14 replies to this topic

[Brujajill]

In January of this year I decided I didn't want to take Cymbalta any longer as I no longer felt depressed. I had been taking 60mg a day for about 4 years. In the past I have taken other antidepressants for depression associated (I think) with my MS and didn't think I would have a problem coming off this one as the previous side effects were feeling shivery/shaky for a couple of days, not sleeping too good, and just feeling generally 'a bit rough'.

How wrong I was! My GP wasn't any help as she didn't think there would be a problem with just doing one day on, one day off on a lowere dose for a couple of weeks then stopping all together. I had gone to see here armed with info I had researched but she just nodded and then carried on processing a prescription for 30mg. So no chance of an SSRI to tide me over.

What followed was 2 months of hell! Brain zaps, shivering/sweating, disorientation/dizziness, overactive digestive system, loss of appetite, and a couple of episodes of murderous rage. 2 months of my life lost to withdrawal. And I finally thought I'd cracked it.

But for the last few weeks I've been experiencing brief periods of feeling like I'm going to pass out, sluggishness, nausea, anxiety, feeling not quite with it, dizziness, disorientation etc and I'm wondering if this is common. It doesn't feel like anything I've had with MS, it just feels wrong. I've also been feeling more weepy again and my mood feels a bit flat sometimes ans I'm starting to want to stay at home as when those 10 minutes hit I feel so awful I just want to lay down somewhere quiet and dark until it goes away. The last place I want to be is out for a meal somewhere as I just can't eat when it hits.

Any advice/suggestions would be so much appreciated as I suspect if I go to my doctor it will be lumped in with MS.

Thank you

[thismoment]

Brujajill

 

Yes your doctor was just winging it based on what she heard from the schmoozing Cymbalta rep. If she had actually consulted the Eli Lilly website or the internet in general she would have learned that dropping from 60 to 30 mg is NOT recommended- it's called Cold Turkey!. All reductions are to be accomplished by slow tapering. I know that you know now, and now you know but wish you had known- and that doesn't help.

 

Because you have to do it again. Tapering off properly over a couple of months will help a lot, but much of what you went through will have to be re-visited, but it will be more gentle. Look at the cold turkey experience as training- the last 30 mg will be easier. Don't worry, you've been trained!

 

Everything you describe is normal and par for this course. And yes your doctor will mis-identify these symptoms as MS or Fibromyalgia. Just keep moving toward the you that peeks through all this every once in a while. That you will come back- keep at it, be patient, walk, stay hydrated, and study this forum.

 

We will be here. You are normal my dear, and you can do this.

 

EDIT- I misunderstood the previous post by Brujajill, but I will clear up the misunderstanding following the posting by younananaoftwo to maintain the posting sequence. 

[youngnanaoftwo]

My question is due to I am almost on day 5 of cold turkey and have been on cymbalta 60 mg for 3 years for help with a type of neuropathy pain from 3 previous back surgeries...why would a person if off of it for a couple of months cold turkey need to ask a Sr to put them back on the medication to wean off..I'm confused..Thank you for helping:) and yes I am having all the withdrawal symptoms except for the diarrhea part..I have read alot of forums and web pages and I am hanging in there day by day and would gave never taken this medication if E Lily company would have explained all the horrible withdrawal symptoms in the booklet that comes with this medication...I have came off certain narcotics for my back surgeries better than this horrible and wicked medicine:(

[thismoment]

youngnanaoftwo

 

You are absolutely correct! I misunderstood the post by Brujajill.

 

I thought the doc cut the dosage from 60 to 30 (a cold turkey move) and left Brujajill at 30 mg for 2 months. But on re-reading the post I now I understand it to read that the doc cut the dose from 60 to 30 and then alternated days for the next two weeks at 30 mg (another made-up ridiculous amateur withdrawal strategy) and then the doc had the patient stop all medication cold turkey.

 

Brujajill you are in cold turkey withdrawal, plain and simple. You've endured 8 weeks and will likely have another 4 weeks before light at the end of the tunnel appears. There will be improvement over the following couple of months and by 6 months you will be feeling much more like your old self. It could be shorter than that (it could end in a week or two, but probably not); 6 months of discontinuation is pretty common. 

 

I apologize for not studying the initial post by Brujajill more closely, and I will endeavour to be more diligent in the future.

[youngnanaoftwo]

God-like

 

I can't get over how horrible this medication is too be a non narcotic type of medication..how are you feeling now? I have insomnia problems due to my back and leg pain wake me up and let me know that it's time to sleep in a different position but I can tell right now that alot is due to the withdrawal of cymbalta and this dang headache..43 years old and in my life I use to have some pretty bad hangovers and quite often..now I don't live that wild lifestyle and I'm having withdrawal from a doctor prescribed medicine that is far worse than any hangover.

Hope you are feeling ok and feel free to remind me that there is hope of the withdrawal symptoms going away

[Brujajill]

This

youngnanaoftwo
 
You are absolutely correct! I misunderstood the post by Brujajill.
 
I thought the doc cut the dosage from 60 to 30 (a cold turkey move) and left Brujajill at 30 mg for 2 months. But on re-reading the post I now I understand it to read that the doc cut the dose from 60 to 30 and then alternated days for the next two weeks at 30 mg (another made-up ridiculous amateur withdrawal strategy) and then the doc had the patient stop all medication cold turkey.
 
Brujajill you are in cold turkey withdrawal, plain and simple. You've endured 8 weeks and will likely have another 4 weeks before light at the end of the tunnel appears. There will be improvement over the following couple of months and by 6 months you will be feeling much more like your old self. It could be shorter than that (it could end in a week or two, but probably not); 6 months of discontinuation is pretty common. 
 
I apologize for not studying the initial post by Brujajill more closely, and I will endeavour to be more diligent in the future.

I'm actually more than 4 months post quitting and was wondering if it is normal for me to have these symptoms still after taking Cymbalta for so long. Has anyone else gone this long with symptoms?

And youngnanaoftwo, it's certainly worse than any hangover I've ever had It's more like persistent jetlag

[Brujajill]

My question is due to I am almost on day 5 of cold turkey and have been on cymbalta 60 mg for 3 years for help with a type of neuropathy pain from 3 previous back surgeries...why would a person if off of it for a couple of months cold turkey need to ask a Sr to put them back on the medication to wean off..I'm confused..Thank you for helping:) and yes I am having all the withdrawal symptoms except for the diarrhea part..I have read alot of forums and web pages and I am hanging in there day by day and would gave never taken this medication if E Lily company would have explained all the horrible withdrawal symptoms in the booklet that comes with this medication...I have came off certain narcotics for my back surgeries better than this horrible and wicked medicine:(

Cymbalta is an SSNRI as opposed to and SSRI, in other words it affect noradrenaline as well as serotonin, so you get a double whammy. The major problem however, as anyone who has forgotten a dose will testify, is its very short half life. It clears the system within hours whereas some SSRIs have a half life measured in days. A suggested strategy has been to switch to an SSRI as the withdrawal is easier than cold turkey from Cymbalta. So I didn't want to be put back on the medication but temporarily to take a different one. Hopes this explanation helps clear up the confusion.

[fishinghat]

Brujajill

 

It is around 7 to 15% (Depending on what literature you read) that has withdrawal for a year or more. A few on this site have taken 2 years. Luckily not many has this problem. But like TM said, 6 months, fairly common.

[Brujajill]

Brujajill
 
It is around 7 to 15% (Depending on what literature you read) that has withdrawal for a year or more. A few on this site have taken 2 years. Luckily not many has this problem. But like TM said, 6 months, fairly common.

Thanks, I think and reading one of your earlier posts I think I need a teddy bear for my birthday, and a closet big enough to climb into as I've been feeling massive spells of fear and anxiety too and it is so tempting to slip back into thinking I can medicate it away. It's almost like a massive adrenaline rush that puts me on the edge of what a panic attack must feel like, that I'm going to collapse, have palpitations etc

[FiveNotions]

Brujajill, I know what you mean by the adrenaline rush anxiety feeling.....do you have something you can take to help you manage it? A benzo, Clonidine, etc? I totally understand not wanting to medicate it away, rather than deal with it and heal....but sometimes it helps to have something on hand to use just in case....

For example, I'm almost exactly 7 months off crapalta as of today....I quit cold turkey, from 60 mg for 7-8 years ((maybe a bit longer, memory is bad hehehe)......I had hard, hard withdrawal for about 8 weeks, then by about 12 weeks I was starting to have good days, perhaps even more good days than hard days...during that time anxiety came and went, and when it was with me it was awful...I had a small number or lorazepam (5 or 10 tabs, I think) that the doc gave me for when I just couldn't manage the anxiety....

towards the end of about the 5th month, the physical issues, and the sort of transitory anxiety, had faded pretty much faded completely....then began what I'm now calling the 2d phase.....recognition of the mental/cognitive/memory issues that cymbalta has caused me....first week of June a full recognition of all this hit me....the scope and depth of what had happened to me cognitively....and I went into a major anxiety episode....have ended up on diazepam, with Clonidine recently added as a back- up......the anxiety seems to be relatively under control now, and each time I clean up one of the messes that cymbalta created in my life (like not paying taxes for four years!), the anxiety level drops further.....

Hang in there! You'll get through this.....and life after the poison is soooo worth the struggle to get off of it!

[Brujajill]

I know what you mean FN. I've had cognitive issues with MS for about 20 years but nothing like this. I keep forgetting to do stuff, my short term memory is shot at the moment and it feels as though my brain is just skimming along on the surface of my life, not engaging with it.

I do have some diazepam 2mg left over from when it was prescribed for my muscle spasms but I remember it making me feel out of it and I barely feel with it as it is. I am talking myself down from panicking by telling myself this will soon pass, and it usually does in about 10 minutes.

Certainly making my life interesting at the moment

[xman]

Before crapalta, I had a nearly photographic memory for numbers and names-could speed read with good retention. While on it I noticed I was forgetting things...Now having been off a little over 4 months, I have marginal improvement. Yet my hope is it will get better.

[Wagtail]

Fivenotions, as usual we seem to be mirroring each other ...

At Yesterday's appointment with my doctor she put a plan in place to make sure that I stay off Ativan altogether . I had only used it for a few days but it worked , & yesterday gave me a day of relief from my panic / fear / anxiety . The previous day I was in a terrible state until I gave in & took 1 mg of Ativan ( only my second dose ever) my first dose was only 0.5mg .
Well she wants me to only take the Clonidine twice a day & Valium 5 mgs every 4 hrs .
I took the Clonidine @ 8 pm last night & the 5 mg Valium @ 9.30 pm & went to bed .
I woke @ 1.30 am with the first feelings of anxiety but managed to dose back off until 4 am , the longer I lay there the worse my anxiety became .
I got up & took 5 mg Valium @ 5am , I'm sitting here writing to you waiting for the Valium to do something ... It doesn't work anywhere near as well as the Ativan but I guess that's why Ativan is more addictive .
I hope I can get through this new plan.
I don't understand why after 7 months & I was having some good days , that I'm now feeling so bad again ....it sucks ..
Patience & the STRENGH of God is what I need right now ...
Maybe the Clonidine hasn't had time to work yet either , this is only my second day of regular dosage ....

Hope you're staying strong & getting better , you mention that your anxiety is under control now ... What dose of Clonidine & Valium are you taking ?.... If I can get the anxiety sorted I think I have a good chance @ a normal existence ...:-)

[fishinghat]

Stick to that schedule Wagtail. I like that plan. Now it takes three or four days for all this to stabilize for maximum effect.

 

P.S. - It takes clonidine 1 and 1/2 hours to kick in.

[gail]

Xman, marginal improvement on one symptom. That is great.

 

There will be improvements in other areas, yes, keep the hope up.

 

Keep in mind that 6 month reminder from the God-likes.

 

Take care Xman