Hello everyone,
I am so thankful for a site like this - finally, people who understand.
I was placed on Cymbalta 60mg almost 9 years ago for mild anxiety, no depression. Within a month or so I weened myself down to 20mg because I felt 60mg was too much and I was good for those 9 years. Well, January 2018 I decided to ween myself off the 20mg. I am 32 years old and would like to start a family one day and I don't want any medication in my system, plus i felt in control of my life. I began by taking 5 beads out at a day (which I now learned was too much too quick). I had some residual anxiety but by February 14th, 2018 it was completely out of my system. I skipped the brain zaps (which i had when I tried stopping it cold turkey years ago) but just felt fatigued and heightened anxiety. May 22nd I was at work and randomly passed out. I'm a nurse, so I was brought to the ER, worked up for dehydration and low blood sugar - but I was dizzy. The dizziness progressively gotten worse. I felt like I was being thrown from a boat all day long, it literally felt like someone was under my feet and pushing me. I felt like I was walking sideways, my lips were numb, my vision and my hearing was off, I couldn't process information - I honestly thought I was having a stroke. Another ER visit and they chumped it up to anxiety and work related stress. 8 straight months of pure imbalance continued. I worked and slept. Social anxiety was out of control, I could barely make eye contact with people, I was having 3-4 full blown panic attacks a week, constantly felt on the brink of passing out. My family would witness me turn completely pale and begin to sweat and see me almost lose consciousness and then regain it. I could only sleep on my right side, I lost 15 pounds due to nausea. I went to 3 ENTs and a neurologist. I had every blood work drawn, CT scan, MRI, lyme test, hell I even had an HIV/AIDs test done - all clear. Christmas Eve I was at work and noticed I wasn't dizzy for a short period of time and it progressively had gotten better up until 2 weeks ago. I'm back to feeling off balance, my lips are numb/tingling, and my emotions are all over the place - I even woke myself up because I was crying - I've never done that in my life! I've been told this is a "wave". My question is, when does this stop? Will my brain ever rebalance itself? I tried taking a prenatal vitamin but it wasn't agreeing with my stomach - what supplements should I take? I can't believe this is happening again. SOS