I was on 60 mg for about a year and a half. When I told my psychiatrist I wanted to go off Cymbalta (due to side effects), she told me to start by going down to 40 mg. Terrible withdrawal symptoms began right away.
When I spoke with my psychiatrist, she said I could either taper more gradually, OR add in 10 mg of Celexa (a drug that worked very well for me years ago, before the "poop out" effect.) I told her I wanted to do both of those things. That wasn't what she preferred, but she agreed to have me go to 50 mg of Cymbalta, plus add in 10 mg of Celexa. This has made things tolerable for me. I am still experiencing withdrawal symptoms, but much less so than before.
She wanted me to go be on 50 mg Cymbalta for 3 weeks, then 40 mg for 3 weeks, and so on. So my first question is, is going down 10 mgs every 3 weeks too slow? Is it worth trying 2 weeks instead? I'm curious what has worked for other people.
My other question is this: I really would like to be increasing my dose of Celexa as I wean from the Cymbalta. A cross-taper. For some reason, my psychiatrist is against this. She doesn't want me to go above the 10 mg. of Celexa. She wants me to be off the Cymbalta, and on no medication at all to "establish a baseline" of how I do with out medication. (I am a new patient of hers, she only started seeing me last month.) I am worried that not increasing the Celexa might cause worse withdrawals through this process. Any thoughts about this are appreciated!