Hello all, I was amazed to find this forum: as many here have already shared, I thought I was the only one! I took 60 mg of Cymbalta for depression, anxiety, and potential fibromyalgia. However, the withdrawal effects after missing a dose by only a matter of hours meant that I decided I wanted to at least reduce my dosage, if not eventually stop using it completely.
After taking 60 mg for about 6 months, my psychiatrist and I reduced the dosage to 30 mg. Since I already knew I had severe withdrawal symptoms after missing a single dose, I expected things to be pretty rough for several days. The way we "weaned" me off was alternating between 60 mg and 30 mg every day for about a week, and then increasing the number of days in a row I took 30 instead of 60 for several weeks. After reading some of the other posts on this site, that was still a pretty dramatic drop, but thankfully it was much more gradual than a "cold-turkey" drop or completely ceasing. I started this process in early May of this year.
The symptoms I experienced did get more severe for several weeks, but seemed to fade away after about 6 weeks. Here's the problem: I keep having recurrent headaches and occasional dizziness, but what is odd is that they seem to be getting worse (particularly the headaches) rather than fading slowly. I am trying to figure out if this is still a withdrawal symptom, after over 3 months, or if it is something else that I should have my doctor check out.
Here is a list of the symptoms I have had after dropping my Cymbalta dose, and I also noted which ones seem to be persisting or increasing:
Withdrawal Symtpoms:
General headache (especially in the front and top of my head): increasing in frequency and severity
Exercise/Exertion headaches: increasing in frequency and severity
Brain “zaps”: decreasing in frequency
Dizziness: decreasing for the first two weeks, now coming and going periodically
Sinus pain: increasing in frequency, but could be hay fever related
Sore/Raw throat: no change in frequency since decreasing dose
Alternating between feeling hot and cold: no change in frequency
Mood Swings: decreased frequency, but still problematic at times
Depression: comes and goes periodically
Memory problems: no change in frequency
Concentration problems: slight decrease over first 4 weeks, now remaining constant
Mental confusion: never extremely high, but ebb and flow remaining constant
Anxiety: remains high, with high spikes every few weeks
Abdominal pain at night: increasing in frequency (possibly an ulcer from increased anxiety? ibuprofen helps my headaches most, but have been limiting use to once or twice weekly)
Again, I don't know if these are all withdrawal symptoms, but they are symptoms that I first noticed around the time I decreased my Cymbalta dose. Does it sound like I should see my general care physician about this?
There are three major things that make me wonder if it is something other than withdrawal:
1. The exertion headaches: A new symptom for me, but seems to be unusual in the list of withdrawal symptoms I have seen.
2. The increasing severity and frequency of headaches and several other symptoms not reducing: even if withdrawal symptoms last a very long time, it wouldn't be normal for them to increase, would it?
3. The time elapsed. My early and acute withdrawal symptoms receded relatively quickly over the first few weeks, so it seems unusual that the reduction of symptoms would slow down, stop, or even reverse after more than 3 months.
What do you all think?