6 replies to this topic

[stasia]

Hi everyone 

 

I am feeling a bit anxious and overwhelmed because i don't really know where to start... but i guess i will just try to start from the beginning if you can all bare with me.

 

My name is stevie and i am a 28 year old woman from south australia who has been dealing with severe depression, anxiety and PTSD on and off my adult life. To be honest, i cant believe i survived 2014. at the beginning of the year i quit my job after being assaulted several times by customers and recieving physical abuse/threats as well as death threats (would you believe i worked in a herbalist store at the time? we had a lot of natural solutions for people trying to kick hard drugs, therefore we attracted a lot of sketchy types) anyways i pretty much broke down, left my job, fell into a pit of misery and tried started taking my lovan again at 25g. after i felt that i wasn't getting any relief from my usual medication, i was switched to valdoxin for 6 weeks which landed me in a psych ward at hospital because i suddenly felt like killing myself. right after that i was put on cymbalta 30mg for 2 weeks, then straight up to 60mg of cymbalta.

i Have been on the cymbalta for the last 4 months as i was recommended that it might give me some energy, help me with pain relief and obviously lighten my depression. nothing but the complete opposite has been true for me and i feel my life slowly falling apart. My partner has had to witness me in "spells" of confusion where my eyes glaze over and i can't speak or articulate anything for an hour, i feel overwhelmed at random times and start crying uncontrollably without any real triggers. I am slower and foggier through the day, feel a huge need to flee all of my responsibilities and have been having a lot of trouble making progress with two psychologists, one psychiatrist and one GP. I have been spending this whole year, unable to work, trying to get back on my feet and i feel like i have just been pushed further away from progression.

I am more aggressive than i usually am, feel a constant need to abuse substances (mainly weed and alcohol which i have managed to steer clear from) and i just can't think.

 

I had a scarey experience over the weekend where i took my regular dose of cymbalta, and after an hour of so i felt really weird and threw it up. It's unbearably hot in south australia right now and my body doesn't react well to heat. anyways, what i experienced for the next 48 hours was a complete nightmare. A few hours later i kept vomiting, getting these weird "shocks" in he back of my head and tingles and dizziness and a complete detachment from reality started to set in. i can't even begin to describe where my mind has been, after crying on my loungeroom floor because i couldn't eat or drink, nor could i make my body comfortable my mind really started losing it. i became incredibly paranoid that i had gone psychotic and that i was going to have to get locked up. for real. i was petrified. what made it worse was that because i couldn't keep anything down for a day or so i was unable to take my next dose of cymbalta effectively. I had seriously thought i had 24 hour bug, but after doing some research with my partner on cymbalta i was shocked to learn that i was experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

 

I want to get the hell off of this drug as soon as i can. it has done nothing to improve my well being and it appears to have put me in a compromising state. I feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel for me. I will be going to see my doctor on wednesday to talk about it... but i must say i am feeling a bit jaded that my gp was aware that i had a family history of drug addiction and dependency  and put me on the medication anyway. The drug is relatively new here in australia. and there appears to not be much information known by the people who are supplying it here. which worries me so much. 

 

So yeah, i am feeling pretty scared and alone in this. i don't know anyone else who is taking it here a part from one friend who uses it for MS and apparently has no problem with it. I NEED my life back. This year off for me was meant to be about healing myself and i only feel more damaged. I feel sick at the thought that "the worst" is probably not over yet for me, and i have been grinded down raw for so long i don't know how i am going to cope with coming off of this.

 

Anyway - thank you for reading if you did. sorry it was such a long post. my mind is racing with a lot of fear and anger at the moment. I knew i should have done more research into this drug, but after wanting to kill yourself for so long you will pretty much try to take anything to make that stop, no questions asked. Sigh. 

 

- stevie

[TryinginFL]

Welcome, Steve!

 

I'm sorry to hear of your work history - that is enough to make a person want to take anything!

 

Have you remained on the 60mg for the entire 4 months - and are you on any other meds now?  Your symptoms sound like cold turkey withdrawal and yet you are still taking the drug?  Wow!  I'm so sorry that you are having such a rough time but happy that you are working with therapists.  Have you talked to your GP about coming off this poison drug?  Often (most of the time) the Drs have no knowledge of the withdrawal this entails - they only know what the drug reps have told them and then don't believe there is any withdrawal at all - they want to treat your symptoms as other illnesses...Sheesh!!  Is your GP the one who prescribed the C. in the first place?

 

If done correctly, you should not have too much difficulty coming off this crap as you are young and have not been on it that long.  It is much harder for us old farts and depends on how long one has been on it and at what dosage.  I'm going to continue this in a minute as I feel that I am about to lose this post...

[TryinginFL]

OK, I'm back!

 

You will find a topic under Are You New Here entitled Bead Counting - How to do it that is very informative and I think was just updated today in very easy to follow instructions.  Using this method, you are in control, not the drug, and you can taper down as slowly as you need to in order to keep the withdrawal symptoms at bay.  There is no time line here - it just takes as long as it takes.  Do not push yourself, and let your body tell you if you are going too quickly - believe me, it will!   We are all different and your body and brain need time to repair themselves.

 

Please read up on this and if you are interested, there is also a topic Nutritional Support that may be helpful.

 

Please come back with any questions, ranting, crying or whatever you need to do!  This is a very safe place and the people here are caring and supportive.  I have been on this forum for almost a year now and I don't know what I would have done without these wonderful folks!

 

I am a cold turkey survivor, however, and went from 60 to 0 immediately - it was 2 weeks before I found this forum.  DO NOT GO COLD TURKEY!!  I am giving you the best info I can since I was unfortunate enough to not do the bead counting!

 

Please post again with whatever you need - we care and want to help!

 

Liz

[stasia]

Hi Liz,

Thank you so so much for your response. This information is very valuable to me. Yes I have been on 60mg the whole four months and no, I take no other medication at all. My GP did prescribe it to me but made me aware that it was fairly new and he was still learning about it. All e said was that he has seen it work with everyone he has given it to. I shall be seeing him in 2 days as he has been on holidays over the new year.

I'll have a good read about the bead counting post tonight. I had a little read of it last night and must admit I got pretty overwhelmed by it all. I find it pretty confusing. I counted 410 beads in my 60mg cap (it took so long to count!) so I am a bit confused about the math of it all. But I will summon up the courage and have another read until I can make sense of it.

Should I wait until I see my GP before starting to bead count? I am moving house this week which is just another added stress on top of all this. It's hard to focus on ANHTHING when you're whole life force has nearly been sucked out of you!

Thanks again,

Stevie

[TryinginFL]

Hi Stevie,

 

If you go to topic "Are You New Here" you will find a very detailed method to the bead counting written by ThisMoment - I think he posted it yesterday.  This will save you going through all those posts...  You will find it under "Teen Quitting Cymbalta !"

 

I'm sorry, but I am not techy, or I would give you the link!  

 

Good luck on your move - I'm sure that is not easy while going through this mess!

[fishinghat]

Welcome Stasia. TFL is sending you down the right path. Take a deep breath, don't put pressure on yourself, you will get there just have patience. The best thing is you are not alone. We are here with you all the way.

 

God Bless.

[thismoment]

Hi Stasia-- I posted this elsewhere, so this is a repeat.

 

Hi. How long have you been taking duloxetine (Cymbalta), and always at 60 mg?

 

If you've been on for more than a year you might consider tapering off over 100 days at the rate of 1% per day. Your 410 beads is good to work with. Get 50 caps of your generic duloxetine and 50 empty gel caps from the health food store. 

 

I know it's sometimes difficult for us to search archives when we're struggling, so here's the general outline of weaning off the C. 

 

Using 410 beads-

Day 1 take out 4 beads, reassemble the cap and take it.

Put the 4 beads into an empty gel cap and label it "Day 100".

Day 2 take out 8 beads, reassemble the cap and take it.

Put the 8 beads into an empty gel cap and label it "Day 99".  And so on down to day 50.

 

You take out 4 extra beads each day and you're half way at day 50. You've got the last 50 capsules all labelled and ready to go. Simple.

 

Cross-Training-

As for cross-training to Lovan, that should be pretty straightforward. Logan is generic fluoxetine, which is Prozac-- the very first SSRI. The transition from duloxetine to fluoxetine is generally very successful: Start taking the Lovan right now along with your Cymbalta. After a month begin tapering off the Cymbalta in a gentle slope with no steps in it. Consider weaning off the C over about 2 months.

 

Benzo for anxiety-

You might consider a benzodiazepine on an as-needed basis to keep the anxiety down. Perhaps the Lovan will work for anxiety and you can forget the benzo. 

 

You can do this. Get the doctor on board with the cross-training to Lovan. The doc will suggest you just drop the Cymbalta when you start the Lovan, but that will bring on withdrawal symptoms for a number of weeks until the fluoxetine comes on stream at 4-6 weeks.

 

Best wishes. Hope this helps.