36 replies to this topic

[Brodie]

Hi there,
I'm new here. I am 32years old (female) and have been on antidepressants since i Was 14. i have been on cymbalta for about 3 years and it has been great. however my life has changed dramatically in the last couple of years and the circumstances that contributed to my depression are no longer present. i also have an amazing new husband and we want to get pregnant, with my history of mental illness and past trouble coming off these drugs, (so much so that I have never managed to get off them) I don't want to have this drug in my body when we conceive or throughout the pregnancy. Even if some doctors say its fine. Soooo... I successfully weened from 60mg daily Cymbalta to 30mg daily over a 6 month period and have had no side effects or any incidents of depression pretty excited when when you have been on these drugs for nearly 20 years and quickly got depressed every time i tried to reduce. But, Now I'm trying to ween off the 30's which means I'm at the take it one day and not the next stage. I suffer terrible nausea on the days I don't take it and as we speak am in bed with a bucket so I googled 'nausea while coming off Cymbalta' and found this site and stumbled across the term 'bead counting' and kept looking to find out what I was. I had been wishing I could reduce my dose slowly while not having to suffer with days of not taking it. Now I think I can! I'm really excited that I can try to ween through bead counting! I really think it will help to avoid the nausea, head aches, vertigo and all the horrible withdrawal side effects I am suffering as we speak. I was feeling quite hopeless and contemplating going back to 30mg everyday cos I can't go to work with these awful side effects. And I just didn't know how I would ever get off this drug if I did that. So thank you for taking the time and posting your experiences on this site! Fingers crossed! Hopefully this time, I can get off antidepressants for good. THANK YOU!!

[flik76]

Welcome and know that it is possible!  We are here for you.

[Clara]

Welcome Brodie and congrats on your marriage!!!! Yes you can do this!!!!!  clara

[FiveNotions]

Hi Brodie! You've come to a great place, and we'll do everything we can to help you!

Sounds like you're "right on track" with your WD symptoms..... Have you tried using ginger to help ease or stop the nausea?

What's worked best for me is to smell and nibble on a slice of fresh ginger root....like they give you to eat with sushi.... Next best is ginger tea, either from the fresh root or one of the teas sold in many supermarkets and almost all health / nutrition shops... And, when all else has fails, I've grabbed the jar of ginger spice out of my kitchen and either made my own tea with a tbsp of it or so per mug of hot water .... Or, placed a small amount on the palm of my hand and just licked it directly onto my tongue....

Just take one day...or one symptom...at a time....and work through it....get lots of rest, good nutrition, and take some of the supplements recommended here.

Keep us posted!

[TryinginFL]

Wecome to the site Brodie!  You have found a wonderful group of people here as we all care about each other!  Please feel free to post your feelings, symptoms and just vent if you need to!

 

Great tip from FiveNotions - thankfully I never went through the nausea, but had the headache from hell and was sure my head would explode - at times I even felt that I would die.

 

I am about to begin my 5th week cold turkey and it has definitely not been a great trip - never want to travel there again!

 

I offer my support as we all do - take care of yourself one thing at a time and let us know how you are progressing.

 

Liz

[Brodie]

Thanks everyone! What an amazing network of support, its hard to talk to friends and even family cos as much as they try they don't understand the mental and physical rollercoaster of coming off these drugs. I also recently came off lyrica, that was HELL! One down one to go, thanks for helping me stay positive. Today is day one of bead counting, fingers crossed

[fishinghat]

Brodie, sometimes family members really get a lot of help if they come on this site and just read a few posts aboout what we all have been and are going through. Just a thought.

[Brodie]

Thanks fishinghat, that's a really good idea

[flik76]

fishinghat that is so true! I got my hubby and teenage kids to jump on here and have a read, also got them to google and look at info, just so they would understand my plight and not get too upset when I lost my s@*t and so they knew not to put to big of a strain on me. It has helped a lot.

[equuswoman]

Hi there,
I'm new here. I am 32years old (female) and have been on antidepressants since i Was 14. i have been on cymbalta for about 3 years and it has been great. however my life has changed dramatically in the last couple of years and the circumstances that contributed to my depression are no longer present. i also have an amazing new husband and we want to get pregnant, with my history of mental illness and past trouble coming off these drugs, (so much so that I have never managed to get off them) I don't want to have this drug in my body when we conceive or throughout the pregnancy. Even if some doctors say its fine. Soooo... I successfully weened from 60mg daily Cymbalta to 30mg daily over a 6 month period and have had no side effects or any incidents of depression pretty excited when when you have been on these drugs for nearly 20 years and quickly got depressed every time i tried to reduce. But, Now I'm trying to ween off the 30's which means I'm at the take it one day and not the next stage. I suffer terrible nausea on the days I don't take it and as we speak am in bed with a bucket so I googled 'nausea while coming off Cymbalta' and found this site and stumbled across the term 'bead counting' and kept looking to find out what I was. I had been wishing I could reduce my dose slowly while not having to suffer with days of not taking it. Now I think I can! I'm really excited that I can try to ween through bead counting! I really think it will help to avoid the nausea, head aches, vertigo and all the horrible withdrawal side effects I am suffering as we speak. I was feeling quite hopeless and contemplating going back to 30mg everyday cos I can't go to work with these awful side effects. And I just didn't know how I would ever get off this drug if I did that. So thank you for taking the time and posting your experiences on this site! Fingers crossed! Hopefully this time, I can get off antidepressants for good. THANK YOU!!

Hi and welcome to the Cymbalta support forum. I've been bead counting since Thurs Nov 7th. was on 60mg for LBP due to osteoarthritis. Decided I didn't want to deal with the SE of this poison any longer. The ppl here are willing to help us in anyway that they can. I am now on #32 beads now and will be so glad when I swallow the "last" of this nasty stuff. I've had a difficult time weaning off even at only dropping one bead per day. But I look forward to in the future being FREE of this drug. I pray for the best for you and hope that you will let us know how you're doing. TheEquusWoman

[Brodie]

Oh gosh Equuswoman, one bead per day! You have come so far! I have dropped one of my 6 beads today (im on the generic) and feeling quite ill

[Brodie]

And Thank you for the warm welcome Equuswoman

[fishinghat]

Brodie, everytime I think of you with just 6 beads to work with I flinch. You are taking big jumps in dosage for Cymbalta and take PLENTY of time between jumps to heal. If the side effects get too bad you may have to change from Cymbalta to say Prozac or Zoloft, stabilize and then come off that. I am hoping I am wrong and your withdrawal goes smoothly. Many can handle what you are doing but it usually is not easy. God bless and be patient.

[Carleeta]

Brodie, Welcome to the forum. As you see you many wonderful, loving, caring, dedicated, and supporting members have chimed in on your posts...

I myself am unable to offer any help with the type or size of beads in your capsule. Please listen to Fishinghat and his advice as he is very knowledgeable when it comes to bead counting.

Good luck to you..

[Brodie]

Fishinghat, I have the same concerns. I spent the last 4 or 5 weeks weening on the other method where you end up skipping days, and I was at 120mg per week, full dose being 210mg per week, so I really didn't want to go up again to a higher dose, I'm hoping having made that jump already, my body might tolerate dropping one bead a week or fortnight?? If things get bad I will get a new script with the 200 or so beads. I'm also taking serepax at night to help me sleep, as one of my worst withdrawals is insomnia. That is also addictive but I used it almost daily when coming off lyrica at the beginning of this year for over a month and had no trouble stopping serepax! Thank you for thinking of me and I promise I will only do what my body can tolerate. keep u posted

[fishinghat]

Yea Brodie I think your approach is right on. Drop one bead a night for a week or two and see how you do. If things are going well then you might try 2 beads a day. Whatever your body can hamdle. Don't worry about the serepax right now. Keep us posted on how you are doing.

[Brodie]

Hi everyone, just wanted to fill you in, I'm on 4 of my big beads a day now, so 20mg. Doing really well! Other than a little trip to emergency with a gallbladder attack (which I wonder now if long term use of ssri's has contributed to my gallbladder not functioning properly). Other than that, we are cooking with gas. I'm so relieved, the take it one day and not the next was so awful. Having a little bit of nausea mid morning, but it seems to pass after an hour or two. Nothing like what it was on a 'off' day previously. Still using serepax to help me sleep. Plan to drop another bead in a week. I also told my doctor about the site and bead counting and she took notes and is going to look into it, to recommend to her other patients, she was very happy I had found a better way to taper. Thanks everyone!

[FiveNotions]

Gee, Brodie, sure sounds like you've got a supportive doc! When I suggested to my doc that he take a look at this site to learn more about the withdrawal process and experiences of those of us who are "in the statistical minority," in case others reported cymbalta problems to him, he acted liked I'd tasered him.... (Oh how I'd love to)....

[Brodie]

Haha! Yes I have some doctors I would like to do the same thing to! But this doctor is wonderful, and she knows what an issue it is for people to get off this drug. In her words "it's a real problem".

[Clara]

Yay, Brodie!!! Hang in there!!!!  There IS light at the end of the tunnel and thank God it's sunshine and not the train!!!  Hugs and prayers!!!!  clara

[Brodie]

Thanks Clara, how are you going? I'm still a bit scared what it will be like when I get to 0 beads and if it will all come crashing down and also I'm worried I won't be able to get pregnant. Worried long term use of ssri's might have damaged my baby making stuff. Fingers crossed.

[Clara]

I am hanging in, Brodie!  Praying that all is good in the baby making area for you! God bless!!!  clara

[Brodie]

Hi guys,

Help!!! I have been off cymbalta now completely for 2 weeks. Things are ok, bit teary and emotional but I think that could be from lack if sleep. I am so tired at night but cannot drift off into a deep sleep. I doze very lightly and toss and turn all night. Sometimes have like little panic attacks in the night cos I am overwhelmed by what cymbalta has done to brain that it doesn't know how to sleep anymore?? Has anyone else had this? Will I be able to sleep again?? I was fine with sleeping til I got down to about 10mg, using serepax to help, but after 10, then 5, then 3 weeks on about 2.5mg things have been very rough. Serepax doesn't even work anymore unless I were to take like 60mg a night and that's not a solution. It's so hard to get through each day when you haven't slept. Very hard to work. But I have to as I'm self employed. I have an appt with my gp on Monday I thought maybe I could try temaze? It's so hard, it's so tempting to just go back to 10mg cymbalta a day in order to sleep, but then when will I ever get off it?!!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated, feeling helpless

[FiveNotions]

Oh, how wonderful to hear from you, Brodie! And congratulations on being 2 weeks off!

Yes, what you're experiencing is totally par for the post-cymbalta course....I have had insomnia for months....it's now getting much better...at first I was sleeping for just a few hours,then awake for 3 or 4 hrs, back to sleep for a couple hours....then the awake time started to lessen....I recently used lunesta, but I got off of it....now I'm taking gaba and tryptophan, which work very well and aren't addictive....

There's more I need to tell you about the gaba and tryptophan, but it's late and I need to go to bed....oh, I've just started sleeping through the night....huge change!

I'm not at all familiar with the two drugs you mention...I bet Fishinghat knows...he'll be here tomorrow, so stay in touch....

Have you researched either of them? Are they addictive, do they have withdrawal effects?

Again, so good to hear from you!

[Brodie]

Thankyou fivenotions, it's very reassuring to hear you say that. I'm really struggling

I would really like to hear more about the other drugs that have helped you. Noone here in Western Australia seems to know anything about cymbalta. I have been educating my doctor, not the other way round.

The drugs I mentioned, are both addictive I think. I know for sure the serepax is, not like cymbalta though. It's a muscle relaxant that I have used for years to help me sleep when nothing else worked. But now it's not working. Temazepan is a sleeping tablet. Give you short stints of sleep without making you too groggy but it didn't used to be that effective on me and could make me angry the next day.

I am going to see my doctor on Wednesday so could discuss these two drugs you mentioned and maybe get a prescription. If we have the same thing in Australia.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me when you were needing to go to bed, it gave me some hope, and the strength to persevere. I look forward to hearing back from you when you have some free time xx

Xx

[Gran23]

Hi Brodie.  Have you thought about taking Melatonin?  I take 3mg in the evening.  It doesn't make me sleepy and no hangover next day but it does help me sleep.  It's not perfect but I took Ambien for years and it wasn't perfect either.  It stopped working after a while.  I stopped it much easier than Cymbalta: and it was cold turkey.  Anyway, maybe you give melatonin a try. Check with doctor or pharmacist for drug interactions. Recently I've started using tart cherry supplement.  It's too soon to tell if it helps.  It is supposed to help with pain and insomnia.  Hope you start feeling better.

 

Gran23

[Brodie]

Hi gran23, I have not heard of that one, I will definitely ask my doctor on Wednesday. The fact that you say it's not addictive sounds very promising. Thank you I will also google tart cherry

[fishinghat]

Hi Brodie. Good to hear from you. The symptoms you are having are classical for this stage. I don't know why but the very end of weaning always seems to hit hard. It is like cymbalta is taking one last shot at you.

 

Melatonin is a good choice. Your body produces seratonin in the morning to wake you and melatonin at night to put you asleep. No withdrawal, no side effects (except sleepiness, duh).  Temaze (temazepam, a benzo) is not a good choice. It typically loses its effect in about 2 weeks. If taken to long it becomes addictive and has its own withdrawal. It may lower blood pressure... Well there are so many side effects and contraindications ...lets just say I wouldn't recommend it for a temporary problem. This issue will typically start fading away around week 4 off the cymbalta and I have seen it take a lot longer too. I wish I could be more specific. I hope this info helps and I pray you get back on your feet soon.

 

Keep us posted and let us know if there is any way we can help.

[Brodie]

It really gets its teeth into you doesn't it fishinghat, it amazes me how it still affects the mind and body when you're not even taking it. And terrifies me. Thank you for checking in with me, I will get some of this melatonin, hoping its available in Australia. Sounds like it will fix the problem, my body feels physically tired but its like its just not interested in sleeping I will let you know how I get on. How are you going?

[fishinghat]

Thanks for asking Brodie. I am off the Cymbalta for 1 yr and 4 months and am now withdrawing from the meds they gave me to help the system. About 20% off the Ativan and then I will work on coming off the Zoloft. Slow but Steady.