6 replies to this topic

[Bec91a]

Hello everyone. I found this website and feel a mixture of relief that I'm not alone and absolute despair about my whole situation. 

Backstory: 24 year old female suffering treatment resistant depression. Have been seeing my psychiatrist for 6 months now, and he put me on Cymbalta about 5 months ago. I have trouble with depression and anxiety, and fatigue. Cymbalta was great for a while, and the psych had me on Ritalin for borderline ADHD, however I wasn't coping well with the ritalin crashes. My last appointment with my psych was a week ago, he decided to take me off the Cymbalta 60mg that I've been on for 5 months, and try Valdoxan. 
 

WELL, I had absolutely NO idea about exactly how bad Cymbalta would be to get off. My psych was very lax about the whole thing, telling me to simply go down to 30mg and then stop it all together "when I am ready". Well, silly me said "I'm ready now?" and took 30mg for 3 days and then stopped. It has been day 3 of me stopping Cymbalta entirely and I cannot function. I am terrified, fragile, anxious beyond belief. Day 2 of being off the meds I was laying on the floor crying uncontrollably, so hard i could barely breathe. I considered calling the ER, however after 2 very unsteady deep breaths, I realised they probably couldn't do much for me anyway. 
 

My withdrawal symptoms include: 

- Brain zaps ALL of the time, like I'm sticking a butter knife into a power outlet every few seconds 

- I'm nauseous 

- I can't even sleep well, I wake through the night and toss and turn. I'm sweating and then freezing and wake up completely not rested.

- I can't even go to work, I'm such a damn mess that nothing makes sense

- I can basically cry on cue. I cry all the time and for no reason. 

- I have headaches 

- Shaking hands 

- Unannounced and uncontrollable anxiety attacks that render me useless

 

I have read here about bead counting and coming off slowly, but I figured I'm already in this mess, so if I go back onto Cymbalta to mitigate the symptoms, these past few days will have been for nothing and I'm back to square one. 

 

I just don't know how much longer this will go for. Will I be okay in a few days? Or will this keep going for weeks or months on end? I know it will end, I just don't know WHEN. My entire life is on hold and those who know about my situation are extremely worried for me. I feel like such a fool for blindly following my psychiatrists advice on medication, if I had known what I know now, I would have never, EVER touched this poison. 

 

I have never ever felt this bad in my entire life, and I feel so alone and confused. 

 

 

[fishinghat]

Welcome Bec

 

I can understand your situation. It is a common story here. Unluckily most drs are idiots when it comes to Cymbalta withdrawal. You are day 3 being off the Cymbalta and have just begun the fight. These withdrawal symptoms can last 3 or 4 months before you even start to see a break and up to a year before you come close to being normal. You do have your age on your side. I would absolutely consider going back on the 0 mg and getting stable and then bead counting from there.

 

Some of the things we recommend to help is 3000 mg of Omega 3 a day, 500 mg of Vitamin C/day and to stay well hydrated. There are some supplements that have helped others but they carry some risk with them and aren't always successful. Others may chime in on that.

 

And one thing is for sure. on this site you are not alone. We are always here for you. We know how you feel, we have been there.

[gail]

Hello Beck,

With Fishinghat here, do yourself a favor and get back to 30 mg. ASAP.

When stable, only then, you can bead count your way down. It should take a few days on the 30 to feel OK again. Perhaps less.

Please reinstate!

[lady2882Nancy]

Hello Bec

 

I cannot stress enough to go back on the 30 mg. This is just the beginning of the withdrawal. How you are feeling right now could last for weeks and I am not kidding on this.

Cymbalta has no respect for age, length of time on it, sex or anything else. If you are in the 20% that have withdrawals which is what is happening to you right now then you have to wean off slowly.

I went from 60 to 30mg and thought I was okay and was ready to go off completely when the withdrawals hit me. It took awhile to get stable again at 30mg. Then I rushed to get off of it again and paid for being in a hurry.

Take it at the pace you need to and that will prevent the horrid withdrawal symptoms from making you so sick. Some can reduce by only one bead a day while others can remove more and do fine. In this you have to let how you are feeling guide you.

 

In all fairness to your doctor, most doctors were not told by the manufacturer that this drug requires a slow taper off by slowly reducing the mg in the dose over a period of time.

 

Take care of you

 

Nancy

[TryinginFL]

Hi Bec!

Sorry I did not see this post first - I read your other post and now I know the answers

I definitely agree with everyone who has posted as I jumped off 60 cold turkey and spent a miserable year- believe me, you don't want to do this!

Your age and amount of time on this poison will hopefully be in your favor

Please reinstate and wait until you are stable - then you can bead count down.

Bead counting is covered under the topic "Are You New Here?"
Please check it out and come back with any questions - someone is always here

[Bec91a]

Thanks for all the support & suggestions, I'm glad I found this site. I need to talk to my doctor again and see what his opinion on the matter is. His initial response to coming off Cymbalta was "it will be tough for a few days but then you'll be okay"....so I'm not sure if he has no idea what Cymbalta really is like to come off, or if he genuinley believes the withdrawal symptoms only last a few days! He is a treatment resistant depression specialist so I can't help but wonder what his experience is with his other patients on Cymbalta. 

 

Cymbalta only comes in 20mg, 30mg and 60mg capsules I believe, and when I asked him about tapering off slowly by opening the capsule, his response was "that isn't an accurate way to taper down, so I don't recommend doing that"........ so he believes I can just jump from 60mg to 30mg to NOTHING and be okay??? 

 

I'm scared that if I go back onto Cymbalta just to stabilise that 1) these past few days of suffering will have been for nothing, and 2)  from what I have read it is still a struggle coming off them even while tapering....so is it better to just get it over and done with cold turkey and start recovering rather than weaning off and dealing with these harsh symptoms for longer??? I don't know...... I feel like I don't know anything anymore. 

[Michgirl]

Bec,

 

You need to read my thread on What Did I Do here on this site.  You don't want to tough this out.  I've been suffering for weeks now.  Listen to the advise of those who know and have responded to you above.  

 

Michgirl