11 replies to this topic

[sick and tired]

I have been on Cymbalta for about 2 years. I had been on Paxil prior to that but wanted to change to something else as I had gained so much weight on Paxil. I felt fine on Cymbalta for a long time but realized that I had become somewhat of a recluse except for going to work. I feel blah inside and can't wait to go home to lay down and be away from people. I am constantly tired, my brain seems foggy, my joints ache and I feel off balance at times. I thought it was because I turned the big 50 about the time I started to take Cymbalta. I have commented to people that life really changes after 50. I feel soooo old! And I wasn't like that before. SO is it the Cymbalta making me feel this way? Has anyone else felt like this? I want to get off the Cymbalta and I have an appointment next week with my doctor to discuss how to do it. I am scared to death now reading all of these reports! If I miss 2 days of taking it now, I get nauseated and throw up. But I can't stand feeling the way I feel on it either! I am just curious if anyone had the same symptoms on Cymbalta that I have had....

[cmonk]

I have been on Cymbalta for about 2 years. I had been on Paxil prior to that but wanted to change to something else as I had gained so much weight on Paxil. I felt fine on Cymbalta for a long time but realized that I had become somewhat of a recluse except for going to work. I feel blah inside and can't wait to go home to lay down and be away from people. I am constantly tired, my brain seems foggy, my joints ache and I feel off balance at times. I thought it was because I turned the big 50 about the time I started to take Cymbalta. I have commented to people that life really changes after 50. I feel soooo old! And I wasn't like that before. SO is it the Cymbalta making me feel this way? Has anyone else felt like this? I want to get off the Cymbalta and I have an appointment next week with my doctor to discuss how to do it. I am scared to death now reading all of these reports! If I miss 2 days of taking it now, I get nauseated and throw up. But I can't stand feeling the way I feel on it either! I am just curious if anyone had the same symptoms on Cymbalta that I have had....

That is why I wanted to get off this stuff. There are days I did not even get out of bed. I would count the hours and min till I could go back to bed. It was as if being bed and sleeping was all I looked forward to. I had no quality of life. I was at 60mg at the end of Aug. and started weaning off the way the Dr. said to 60mg for 2 weeks. Then 60 one night 30 the next then 30 for 2 weeks and the 30 for 2 nights and skip a night. I was so messed up I had to take a 30 mg and a Xanax to get my mid straight for a few days. Thank GOD I found this sight. I started opening the pills and counting the beads. I am down to 5mg now. There are 45 beads in 5mg so I have started taking 1 bead less every night. I am starting to have brain zaps but mild from what there were. I may have to stay at 44 beads for a bit so my body can adjust but I know the way I am doing this now is much better than the was I was doing it. I almost forgot to mention I had stomach flu systems for 2 months and uncontrollable crying I could not even drive the brain zaps were so bad. All of that was before I started tapering off slow like I am now. The good thing about going down slow is if your side effects get to bad you can always go back up a mg or 2 to give your brain a chance to catch up to you. I hope this helped. I did not mean to wright a novel.


Candy

[nursedeborah]

Hello,I'm 35 I have been on Cymbalta now for 2 years. i want off..i can't lose weight. i am tired all the time. I have Fibromyalgia (that is why i take the Cymbalta)..I feel I'm worse on it. I stopped taking it 2 days ago...I know that is a bad thing. I just wanted to see if I experienced any side effects....So far I have been okay. just real tired and achy. Let me know what your Dr. says. I just want to be off all the drugs and learn to handle the fibro pain and stress on my own. I hope you find your answers. I am a other of 6 and I feel like i'm 80. It's not right. YOu are not old. Far to young not to enjoy life!!! Take care.. Lets get on the road to healing and getting the toxic crap out!  It's all to easy to take a pill and hope things get better. I am learning that it trully starts on the inside. Good luck and god blessKim

Hi to all of you,I have not been here for so long, and I really feel so bad for that.I need to remember where I came from, and what it was like for me when I got here back in August. Whew, Oh you talk about being a messnot able to do anything by then, Cymbalta had turned me into what it'sknow for "The Slug Drug" I couldn't get dressed, bruesh  my hair, washmy hair, what was a shower, or cleaning my home. I had no feelings, exceptfear, panic, terror, and worry. I was filled with so much anxiety, had noemotions, feelings towards anything. I got to where I couldn't leave the house, call anyone. I was no longer me, or a person. I too gained 35 lbs,yet I coulodn't eat, I was never hungry.Oh my God if I wanted to I could look back at my first few months here, butright now I am not even ready to do that. I know where all of you are right now, if you have already started to wean, I know just what your going through,thinking about, getting ready to do it. I can't remember so much, but all the fear remains in my body of what this drug took, and did to me. I had been on 60 mg for over 3 1/2 years, and at one point he had upped it to 120 mg!!!!!! but something inside me said to stop taking that amount, and Iwas already so insane by then I don't know how long I had even taken 120mg, orwhat I felt like. I just remember so crazy, yet knowing it, and my doctor notbelieving me was also so hard on me, it made me feel like he just thought I wasnuts.Welll I am now down to 45 beads, I know that either is not making sense to you,or like me, I thought I would never see that number, or even 30 mg for that matter.If you just stick to the 10 beads every 2 weeks, or if that's too much only do5mg, this is not a race, but a goal, and you will reach it. It does get better, way better. I still have a withdrawl process with each decrease, it comes after about 6-9 days for me. They are noting like before,and go away. I still have the clangging in my head, but it does not last, Ijust lay down. I still have a horrible memeory, and my vision in my right eye needs to be checked as I can't see out of it, and I just got new glassesa few months ago. I don't know if any of this is permanate or not, at least Iam able to go see a doctor now!!!!I just want you all to know my heart goes out to you all, I don't think you will have as bad a time as I did, we are all so different. I still believe itdepends on how bad off it made you while you were on it. The ones that didn'thave a problem taking it, well they just do better that's all.

Remember it does get better, we all will make it on the other side, if I made
it anyone can. Go back, and look how crazy, and hard it was for me!

I am here for all of you anytime you need help, just ask me.

Take care,love,and peace to all,
Debbie

Oh by the way I can't type or spell worth crap!

[Junior]

Debbieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Where have you been? I was getting a bit concerned!

Thinking of you

Junior

[cmonk]

Hi everyone. I am new here, but I was put on Cymbalta in August for a personal issue and started at 30 mg. I am now at 60 mg and want to go off but have read a lot of frightening stories about withdrawal. My doctor wants to do every other day, but I don't want to try it and risk experiencing what so many of you have gone through. One site I've been to suggested 6-8 less beads a day (8 on day 1, 16 on day 2, 24 on day 3) with vitamin supplements, but is that too much? I just read this quote from Debbie...



Can anyone clarify this for me? Does this mean you take out a total of 10 beads every 2 weeks? Because then this would be less than 5 mg since 5 mg = 45 beads. I know I am missing something - just can't figure out what right now. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

I think Debbie just meant 5 beads not 5mg.

Candy

[MaureenV]

Hello from Greece
it seems that this cymbalta thing is like a streetdrug in disguize.
my boyfriend (32)has bipolar I and is/was on cymbalta for about 1 year(from 60mg-40mg now 20mg) his psychiatrist suggested to cut it off. yesterday (5th day off) he told me on the phone, it was like hell(whe dont live in the same city).he wanted to just cut off his head or die.he couldnt believe that something thats supposed to help you coping with your illnes, could cause such withrawal symptoms.its like cutting off heroin he said(he is a former user).
he called his doc.thats what she told him:yes there are side effects, but maybe it wasnt the right time for you to go through this.if you cannot continue ,its better to take cymbalta again.

(^&%$^$#%#@$#@#$#!@...this is what i thought of it..made me so angry...as if this was just a piece of cacke.docs..do they respect us..?)

well he took 2 anxiolytics to help him sleep.of course this wasnt the case.he took cymbalta the same night, but was so angry about it this morning,coz he realized that.."hey you are addicted (again) to something".
the "good thing":he is determined to cut cymbalta off (cold turcey)and is open to find alternative ways of healing.
damn..meds are the easy way or only way for some illnesses.or maybe thats what they want us to believe.

i'll continue my research.there must be another way.

good luck to you all!!!
love
Lia

Lia, he doesn't have to go cold turkey, even though 20 mgis the lowest dose available on prescription.


What many of us have done is taper off slowly by opening the capsules and dividing the contents.

If this is of interest let me know and we can let you know how it works.


Doctors are only aping what the drug companies tell them. Unfortunately some of us are the first ones they've had coming off cymbalta, or the first ones who've had problems. Some still do need medication to get them through, and it's so difficult to tell during withdrawal as the symptoms can be the same.

regards, Maureen.

[MaureenV]

So, here I am I was on 120 mg Cymbalta for major depression; started 13 months ago. The initial dose of 30 mg went to 60 in 2 weeks, and within a couple months up to 120 mg per day. Shortly after that, the doc also added another med to help with the depression. At that point, I decided not to take the new med and discontinue nthe Cymbalta. Anyway, I have been trying to withdraw for several months; 120 mg is a lot to go down to nothing.... I now have 60 mg pills still, of which I have been taking 1 every 3rd to 4th day. The brain zaps are of nothing I can explain. It's a minute of disorientation, dizziness, impaired vision; but, the worst feeling is knowing I still am feeling these awful sensations. I am a medical professional and kmow that I should be under the care of an MD, but it is because of an MD with no prior warning that I am going through this now. My hope is that I can do this on my own, as my trust is not high. On a side note, I got tearful for the first time in over a year today.... Guess you take the good with the bad, but when withdrawing, the tearfulness is the good.... Any advice is appreciated.

HI Susan,

taking one every three or four days is not helping you at all. You'd probably recover faster taking none that doing it that way - all you're doing is 'feeding' the addiction in your brain a little, then having to backtrack from that dose each time.

You can be off Cymbalta completely (but not as quickly as you'd probably like) and not have to suffer this way by taking the 60mg every day, then tapering down slowly.

And by slowly I mean dropping no more than 10% at a time, then waiting at each dose for any withdrawal symptoms to disappear before dropping again. This way the withdrawal symptoms are generally more tolerable.


regards, Maureen.

[Junior]

Hi Kim,
i also have fibro and cfs, i have been on cymbalta 60 mg for more than a year, before that i was in a clinical trial taking reboxetine the only thing that have take the pain away, but i went from 130 lbs, to a merely 103 my husband tough i was dying. I have not take cymbalta 2 days for money reasons, and as i type this i feel like my heart its going to explode, my muscles ache and my face its red like a cooked lobster, everything hurts and i feel nauseus. But like you managing fibro for over 10 years i still have hope, hang in there,

Hi Vanessa

I believe Drs in the US can give you samples.... for free.

Junior

[cmonk]

Hi Vanessa

I believe Drs in the US can give you samples.... for free.

Junior

I started weaning off in Aug 2009 and have not paid for a pill since then!!!!!

Candy

[Margier60]

I noticed that I too had become reclusive, I was always tired, headachy, sore everywhere, I just managed to do my house work on the weekends and then it was back to work.  It did not occur to me that this was due to cymbalta useage.  Only 5 years later do I look at how I have changed, I used to be outgoing, always laughing, now I found it just too overwhelming with people around me.

[gail]

Hi Margier60,

First, welcome to the forum. You are not the first one to complain about this. How often do we hear this.

Do you wish to come off? If so, we can help you with this. How many mgs are you taking?

Hope to see you around Margier60!

[gail]

I have been on Cymbalta for about 2 years. I had been on Paxil prior to that but wanted to change to something else as I had gained so much weight on Paxil. I felt fine on Cymbalta for a long time but realized that I had become somewhat of a recluse except for going to work. I feel blah inside and can't wait to go home to lay down and be away from people. I am constantly tired, my brain seems foggy, my joints ache and I feel off balance at times. I thought it was because I turned the big 50 about the time I started to take Cymbalta. I have commented to people that life really changes after 50. I feel soooo old! And I wasn't like that before. SO is it the Cymbalta making me feel this way? Has anyone else felt like this? I want to get off the Cymbalta and I have an appointment next week with my doctor to discuss how to do it. I am scared to death now reading all of these reports! If I miss 2 days of taking it now, I get nauseated and throw up. But I can't stand feeling the way I feel on it either! I am just curious if anyone had the same symptoms on Cymbalta that I have had....

Interesting read for those in withdrawal and to see how Cymbalta can change you into someone different.