12 replies to this topic

[73Slash]

Hi everyone, I’m new here

After being on Cymbalta for 10 weeks and having worse mood swings than ever, my psychiatrist said it’s not going to work for me and we decided I would try Lexapro next. He said it was fine to jump off Cymbalta 60mg and start taking 10mg Lexapro the next day. I told him I was too scared to do that and he gave me some 30mg capsules and said to take them for a few days and then jump off. I said ok but later on when I was already home I realised I was absolutely terrified of doing even that. I decided I would reduce by 6mg a day for 10 days and immediately start taking 2.5mg (quarter of a tablet) of Lexapro. My plan looks like this:

Thursday - 60mg
Friday - 54mg
Saturday - 48mg
Sunday - 42mg
Monday - 36mg
Tuesday - 30mg
Wednesday - 24mg
Thursday - 18mg
Friday - 12mg
Saturday - 6mg
Sunday - 0mg

I’m going to try to stick to 2.5mg of Lexapro as long as possible in an effort to avoid serotonin toxicity.
I am beyond terified right now. I’m panicking. I just called my mum in distress because I can’t wash my dishes. I felt like I was fine this morning but then I lost all motivation and haven’t been able to do anything for the rest of the day and now I’m getting upset about all these little things and I just realised the withdrawal has probably started which has probably caused the panic but now I’m panicking more cos I’ve just signed myself up for hell and I don’t know how long for.

Can people please tell me their experiences with either cross tapering/switching and especially peoples experiences withdrawing after short term (around 10 weeks)? I need to have some sort of idea of what’s to come. I’m so scared.

I know I’m sounding dramatic but I’m already going through the most difficult experience of my life right now BEFORE mirtazapine gave me life threatening side effects which I had to the stop cold turkey and take cymbalta. The withdrawal from mirtazapine, the relapse of clinical depression and the start up side effects of Cymbalta was a whole new level of hell I don’t even know how I survived and now I’m just realising this is far from over and is probably about to get a whole lot worse 😭

Please could someone tell me when do the withdrawals usually start? And get the worse? And how long for? And does replacing with another antidepressant make the withdrawal any easier?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and please any advice will be appreciated

[fishinghat]

Welcome Slash

 

You are not overreacting for sure. Your plan and perspective is sound except for the rate. Most members drop to zero over a one month period when cross tapering and increase the new Ad over  the same one month period. .I have cross tapered from one AD to another several times and have been on this site for several years. The withdrawal varies as to when it sets in but most can get down to 30 mg with little problem. As you drop below that it depends on the individual. Myself, I didn't get any symptoms until I got down to the last few beads and yet we have one member on the site now who is having trouble getting down to 20 mg. I would say on average it really starts to kick in around 10 mg or so.

 

Usually you you drop down 25% on Cymbalta over the first week or two and then start dropping to 50% on Cymbalta over the next 2 weeks while at the same time starting on 25% Lexapro. It is most likely you will have some significant withdrawal during the transition as Lexapro usually takes 4 weeks to fully kick in.

 

We just had a member go through this same cross taper and she has posted her routine on this site in several places. She had good success and would recommend you consider her schedule. Her name is Juli and I am sure she will follow up with a post soon.

[73Slash]

Thank you for your reply fishinghat

Yes I was worried that 10 days was too quick but I couldn’t figure out if it was better to to do it over days or months, because I’ve only been on it for 10 weeks I was worried the longer I took to get off it, then the longer I’ve been on it in total if you know what I mean.

Thank you for pointing out the other post from Juli, I will check it out. I did try browsing the posts before but cos I’m so scattered I couldn’t seem to navigate my way through the site very well or focus either and kept accidentally closing the window instead of pressing back. Lol. But now there is a post with what I’m looking for I’m feeling a bit less frantic 😅

[fishinghat]

Hey Slash, I found her post from August 16th...


"This worked beautifully for me. I know you are scared. I was so so so so scared too but I am so glad that I tried it. As long as you are making drops in Cymbalta along with the increases in the new AD, and keep going you should avoid Seratonin syndrome. I was very aware to make sure that I was maintaining the same general amount of total AD.

I was so shocked at how well it worked. I felt like it was a miracle. I think you will be surprised too.

I did gobs of research and kind of came up with my own strategy with all the info I gathered. Some people go much faster and some slower, some all at once some over time. I found my path to be a happy medium.



This is what it looked like for me:

Week 1 drop from 40 to 30 Cymbalta, start 5mg Lexapro

Week 2 drop from 30 to 20 Cymbalta, increase to 10mg Lexapro

Week 3 drop from 20 to 10 Cymbalta, stay at 10mg Lexapro

Week 4 drop from 10 to 5 Cymbalta, stay at 10mg Lexapro

Week 5: drop from 5 to 2.5 Cymbalta, increase to 15 Lexapro before the drop

Week 6: bead count to zero, stayed at 15 Lexapro



It was all based on how I was feeling. I started with a plan and then adjusted based on my symptoms."

[gail]

Hello Slash,

A warm welcome to the forum. Juli has here an excellent plan for cross tapering.
You need not fear, all is done in a simple way and easy way.

Juli should be in later to encourage you Slash. You will do real fine this way!

[juli]

Hi Slash,

I am so sorry that you are going through this.  It is a terrible horrible thing.  But the very good news is that you can find relief.  If you are starting the withdrawls, I would go ahead and try the cross taper.  There are very minimal issues such as anxiety at start up and a bit of symptoms with each drop but very very manageable and miraculously I am back to my old self.

You can do this!

Juli

[73Slash]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Sorry I haven’t been back for a while. I just had a friend die in a car accident shortly after posting this. I tried to go to his funeral today but realised as I was on my way that I was far too sick to even attend

I’ve only just realised recently that life is often just one crisis after another, and then only realised a couple of days ago that this is ABSOLUTE LIES and life is concurrent, randomised crisis’s with no break, FOREVER!

Thank you for all the information about how to taper more slowly. I’ve taken a screen shot in case I need to refer back to it quickly with minimal brain function.

I was conflicted about whether to taper more slowly or not. Because I had been on cymbalta for 10 weeks and from what I could gather, the longer you’ve been taking it, the more difficult the withdrawal. So in my head it looked like:

SCENARIO #1 Take Cymbalta for over 2 months then slowly taper off for almost 2 months = Total time on Cymbalta increased to approx 4 months = Almost Double the original time spent on Cymbalta = Higher dependence?/More difficult withdrawal? BUT Slower taper = Easier withdrawal???
SCENARIO #2 Take Cymbalta for over 2 months, Stop cold turkey = Only been on Cymbalta for 2.5 months, lower dependence, minimised risk for serious withdrawal symptoms BUT Cold Turkey = Shock to system and maximised withdrawal symptoms??
SCENARIO #3 Take Cymbalta for over 2 months, Stop ASAP but not all in one go = Still under 3 months spent taking Cymbalta = Hopefully not too dependent on it yet. Stopping over 10 days = Not as much of a shock to system as cold turkey but still maybe too fast??? BUT if I took it longer than maybe it would be worse?? Or better??

SO CONFUSED LOL

So I decided to continue with original plan and if symptoms become too hectic, I can always crack open some more beads and give myself emergency rations. It would HAVE to be an absolute emergency for me to even contemplate trying to do that again, it’s so darn frustrating! I have indoor cats and I have to lock them in the bedroom while I do it and then vacuum the floor everywhere before I let them out. Because those beads GO EVERYWHERE

So anyway, my update is, LIFE IS RIDICULOUS. And I’m feeling pretty sick and am a complete mental case. Mood swings all over the place plus I have a really bad cold or a flu and my chest and tummy are sore and my bones are sore. Oh, and I impulsively just spent my ENTIRE savings shopping online for things I don’t neccessarily even need and I still feel like I need to buy more things and I can’t because I literally HAVE NO MONEY LEFT and my house is quite literally half filled with unopened packages that are continually being delivered every few hours and I don’t even know what is in them.

So yeah. Sorry bout the rant. I don’t even know how to pretend to be sane right now. Oh and today is my third day of no Cymbalta at all. And 7.5mg of Lexapro.

Peace ✌ (Where R you?)

[fishinghat]

Slash, how long you been on the Lexapro now?

In regard to the three scenarios you hit the nail on the head with your concerns. I just wish there was a clear answer.

[gail]

Hi Slash,

As I can see, you cold turkeyed Cymbalta. Not recommended by anyone. The short time you've being on Cymbalta, 10-12weeks is not a guarantee for no withdrawal. I was on it for 18 or so weeks, it was hell.

I would say that your scheme of thoughts and action are related to Cymbalta or it's withdrawal. Do youself a favor and reinstate to 30mg, while going up on Lexapro. When you stabalize, bead count the Cymbalta.

Life does seem to have no meaning, just passing time till we die. When depressed, those are my thoughts magnified by 10. I don't think that way when I'm ok.

Hang in there, with time, it will be ok.

[73Slash]

Fishinghat, I’ve been on Lexapro now for 11 or 12 days. T9morrow is the last day of 7.5mg and the next day will be 10mg.

Answers would be good. But for now all I can do is provide my own account of this in the hope that it may provide some idea for others of what they could expect from this experience, even though someone elses experience could be wildly unreliable given the ambiguous and personal nature of each individuals symptoms or lack thereof. Heh.

[73Slash]

Thanks Gail,

I just keep telling myself “and that’s ok” at the end o& every thought and sentence. Seems to be the only way i can go on. Embracing the darkness.

I haven’t stopped cold turkey, but somewhere in the middle. I reduced by 6mg every day for 10 days. I took my last dose on Sunday which was 6mg. According to my calculations I will continue to have trace amounts of cymbalta in my system for a few more days.

I th8nk i had more to say but Im sorry I’m falling askeep as I’m typing this. It’s been a crazy day

[fishinghat]

Lexapro could take a week or 4 weeks before it kicks in. Just hold on.

[juli]

I think that dropping 6mg per day for 10 days is pretty much cold turkey.  You can tough it out and wait for the Lexapro to kick in or reinstate and do a slower taper,  concurrently off one and on the other over 4-6 weeks.

 

Your doomsday thoughts are from the Cymbalta withdrawl.  It can really make you feel so hopeless.

 

I hope you feel better soon.