12 replies to this topic

[Coco70]

I'm brand new to Cymbalta...literally just took my first dose, did some Googling and wound up here and needless to say I'm TERRIFIED now. I was prescribed  20mg/day for chronic nerve pain and the plan with my doctor was to be on it for 60-90 days. She mentioned nothing about withdraw symptoms. Is this enough mg/time to start having withdrawal symptoms? I'm seeing so much about weaning off but I'm already on the lowest dose. Open to any advice! Thank you! 

[invalidusername]

Hi Coco... welcome to the forum...

 

First up. Stop. Breathe. Be present. This is one dose. You are fine.

 

20mg is a very low dose - 30% of the therapeutic dose, so whilst this drug can give bad withdrawal, law of averages are on your side. That said, I would be surprised if 20mg does much. Pain dose usually starts at 30mg.

 

The weening process can be absolutely fine, it all comes down to how people go about it, and all the time you are here with the right help, there is no reason to get yourself in a state. We'll look after you!

 

Can you give some background on your diagnosis, and whether you have tried other medication and whether you are also on any supplements at the moment?

 

God Bless

 

IUN

[fishinghat]

As IUN said, one dose is fine. It takes your body around 30 days to adjust to Cymbalta and get any effect. I would say that I would stop it right now but after going through the withdrawal I may be a little bias.  lol
 
The medical research shows that it is only around 50% effective for pain anyway. Drs are mostly going to it to avoid the use of opioid pain killers. If you trust your drs talk to him/her and express your concerns. Be aware though that many drs are not aware of the severity of Cymbalta withdrawal. There are things like gabapentin that are often used for chronic nerve pain. It also has a withdrawal but not near as nasty as Cymbalta. What ever your choice is we are here to help. Keep us posted.

[fishinghat]

Hey coco, by any chance are you taking vitamin b6? In higher doses it can cause nerve pain.

[Coco70]

*takes breath*

Ok feeling a little better after reading your comments - thank you! I was prescribed it for pelvic nerve pain caused by endometriosis. Again, the plan was temporary to relieve and relax some of my nerve tensions and treat the anxiety that comes along with it in conjunction with other things like PT. I'm not big into taking medications so I'm nervous about not being able to just hop off when I'm ready. 

 

Also, not taking a B6 supplement but I do take B12

 

Hi Coco... welcome to the forum...

 

First up. Stop. Breathe. Be present. This is one dose. You are fine.

 

20mg is a very low dose - 30% of the therapeutic dose, so whilst this drug can give bad withdrawal, law of averages are on your side. That said, I would be surprised if 20mg does much. Pain dose usually starts at 30mg.

 

The weening process can be absolutely fine, it all comes down to how people go about it, and all the time you are here with the right help, there is no reason to get yourself in a state. We'll look after you!

 

Can you give some background on your diagnosis, and whether you have tried other medication and whether you are also on any supplements at the moment?

 

God Bless

 

IUN

[fishinghat]

I wouldn't think that B12 would be an issue.

[frog]

Hi Coco!

Welcome! I say this to most new members who end up here trying to get off Cymbalta and going through withdrawal symptoms, BUT I can actually REALLY relate to your story. Wanted to share mine in case it helps:

I was on 60mg Cymbalta for chronic pelvic pain for 5 to 6 years. (My doctor even joked that as a bonus it would make me not ever have anxiety anymore! In retrospect this was very dumb and my anxiety was very minimal to begin with and should have been addressed through therapy) My pain was a bit more mysterious though. I think it was caused by a nasty UTI that caused chronic muscle tightness or a damaged nerve or tissue or something like that. Unfortunately it didn't get addressed soon enough, it took me YEARS to find a PT who actually knew what they were doing so by this point it's requiring longer treatment to undo the years of damage. My pain was completely debilitating, just feeling like everything was on fire 24/7. Cymbalta took away that intense pain and gave me my life back, so for that I'm grateful. However all those years it was truly just a bandaid. It was not addressing the root of the pain, just masking the symptoms. The PT I saw last year made a HUGE difference and was the reason I finally felt ready to get off Cymbalta for good. There's still some acute pain I need to work through and I'm seeing a new PT on Friday to try to address the remainder, but I've been off Cymbalta for over 8 months and the chronic pain I had that didn't even allow me to sit comfortably has not been back at all!

 

I was never warned about any chance of withdrawal problems before I was prescribed Cymbalta (twice). Although if I'm honest, I probably would still have taken it considering how horribly I wanted the pain to go away in the moment. 

 

My withdrawal ended up being hellish, but the reality is that most people's withdrawal is significantly less horrible than mine. At 20mg you'll probably be fine, but I agree with IUN that I don't think this dose will have much effect. The typical starting dose for pain is at least 30mg. 

 

My personal opinion is that I wouldn't take Cymbalta in your situation. As IUN said it can take WEEKS to kick in. And you're only planning on being on it for a couple months. It's not worth it. I would stay far far away from antidepressants. Doctors just do not stress enough the detriments of taking these medications for those who do not suffer from depression or severe anxiety. Your anxiety sounds like it's situational. You're better off talking to a therapist to learn coping methods than to address it through drugs (again not fixing the root, merely covering it up). I admit I don't know a ton about endometriosis but are you able to manage the pain through other means while you get started with your PT? 

[invalidusername]

Oooh lots going on here.

 

As Hat said, B12 takes a lot to become an issue, so we can write that off.

 

Frog has her point for sure. If this is short term and the pain is bearable then I would agree with her 100%. Too many pill-pushers - this is the way of the world. I've got this pain; there's a pill for that... I've got a badger spleen protruding from my elbow; there's a pill for that. There was a published paper (and later a TED talk) a while ago which showed that 1 in 3 GP's gave out an rx just to please their patient, knowing that they wouldn't really need it. 

 

Makes you think.

[Coco70]

Frog, thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm glad to hear PT is helping you - it's giving me some hope! I'm just starting my journey of addressing this pain and will be starting PT soon. I am nervous about managing the pain that will come with PT but I was also given lidocaine cream, which I'm also not dying to take. It's good to know that Cymbalta did help you so I can consider it more if I need to - as I'm reading more about it I'm not sure if it is best as my first option. 

 

And I absolutely agree - Drs love to push the pills. Keeps funding big pharma.... 

 

I'm definitely not getting in too much B12 -  I'm vegan so I take as a supplement since I don't get it in my diet. 

[frog]

I think if you need longer term pain management, you might give Cymbalta a consideration, and yes it'll probably work faster than PT, but assuming your PT is really knowledgeable about pelvic pain I think you will see longer lasting results and no side effects!

[Mxpro32]

I think if you need longer term pain management, you might give Cymbalta a consideration, and yes it'll probably work faster than PT, but assuming your PT is really knowledgeable about pelvic pain I think you will see longer lasting results and no side effects!

I don't know. I couldn't recommend cymbalta just based on how much of my soul it had taken while I was still on it.  it snuck up on me and got worse over the years to where I couldn't even cry when someone died.  I had no emotions.  I was even physically numbed out.  physical touch feels so much better off of it.  throw in the living hell of quitting it, and I would do everything in my power to avoid it.  

[frog]

Would generally agree with you, but knowing how unbearable my pain was when I started taking it, I mean truly I couldn't sit without horrible firey pain, it was worth it. I also did not have too many side effects while on it. Of course afterward was a different story...

 

But like I said, I think if the pain isn't too life stopping and you're able to manage through other means I would always advise to avoid SNRIs. They really should be a last resort, not a first line treatment

[invalidusername]

 

But like I said, I think if the pain isn't too life stopping and you're able to manage through other means I would always advise to avoid SNRIs. They really should be a last resort, not a first line treatment

 

Couldn't agree more. So many doctors go for SNRI's considering them to be an SSRI version 2.0 if you will.... but that is just the bs fed to them by the pharma... and they buy it.