Hi everyone!
I'm Melissa, I'm a 30 year old woman and I was prescribed Cymbalta for pain management (I've been taking the generic drug). I started it July 10. I was on 20mg for 2 weeks, then upped to 40 mg for 2 weeks, then upped to 60mg. It hasn't been helping at all, so my doctor and I decided it's time to discontinue this and try a different medication.
I had no idea that the withdrawal symptoms could be so horrific until she cautioned me about tapering off and I did some reading on my own. I kind of wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit hole, because now I'm super anxious and scared of coming off of it.
My dr's instructions were to drop to 40mg for 1 week, and then 20mg for another week, and then stop. After what I've read, this seems super abrupt.
I understand that 20mg is the smallest dose, but I've also seen a lot of people discussing bead counting. I was wondering if someone could give me some advice on how to do that? I know you take the beads out and divide them in half, but how do I open the capsule, and how do I put it back together? How many beads should I expect to be in there? Should I drop to 10mg, and then to 5, etc., or do it even slower than that?
Today was my first day of dropping from 60 to 40 mg and honestly I feel SO much better physically, the general malaise is greatly reduced, but I also understand that sometimes symptoms can take a few days to kick in.
Thank you SO much for your help.