mg Cymbalta for me for chronic muscle pain in my back - a problem I've had for 13 years.  I had tried everything else so I was willing to give this a try.

 

Within days, my mind was racing and I could not sit still.  I felt like I was coming out of my skin.  I started biting the insides of my cheeks and grinding my teeth so hard at night I had lockjaw every morning.  I already had a mouthguard for light clenching but all of a sudden I was like a pit bull with that thing.  I had insomnia.  I had read that it took a couple weeks to get used to the side effects, so I thought I just had to wait it out. I tried Trazadone and Flexiril to sleep - neither worked.  Trazadone gave me nightmares and Flexiril did nothing.  Under normal circumstances a Flexiril is like a tranquilizer dart to me.  I had an Rx for Xanax which I mostly take to fly, and I asked my doc if I could take that each night and he said yes.  That helped, plus I doubled my dosage of Elavil (which was just a baby dose) which I take for migraine prevention, and this helped me sleep.

 

About this time, a couple weeks in, it was clear that these side effects were not getting better but worse - but my doc went on vacation for like 2 weeks.  I became angry and rageful.   Impatient, yelling at my young kids. The inside of my mouth was destroyed.  I am normally a happy and patient person, and I take pride in how gentle and patient I usually am with my kids.  I got in to see my doc upon his return when I had been taking the Cymbalta for a month, and he agreed that I had to get off that stuff.  He put me on a taper plan which would have gone on for many weeks.  After a couple weeks on the taper I was still feeling all of this and I asked him if I could just be done, and could I take the Xanax more often since it seemed to be the only thing that helped.  My doc said absolutely, take the Xanax 3x a day.  The Xanax is tremendously effective and I feel more normal than I have in a long time on this plan.

 

So that's where I am - the Xanax is working, the rage is subsiding, or both.  I am starting to feel my other emotions come back, but without the Xanax it is as though my governor has disappeared: if I am happy I am really happy, angry is really angry, sad is really sad.  It's been one week since I've gone totally off the drug.

 

Prior to trying Cymbalta, I suffered from PTSD but this is largely under control for me through cognitive therapy.  Other than the anxiety I have not had any mood disorders and I never felt like I needed to medicate the anxiety (well, other than dysfunctionally prior to therapy, but the trauma was 20 years ago and I consider myself a whole and healthy person despite still dealing with some of my "stuff").

 

My question is, why did this drug affect me like this?  I am sensitive to meds in general, and I know that the norepinephrine is the agent that can affect these reactions, but everything I read about Cymbalta causing these reactions seems to apply to Bipolar I or Bipolar II diagnoses.  Now I feel worried that this drug has somehow changed my brain chemistry and I am not going to get back to normal.  

 

Any input or experiences would be very welcome, thanks in advance.

[lady2882Nancy]

Hi appleaday

 

I can relate to most of what you have written. Cymbalta had a very strange effect on me as well as to mood swings but I tended to go into deep overwhelming sadness and depression with spikes of angry and rage. The angry and rage unfortunately are also side effects that many people get when they stop taking the drug as well but that will settle down over time if you do not suffer from a Bipolar disorder.

 

The bad news is that if you have a previous undiagnosed mild Bipolar Disorder that you didn't even know you had nor did your doctor then this drug can throw you into a full Mixed Bipolar espisode and even after stopping the drug, you may need help to get everything back under control.

One of the things that helps me is a supplement called L-theanine which is an amino acid that the brain uses to make GABA which is what makes us feel good. L-theanine also helps with anxiety and restlessness and general moodiness even for those who do not have any Bipolar Disorder. 

 

Now I am not sure which med you are completely off of so I will guess it is the cymbalta which means that it will be another 3 to 5 weeks before you will know for sure if there will be any long term side effects from taking cymbalta.

Withdrawal Rage and mood swings are very common side effects when you stop taking cymbalta so I wouldn't worry about it for now and it does help to remind yourself that it is the drug that has caused this and it is not you.

If between 6 and 12 weeks off your moods don't level off and you don't feel like yourself then will be the time to be concerned but not now as stress will only make this worse.

 

You are probably thinking "But I was only on the cymbalta for a month and then started getting off" I know those thoughts as I was only on it for 6 1/2 weeks when it brought my world crashing down on me. Some people have this reaction to this drug and it really sucks as far as I'm concerned. I did a much slower taper to get off but then had to stop completely around 12mg and got to ride out the side effects as well as deal with the stuff the Crapalta caused me.

 

Don't forget that you will need to taper off the Xanax too in order to prevent a return of the mood swings. You should not abruptly stop taking it either.

 

I cannot tell you why this drug affected you the way it did, all I can say is that it did this to me too. I am med sensitive as well and it has been scary trying to get this all under control. I gave in and tried another very low dose of an SSRI antidepressant to try to deal with my anxiety and in 4 weeks ended up exactly where you were at 4 weeks of crapalta. I don't understand it and neither do my doctors so for now I take Ativan for the anxiety when it gets to be too much for me and the L-theanine to keep my moods fairly level until they can decide what to try next.

 

Part of my problem is also PTSD from 15 years ago which has not bothered me much at all for the last 11 years but that to is back so I am back in therapy to deal with that again.

 

Hope this makes you feel less alone in what you have been and are currently going through. Be strong and hang in there you will survive the Evil Crapalta and be okay again. It just takes time so I'm told.

 

Take care of you

[appleaday]

Thank you so very much for this response.  It really does help to know that it is not just me going through this, although I am sorry for your experiences.  I absolutely have thought "how can this possibly be affecting me after so short of a time on this drug?" but the facts are the facts - I was not like this before and I am now.

 

I feel concerned about undiagnosed mild bipolar disorder because it seems like 99.9% of the posts I read by people who are made extremely agitated/aggressive/insomniac/manic are by people who are also dealing with bipolar disorder.  So I cannot help but wonder if Cymbalta has somehow triggered this is me, or if, like you said, it has been there all along and no one knew.  I do not seem to fit the diagnositc criteria when I read about it but I have always been a person (since childhood) to feel my feelings very strongly, to feel empty and the need to "retreat" after experiences in which I was extroverted, and to waver between apathy and enthusiasm.  But I have also always assumed this was my personality and not indicative of a disorder.  Honestly, I just don't know what to think.

 

Thanks for the suggestion to taper off the Xanax - I suspected that might be the case.  I have read that Xanax is not a good long term solution for anything, which is lousy because it seems to be helping me so much.  But I truly appreciate some of the timelines you have laid out - it will help me to be patient and adjust my expectations about getting back to normal.

 

I wish I never started Cymbalta - it has been the worst.  I feel like I have lost 2 months of my life, with apparently no definable end in sight.  

 

Thanks again.

[lady2882Nancy]

Hi appleaday

 

Hope you are feeling better. It has been suggested by some on this site and I do believe it myself that cymbalta so affects the brain in some people that when you stop taking it the ability to cope is greatly impaired and as a result previous minor problems become overwhelming.

For example -

I did have minor social anxiety before but nothing that really slowed me down in life. The years before cymbalta I supported myself and was employed most of the time, I even did some teaching over the years. After cymbalta I could not go anywhere without my hubbie and even then was very nervous and just wanted to go home. I am getting better and now am more comfortable when we go out but I am still not comfortable to go out on my own.

The main thing is that it is getting better.

 

I was never diagnosed with any of the bipolar disorders prior to taking cymbalta either but with a great deal of research and some soul searching I now think that I may have had a very mild form of it. The behaviours that indicate that I may have this problem all seem perfectly normal to me as I have lived with them all my life (52 years). Other family members have similar behaviour patterns and although some of them did cause me some problems it wasn't anything outrageous (or at least nothing that I got caught at).

 

Basically I look at it this way -

I didn't have problems functioning prior to taking Cymbalta other than dealing with Chronic Pain, Osteoarthritis and 2 compressed vertebrae.

Then I took Cymbalta and it made me so depressed that I cried every afternoon and I also became so irritable it was insane. I had planned to end it all (it seemed perfectly simple and logical at the time) and didn't want to screw it up and I found this site.

Someone was looking out for me.

 

So I was fine before taking it, wasn't fine on it, definitely wasn't fine stopping it and still I am not fine. What happened? I took Cymbalta and it messed me up period. No ifs, ands, or buts - the med caused this to all happen as there is no other reason for it.

Any doctor who can't see that this is what happened is not a good enough doctor to treat me.

 

I have gotten to the point that I accept that this all happened to me and now I am working hard at finding the answers as to how to get back to being me again.

 

Take care of you