Hi. I'm rather new to the community, as well as this prescription drug. Let me give you my back story: In January 2017 I was involved in a really bad wreck. Apparently, I did not bend my left arm as I hit their car. The person pulled out as I was coming down the road. I thought she would keep going, and I knew I would not be able to stop in time even if I slammed on my breaks. She ended up stopping as I was trying to go around her, and BAM! I t-boned her. Since I did not bend my arm, I have had horrible pains, weakness, and numbing sensations. The person even told me as they came around to my side of the car that they didn't see me and that they were very sorry. I know she didn't do it on purpose, I mean, who does that? LOL! But I was in so much pain. Because of all this, I was unable to drive, think, speak coherently for a while, read, and even write, as well as walk. After about 3 months, I tried to go back to work only to find a hostile work environment. I quickly became very suicidal. After a week back, I had plans to take all my meds and just take my life. I decided that was a bad idea, and left on a Friday at about noon and sped to my doctor's office. I gave him all my meds, and asked if I could please get some help. I ended up in a therapy hospital, no psych ward or anything. Eventually, my new doctor diagnosed me with MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), PTSD (post traumatic disorder), and GAD (general anxiety disorder, which I believe they scratched and said it wasn't just a generalized anxiety). My PTSD has kept me up since then with bad dreams and overall feelings of dread. Today, I'm doing a little better, but I'm still afraid to drive home (that's when my accident happened). I tend to try to stay in a far right lane (still) and drive a bit under the speed limit, not much. But I try to stay away and out of the way of other people. I'm still scared to drive, but I make myself do it every day. While I was at the hospital though, I was prescribed 30mg (to start) of duloxetene (cymbalta), 1mg prazosin, and 100mg of trazadone. The cymbalta has been really great, however, I cannot afford it. So last month I went for almost a week without it and was very very sick. I mean vomiting, nausea, hot/cold, moody, etc. I even felt the need to just sit and cry for no reason. So, once I got my refill, and took my first pill, I was ok. However, I realized that I'm not always going to have the money to get these pills. So, my doctor said we would try to wean myself off. We want to go to 30mg again. I've been on 60mg because my insurance will only pay for one pill per day basically.
As of today, October 17th, I have gone 4 days without my Cymbalta. Yes, I was very ill this morning. But it took longer to get the withdrawal symptoms. So, I do plan on just staying off the cymbalta as much as I can. I definitely crave it, I can feel the want for it. But I am holding out because I hate being sick. I'd rather get this over and done with now than later. Also, I found out that Cymbalta helps with the nerve pain I am having in my back, shoulders, neck, and arm. I was always told that it was for depression. The prazosin is something I will be sticking with for sure. It helps so much with nightmares and helping keep me asleep. I do plan on getting rid of the trazadone as well as I know that stuff I will have to keep upping the dosage on. Plus, since melatonin doesn't work for me, I know there are other things out there that are safer and even some OTC meds for sleep.
I guess the reason I came on here is to really just share my story with everyone. I wanted to be sure that I am not alone in this. lol!