2761 replies to this topic

[Noush]

Fishinhat. If I accidentally took 2 x 40mg capsules this morning around 9am (hoping a didn't, but couldn't remember if I had taken it, so took one, then suddenly thought I'd remembered taking it), would I know about it by now? I do feel a bit sick & tired. But that's it really.

[fishinghat]

For most it will cause dizziness and sleepiness within an hour or so. It can cause flu like or cold like symptoms as well but these will pass slowly over the next 24 hours usually.

[Noush]

Would this be all? If I resume back to my normal 4pmg dose tomorrow, it shouldn't have lasting effects? Because I am looking for symptoms/side effects, I don't know if I am imagining them if you know what I mean. My heart rate is up, but has been for the last few days.

[fishinghat]

I wouldn't expect more than that. Your body is used to processing Cymbalta and all it should do is give you a break from the withdrawal for a day or two. As far as side effects, did you have a lot of side effects when on a dose above 40 mg?

[Noush]

Well it's a long story. I was getting headaches & occasionally Brain Fog. So I bead counted down a bead a week this time (dropped I think 28 beads) & started with insomnia & anxiety/Depression & bad vertigo. So I reinstated to 40mg a maybe 2 months ago. Since then I stabalised after about a week & haven't had any side effects really, apart from waking briefly in the night & then a bit too early in the morning. This last week I have been clenching my jaw a lot. And I've notice either my heart is beating fast or it's kind of harder, like I am aware of it. This happens when I move around or walk up stairs, which I am a healthy person usually, so is unusual. However, I have experienced this each time I have had withdrawal from attempted tapers. However, I'm now back on my full 40mg dose & have been fine at this for weeks.

Any ideas?

[invalidusername]

Yes, they were jimmies. sprinkles or what ever you may call them

[fishinghat]

Noush

The heart pounding, racing, especially after activity is from what is called a chronic adrenergic state. To put it in English, too much adrenaline. Stress. At that level you are more stabile but the anxiety is still there. I wouldn't worry about the extra 40 mg (if you even took it).

Sprinkles? Don't know that one either. Oh well, old foggy.

[Noush]

Hat - sprinkles like what you put on a ices bun Or ice cream?

So this raised heart rate, is this a reason to come off the Cymbalta now? Some days I have is some I don't. Is there anything else I can do to lessen this? I wonder if the build up to Christmas has caused this flare up?

[fishinghat]

The raised heart rate is a result of stress. If you come off the Cymbalta it will be more stressful and get worse. In fact this is a sign you are not stable yet and should wait before making any more drops. Drs often prescribe a beta blocker (blocks some of the adrenaline receptors in the body). They are not necessary though and will fade with time. Recent stress could have set this off. I occasionally have flair ups like this when I get too stressed but I take it easy for a couple days and practice my relaxation techniques and they pass. (Harder to get rid of during withdrawal though as you are much more susceptible.)

[fishinghat]

The only thing I ever put on ice cream (which I have not had for over 30 years) is chocolate syrup. Don't worry, good old google will take care of it. lol

[invalidusername]

I can absolutely vouch for that - my stress tolerance went right off the chart when I starting coming off - as you know. Horribly so. I was for sure not stable and still have anger issues about being taken off too early from the last 10mg. 

 

Sprinkles are usually for ice cream, yes, and also not had it for quite some time.

[KathyInFL]

"That looks like jimmies! "

OK, I will bite, what is a jimmie?

 

 

Yes, they were jimmies. sprinkles or what ever you may call them

 

 

Jimmies, sprinkles.... You have led a sheltered life, Hat!!

 

https://www.google.c...chrome&ie=UTF-8

[fishinghat]

Man, I have been around the world 5 times and missed all the simple things in life. I did find it interesting about all the 'racist' concerns over jimmies. Always something new.

Thanks all. My education continues. lol

[Noush]

Hat - thank you. So maybe it's not the Cymbalta that is causing these symptoms of mine & is just the genuine stress of Christmas etc. Maybe I've not actually stabalised 100% yet. As I had only dropped by around 5% of my full dose, I didn't think that it would take as long as 8 + weeks to stabalise.

[invalidusername]

Christmas is a lot of stress. Lost all meaning since i was a child.

If it helps i also get the heart pounding. Doesn't increase pulse so much but does beat a lot harder. I do my best to ignore it.

[Noush]

What do you think causes your heart pounding IUN? I can get it when I have just slowly walked up the stairs or into another room and this can come on when I don't feel stressed or haven't had a stressful day.

[invalidusername]

Exactly the same. I can be laying in bed, on the forum.. anything, and I will just notice it. If I have just walked up the stairs (5 sets of them) to my apartment, and sat down I will notice it will stay there for a bit even though my pulse is just fine.

 

It is adrenaline getting thrown around the body - nothing more. We control this to some extent, but a lot of it is taken care of by our nervous system. The brain will tell the glands what to do - and there you go - adrenaline! AD's of course control this part of the brain, and one lost connection and it will kick things like that off without your intervention whatsoever. 

 

It has happened on many occasions with me. I'd just be sat there watching a movie, completely engrossed by it, and there it is. Sometimes it would cause me to add the "second fear" and worry more. Now I know what it is, as I said, I do my best to ignore it.

[KathyInFL]

Man, I have been around the world 5 times and missed all the simple things in life. I did find it interesting about all the 'racist' concerns over jimmies. Always something new.

Thanks all. My education continues. lol

 

Hah! I only read the main article, I didn't see the "racist" one.

[Noush]

So again, I went to bed last night feeling really relaxed, after a lovely afternoon/evening with family. Could barely keep my eyes open I was so tired. Fell to sleep instantly. Woke again a 2am (it's 2am every night) with slightly raise heart rate. Managed to get back to sleep after probably an hour. Then woke again at 4.45 (same time every morning) with my heart pounding like I am having an adrenaline rush. I don't feel stressed, anxious, just wide awake & pounding heart. Then I have needed to go to the toilet (sorry if it's too much info),but it's like this causes my bowel to be in overdrive too).

I ate healthy yesterday, no caffeine, chocolate etc. I have had this each time I have tried to wean off C, but as I said before, I am currently on my full dose of 40mg. I reinstated about 8 weeks ago and within a week of reinstating, I was sleeping great & feeling good. Now this for the past week from nowhere & I've not changed my dose at all.

Could this be the C just not agreeing with me anymore?

[Axlejames]

Noush Im not sure on the cymbalta causing it but in the beginning of my withdrawl from celexa I had a lot of the similar issues waking up same time every night with panic I would call it no so much anxiety in earlier posts Fish had been talking about after affects from adrenaline and stress in my opinion because your body may have been in a constant state of stress even with the dosage increase it may take awhile for your body itself to stabalise even if your mind may be there. ONce again thats just my opinion from my experience I am brand new to this nightmare so not to sure. As for me i still have existetial anxiety when I go see my dr on the 31st I may ask for an increase to 40mg to help with anxiety i really dont want to introduce another drug into this mix, but i am still conflicted on that because of all the crap cymbalta can do. I started to get my sleeve done last night that was interesting I have many tattoos but I paniced at the first needle my anxiety hit but I sat for 2 and a half hours and got it done so its a matter of pushing through I think. I really am hoping that some day I will stabalise even more than this but lack of sleep excess stress getting divorced all the unknown in my life provides me anxiety and depression even without the withdrawl so its a trifecta of insanity in my life. I truly hope your all doing Ok I dont have access on my phone anymore so I only can come to my computer once or twice a day but I am checking constatnly i like any and all advice. and want to know your all OK

[fishinghat]

One of the things Cymbalta controls is norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is converted to adrenaline and we all know what that does. When one is exposed to continuous stress the body produces constant high amounts of adrenaline and after awhile the body forgets how to cut back on the production. This is called a condition response. This is more fully described in the document :Chronic Adrenergic State in the thread Summary of Cymbalta Withdrawal. My adrenaline is well under control under daily conditions. Yesterday however both vehicles decided to stop running on the same day. I had a long day and didn't take any breaks or get off my feet until 7PM (which is when I ate lunch, lol). Today is all heart pounding, skip beats and a fast pulse. It will settle back down soon.

[invalidusername]

I have just had a quick look at this Chronic Adrenergic State and it makes a lot of sense. Google searches don't bring up too much though.

 

The problem is that it is a dog chasing its own tail of an adrenaline-stress-adrenaline cycle. Sounds exactly my issue which was exacerbated having stopped Cymbalta. 

[invalidusername]

Axle - interesting what you say about your mind being on step ahead of your body with regards to the stress - made a lot of sense to me as I have not thought about separating the two when this is clearly the issue. My mind is doing all it can to remove the stress, but the body will still not tolerate it. Over time, I hope that it will become more resilient. That coupled with removing as much stress as possible from my doing, it should work much better.

 

Congratulations on sitting through the tattoo - that is something more than I could do at the moment.

 

Are you still not sorted out with your phone and the forum yet? Is it still the password issue? Shame to not hear from you quite so frequently...

[Axlejames]

Yeah I emailed administrator a few times everytime I log in on my phone and go to post or anything it says my posting rights has been removed by administrator so not sure. I really miss having access through out the day because I need the support but I am able to check so I can see what you all post just cant respond on my phone. I am starting to recognize my anxiety more I realized something the other day as well i need to stop reading online forums when it comes to my faith. faith is something personal and having so many people in one spot is crazy to read the arguments its even worse in my state of mind to read an athiest bash on everything i believe right now i can admit my faith is weak or like that mustard seed so reading or allowing my subconsious to devour such negativity is just going to keep feeding my anxiety. I need to get out of my head. my anxiety is high again i am getting closer and closer to telling my soon to be ex to just move out she has gone back to lets be friends and not knowing wether she wants to be with me in the past i would cry and let this destroy instead i told her she will not do this to me again i know my limitations and I will not allow this to happen again to myself. I still have this uneasy feeling about me still worried my life will be cut short and that is why i keep looking for any and all answers when it comes to spirituality if anyone has gone through this in withdrawl or in general how did you combat it? What can i do ? I hope all is well with all of you

[invalidusername]

How have you contacted Ken (admin)? By email or PM? He is not as active as the rest of us, but he should be in touch - although I don't think he has access to the email address shown here, so might be best to send a PM if you haven't done so.

 

You are absolutely right about the online forums and faith. It will feed your anxiety for sure. The only way out of anxiety is not to feed it - if you let it take hold, it will make you worse. Accept that it is there, don't fight it. As for your other half, I feel you are doing the right thing. She absolutely cannot do this to you. It is just not fair to toy with your emotions the way she is. Take control as you suggest.

 

I have to be honest in saying that I have found it difficult with my faith over the last couple of days in thinking how can I have been let to go through the nightmare I am currently facing with the Lyrica. But our lives are not controlled for us - we make the decisions. We need to ask for guidance, strength and support to help us through these things. But it is so difficult. So difficult. 

 

I can really understand your anxiety as you have been talking over the weeks. I think you need to address the anxiety of having your life cut short first as this will be feeding the rest of the spiral you have going on. Wish I could help more, but as it is, I am trying to calm myself over a potentially sleepless night. Time to practice what I am telling you and not to give in to the anxiety. 

[Axlejames]

Super anxious today feeling like im outside of myself looking in not sure how to get through this. I miss being able to turn to the forum throughout the day i did message ken still having existential thoughts i just want to get back to life but its seems i have drifted to far away now. i slept for 9 hours last night and woke up tired and anxious i cant explain this i really think this is from withdrawl and my divorce just bad timing its interesting because as things are starting to change with my wife i still feel anxious and depressed recently we saw our pastor at the church and it seems like we may not even get divorced it came out that she is overworked and suffering from her own and anxiety and everything is mangnified cause of her anxiety so hey maybe we wont be getting divorced but im still anxious still depressed still not feeling right filled with angst and nervousness how do i get through this.

[invalidusername]

"Super anxious today feeling like im outside of myself looking in not sure how to get through this."

 

This is depersonalization mate - a very common symptom of anxiety. Many people report this thinking they are "loosing it". 

 

"i slept for 9 hours last night and woke up tired and anxious i cant explain this"

 

This is again to be expected from all the stress that you are going through - exactly what you said. Withdrawal and the rollercoaster of a divorce/non-divorce you are going through. Whilst good sleep is a very good way of helping us, sometimes it just isn't enough. But the thing to remember here, regardless of the fact you still feel tired, you are inevitably better than you would be had you not slept as long.

 

What do you think is the source of your depression? Do you think your anxiety feeds it at all? The other way around? Or a bit of both? Understanding it all is a must. This is why you ask questions. I just with I had more answers sometimes. You and I are so alike in this stage. We keep looking for answers hoping it will help us. Then when our lives don't work in the way that our answers are telling us, it makes us worse... Does that make sense to you?

[Axlejames]

So at the doctor today they gave me 100mg zoloft to be cut in half doctor for 50mg in the morning dr told me to just stop cymbalta at night and start taking the zoloft in the morning I know i ve talked to iun about this and he said it would be a better idea to taper off. My issue is that I have a hard enough time cutting a pill in half and getting the right dose trying to cut a pill in half then another half and count beads may be a bit much for me what will happen if i do as my doctor says will it make me sick will i have a bunch of issues is there a chance Ill be ok and i can just cross over its been since about end of august beginning of september since ive been on cymbalta any advice is welcomed.

[invalidusername]

I have suggested the following as a cross-taper "strategy";

 

Week 1 - 20mg Cym + 12,5mg Zol

Week 2 - 10mg Cym + 25mg Zol

Week 3 - 10>5mg bead count + 37,5mg Zol (at 5mg)

Week 4 - 5 > 0mg bead count + 50mg Zol (at 0mg)

 

Obviously could be done quicker, but I think 4 weeks would give the Zoloft time to have started to kick in, thus reducing the potential withdrawal of the Cym.

[Axlejames]

so i go in to take my lamotragine for the night and i grabbed my duloxetine i have only 3 pills left that is the other issue that just dawned on me now i dont even have enough to taper because usaully when in go into the dr i have to get my refill well she didnt refil my duloxetine am i going to get sick what is going to happen?