17 replies to this topic

[cbringin78]

My doctor told me that on 30mg there would be no need to taper. just stop taking the medication all together. He also started me on 25mg of topamax at the same time. he said that Topamax has mood stabalizers to offset the difference. I now do not agree. I have had some pretty bad withdrawal symptoms. I feel like my brain is spinning in one direction and my head in the other. My moods are HORRENDOUS and I feel nauseous.

Any suggestions???

[Lisa Nic]

I was on 60 mg for the past year....but for dizziness. I saw numerous doctors and oddly the Cymbalta was the only thing that helped my blood pressure and heart rate level out.

I stopped the 60, did 30 for a week, then did 30 for every other day for a week.

Now I am off....TOTALLY FREAKING miserable.... the side effects are tremendous.... I get shaky, electric surges throughout my body, my brain feels out of whack. I feel sick to my stomach today and I have been off it for over a week now. How long until the meds are completely out of my system? I know I was on it for a year so I assume it takes a while....but this is RIDICULOUS!

[FalconLady]

My doctor suggested that I never come off the drug. I was on 120 mg. On my own accord, I started my own tapering schedule. I reduced the load by 30 mg. every 30 days. That still did not prepare me for coming off the drug completely. I have been clean for 9 days and am taking the lowest dosage of Ativan to help me sleep. The final withdrawal is the worse thing I've experienced in my life. I am still experiencing great difficulties but today was better than yesterday. Tomorrow will be better than today.

[artistteacher]

My doctor gave me advice in the past about how to decrease the dosage (ie, since cymbalta cannot be split up manually, one dissolves it in water and takes decreasing dissolved dosages). My decision to stop taking cymbalta was made without my doctor, in whose care I am no longer since New Year change in medical insurance; I see a new psychpharmacologist in 2 weeks, but am determined to stop medicating my emotions and my perceptions. yes, it is very much discouraged to simply stop the medications, but I found I could no longer force myself to do so.

[wandap]

I do not think that the doctors have any idea of the severity of this drug and it's withdrawals. I have a very good friend who works in the mental health field. I had asked her how to withdraw and the doctor at her clinic told her to tell me that at 60mg, I shouldn't really have any withdrawals even if I just stopped it. Well, we all know that is not true. I honestly don't think doctors have a clue and have been going by what the drug reps tell them. My gp is a stickler for EVERYTHING! He is overly precautious in every aspect as a doctor. When he prescribed me a cough syrup that was counter active with Cymbalta, he told me to just stop the Cymbalta since I was wanting off of it anyway. I KNOW he had no idea what I was in store for. I will be going by his office on Monday and I can promise you he will do some investigative searches on this. He is a very, very good man and doctor. If he had any idea I would suffer these withdrawls, he would have at the very least forwarned me. He, of course, had not prescribed it as he is a gp and not a mental health doctor. I almost hate to tell him the true facts because I know he will feel terrible for not warning me. I will also be telling my drug store because sometimes they are the first line of defense in warning people.

[pinkhue]

My family doctor prescribed 30 mg cymbalta in October 2007. I did not realize I had depression. I complained of little energy and not able to do daily chores as I visit my husband in the nursing home every day, staying with him till he gets sleepy. I was not motivated to keep up with things.

My husband was diagnosed with hypoglycemia back in the '80s, and hypertension. He became overweight at the end of the '70s after giving up cigarettes. In the early '90s he became insulin dependent for diabetes. His medical condition worsen as he did not control his weight or diabetes. I am responsible for all his medication and care since he had a mini-stroke in 2001 leaving him blind in one eye. He suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleep apnea and lewy body dementia. The dementia causes him to loose his balance, and fall. Sometimes we needed to call 911 for a 'citizen assist' to pick him off the floor. Periodically he suffers bloddy nose and bowel incontinent. In 2003 he was placed on dialysis for renal failure and goes for treatment three times a week, for four hours. Until admitted to the nursing home in November 2006, I transported him to dialysis and all doctor appointments.
Taking care of him, all this time probably was the cause of my fibromyalgia. As his condition worsen, I was not able to continue caring for him. In the past fourteen months, my husband continues to keep appointments with his own physicians. He is transported to the doctors by county vans. I meet him at his doctor each time, and then meet him back at the nursing home after treatment.

Aches and pains from fibromyalgia were helped by taking magnesium malic acid. After taking them for a number of months I was able to sleep better at night with a low dose of -------------------
Shortly after starting cymbalta at the end of October I found myself waking at night with
headaches, neck pain and other aches. Around the holidays I was feeling nausea occasionally, and thought it was from too much goodies. Two weeks ago, a blood test showed an increase in my cholesterol. Urine analysis was made after I mentioned a problem with urination to the nurse. This revealed a bladder infection. Not having any recognizable symptoms of any infection I decided to go on-line and check out side-affects from cymbalta. I was surprised at how many of my problems were from this.

I called my doctor and told him I was not going to take them anymore. My doctor suggested I take cymbalta every other day for one week, and then stop. Monday, Jan. 28th was the last day I took the pill.

Side-affects from withdrawal: My head is achy. At night my neck muscles hurt extending up myhead and around my ears. I am light headed a lot. Still slightly nausea. Worse of all are my ears. It sounds like a constant buzzing - like electricity buzzes. My mouth is very dry, and my throat feels sore often.

[wandap]

The withdrawls get better around day 6 or 7 by degrees. Today is day 8 and I felt better this am than I have in a long time. Mind you, I still have 'brain zaps' and all but it IS some better. Hang in there. Sounds like you are alot like me. I've been taking care of everybody else and I have went to pot. I have been trying to schedule lapband surgery to get off the excess weight for 2 months and keep having a slightly high white blood count that my gp cannot find any infection for. I'm hoping this is somehow related to the Cymbalta and it will lower enough quickly for me to have the surgery. I spent 15 years taking care of my ex who is bi polar with sever parinoia (wicked, wicked, disease) and 2 step sons (I kept them in the divorce thank God! ) and our 15 yr old son. My ex would not take his meds correctly and his dr actually told me I would have to be responsible for him taking his meds.! He was not working and when I found out he was not taking his prescription meds but would take anything else he could get his hands on I filed for divorce. That was 1 and 1/2 years ago and I'm just now coming out from under all the stress and getting me back in order. Of course now, I have guardianship of a 12 yr old girl also but I'd trade a 12 yr old for that 46 yr old any day! We have to take care of ourselves too as wives and mothers. Or we wind up withdrawing from Cymbalta....

[Angie]

I'm new here and i'm so glad I found this site!! I posted my details on another topic here a minute ago. I'm new here and getting a feel for the different postings... I was wondering if any Dr. had recommended Antivert to help with these symptoms for anybody? I didn't realize what was wrong with me until reading up on Cymbalta. I've been trying to wean myself off and thought I had some serious prob's! But the brain flutters, numbness and muscle weakness, etc... seems to ease off considerably with Antivert. I have more hand-eye coordination, and feel overall better / stable.

[whatanightmare]

My pain doctor would have let me go off of Cymbalta cold turkey if I hadn't expressed concern. So he handed me some 30mg samples (from the good ol' drug reps) and I was on my own. I had been on Cymbalta for a relatively long time at 60mg. When I went down to 30mg I was OK. It was when I went from 30mg to stopping that my world turned upside-down.

Neither of my two doctors involved claim to know anything about these serious side effects. Nor does my pharmacist. When I returned to my pain doctor still complaining of problems from Cymbalta ... he had had it with me. And decided to punish me. Yes. So there's a lesson here for everyone as well. Now I'm suffering worse than before

[pinkhue]

Dear Whatanightmare,

Like Wandap it has been two weeks since I tapered off my 30 mg. I still have headaches, buzzing and pain in my neck, and back of my head. But it is a lot less. I don't think I will try any prescriptions again. Hang in there - better days are coming.

[InnerStrengths]

Having worked as a medical transcriptionist at a doctor's office years ago, I can tell you first-hand how the pharmaceuticals "work" the medical practices.....from my personal experience. They call or come by bearing gifts of food. They treat the entire staff to lunches or dinners or dessert days, trays of treats, etc. They come in, chit-chat with the doctors a little bit, give them a brief scoop on the "latest" drugs on the market. Because the doctors understand the "classes" or "categories" of drugs, in general, they take the word of the pharmaceutical reps and start prescription the medications. They prescribe you and wean you BASED ON STUDIES, not your own 'WHOLE PERSON' with your own sensitivities and circumstances.

I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in 2006, late stage III-C, at 41 years old. I have neuropathy that is chemotherapy-induced from the drug, Taxol. I was suffering nerve damage so bad that I agreed to take Cymbalta. Now, 35 lbs. heavier, I WANT OFF. I called my neurologist for help.

FIRST --- MY PLAN: 60 to 30 to 20 to 10 to 5 mg and hopefully can quit. May possibly have to go down to 2.5 mg. We'll see.

NEUROLOGIST OFFICE RESPONSE: "We'll give you 2 weeks tapering medication. You are now taking 60 mg. We'll give you 2 weeks of 30 mg." I took one week of 30 mg. They called back and said, "The doctor says you should take 15 mg for another 7 days." I said, "There isn't a 15 mg capsule." She says, "Oh, there isn't, is there? Well, just take the 30 mg every other day." I got so sick after skipping just one day that I decided to take this into my own hands.....given that I had "weaning knowledge" from my medical transcriptionist background.

WAL-GREENS PHARMACY RESPONSE:[/b] I called Wal-Greens to see if they could possibly cut down the capsules for me without a prescription (just thought I'd try). The little girl who answered the phone says, "Is your doctor trying to wean you off, or are YOU trying to wean YOURSELF off?" I was totally pissed. I explained the situation and she finally put me on the phone with an actual pharmacist to whom I told my story AGAIN. He said, "You may want to try and pull the capsules apart yourself and just divide out the pellets as best as possible to make your own 15 mg capsules."

GENERAL PRACTITIONER CONTACT:[/b] I decided to be creative and called my family doctor, requesting 20 mg capsules. I tapered from 60 to 30 to 20 mg....all for 1 week each. This is where I am at the moment - well, as of Friday anyhow. I am now down to 10 mg.

THE NEXT TWO WEEKS: My friend and I pulled apart one of the 20 mg capsules and divided it in half, using a butter knife on a thin-surface cooking pan. DO NOT USE PLASTIC - the capsules like to cling and will not move effectively. We took the largest half of the capsule and poured in 1/2 the capsules, which represents 10 mg. We then pulled apart several capsules, dumping the contents into a little glass to scoop out 10 mg as we had just measured. We then put together one week's worth of 10 mg capsules. We then broke down the 10 mg in half to make 5 mg capsules in which I will take over the course of the next, subsequent week. I hope and pray I can be weaned safely after the 5 mg dosage, but it may take weaning all the way down to the 2.5 mg dosage to get off of this Cymbalta as safely as possible.

BEWARE: I've read that you can receive permanent brain damage from the dizziness, disorientation side effects, often referred to as buzzes or freezes. Watch this presentation on YouTube - it's not medical, but it will make you think. You can also type in Cymbalta in YouTube or [b]"How to Sue Drug Companies for Free" to hear GREAT STATISTICS ON CYMBALTA AND OTHER PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS.

[b]MY WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS: Freezing and then roasing hot;terrible stomach pain; irritability; poor judgement; nausea; disorientation in brain. These are very debilitating and hard to get through, but I want off this medication!!!!!!!!!

[Angie]

My family doc took me from 60 mg to 20 pills at 20 mg then no more. I am suffering terrible stomach pains, zaps, body numbness sometimes and irritability and nausea. I've got about 10 more pills to go. I'm also having some chest pains. Antivert seems to help my brain zaps though. I really hate this. Angie

[glasscuts]

I was originally taking 60mg and wanted to ween myself off all of it. Over the course of 1 month, or roughly 3 weeks, my doctor had this to say:

Week 1: Alternate days between 60mgs and 30mgs
Week 2: Stop taking the 60mgs all together, but continue to take the 30mgs every day
Week 3: Take the 30mgs every other day and by the end of the week discontinue the Cymbalta

Obviously this didn't work out and now I'm back on Cymbalta because of the horrible side effects that I was experiencing due to my withdrawal.

[Norther]

Cymbalta's half-life is only 12 hours. That means every 12 hours, 50% of the drug washes out of your system.

So the advice is:

In Joseph Glenmullen's book, 'The Antidepressant Solution' (devoted to withdrawal), he states the situation very clearly, on p.97:

"Q. Can antidepressants be taken every other day as part of tapering off them?

A. None of the short acting antidepressants should be taken every other day as a method of tapering them. Because of their short half-lives, the every other day schedule can result in roller coaster levels of the drugs and roller coaster levels of withdrawal symptoms."

However, patients seem to be told, time after time, to withdraw by alternating doses or missing out days - a surefire recipe for destabilising drug levels, and putting the patient through needless physiological chaos and withdrawal nightmares

Week 1: Alternate days between 60mgs and 30mgs
Week 2: Stop taking the 60mgs all together, but continue to take the 30mgs every day
Week 3: Take the 30mgs every other day and by the end of the week discontinue the Cymbalta

Glasscuts got given a doozie. Week 1 - alternating doses; Week 2 - steady, but a 50% cut from the dose prior to Week 1's wobbles; Week 3 - the infamous 'miss-a-day' schedule, echoing the rises and drops of Week 1. From 60mg to 0mg in 21 days, with 14 of those days comprising the dose alternations.

Hope you will start to stabilize out soon, now you are back on the Cymbalta.

[Leotye]

Hi everyone, I have good news. What your doctor is having you do is totally not going to make you feel better. I was told to taper the same way you guys were. From 60 to 30, then one every other day. NOT!!!! I did not follow directions because I knew what was going to happen. I followed a different taper, one I did on my own and I have had one day of dizzyness and high emotions but nothing like what you guys have explained. I took the 30mg for a week like she said. I then opened the capsules and poured out a litle of the contents. I did this for two days at a time. Emptied out the same amount, then a little more, stayed there for two days, then a little more. Now understand, I emptied a little out and then put the capsule back together. It is not a good idea to take it without the capsule. But I have had very few of the symptoms you describe. I was dizzy the first morning and did not feel like I could drive and very emotional, but that lessened as the day went by. I also found that getting out in the yard and working instead of staying in bed helped tremendously. I don't know if I will have any more symptoms but I hope the worst is over since I tapered the doseage down a little at a time.

I also went off effexxor a few years ago and did the same thing, only they were easier because they were tablets and I could just cut them. The side effects you will experience will be so much less if you do it this way, I promise.

[schmb01]

I did my own weaning, to start, but have since looped in my doctor. I am currently taking 1/2 of a 30 mg. He said to continue this until the zaps subside, then to call him, and we will step it down again. I'm just eyeballing what I am emptying. Today is day 5 at 15 mg, and other than some anxiety, and early morning zaps, it has been an okay day. I'm going to call him tomorrow and see about stepping it down to about 7 mg, or 1/4 of the cap. I really think limiting my caffeine and taking omega 3 supplements is helping too.

[whyme]

Oh my.....I've been on 60mg Cymbalta for 3 years......I was taking it for nerve pain but decided the side effects have greatly out-weighed the benefits. So, spoke with my doc....he told me to take 30 mg's for 2 weeks and then I would be able to stop taking any of it. I had him repeat himself to make sure I was hearing him correctly, 30mg's for 2 weeks and then stop! Okay, so I did the 30 mg's for 2 weeks and stopped. I honestly thought I was going to die! I've had some pretty bad experiences in my life but I think this takes the cake. After 1 day of no cymbalta, I called my dr's nurse to ask for something to help with the withdrawl symptoms....major headache, nausea, dizziness, weird feeling in my head, roaring noise in my head ....she calls me back to tell me that I have to do the 30mg for 2 weeks and then 30mg every other day for 2 weeks and no they won't call me anything in to help. I let her know that this is not how the doc told me to taper off and that I was not happy about being mis-informed. I take antivert for vertigo so I decided to take more of that, which I'm allowed to take up to 100mg's a day. It helped a little but not much. So, I took 30mg's for 2 more weeks and now I'm taking 30mg's every other day and on the day I take it, I wait a few hours longer than when I took it before so that I can get used to going longer without it.
Currently my withdrawl symptoms are nausea, headache, irritable, some dizziness, and I've had a twitch in my eye for 3 days now that will not stop.
Had I know about all this before, I would have never taken cymbalta. I am extremely dissapointed that I was not informed about all these side effects and withdrawl symptoms before. I feel "let down" by my doctor and by the drug company.

[Sarah J]

Was on for 3.5 years highest dose 60 and told to decrease like you were. I am copying a post that i just made to another poster.

The doctors are being told that this is how to come off of Cymbalta, apparently it works for some people, but then, there are those of us who end up here.

Every other day doses will put you into withdrawal every other day. Does not work and only prolongs the heartache.

Sorry to paste in the same info I just put in, but I hope it is a little helpful to you.

Perhaps you can benefit from the nightmare I just went through coming off of Cymbalta. I did what my previous doctor said - I went from 30 mg down to nothing. My OLD shrink told me to "tough it out, I will eventually feel better". After 45 days of hearing this, I decided it was time for a second opinion. I was losing my mind and feeling probably similar to how you do now.

I questioned the new psychiatrist about how a SUCCESSFUL Cymbalta wean should go.

She said: If the dosage is reduced slowly and correctly, you should feel slight withdrawal (never uncomfortable to the point where you feel like you are losing your mind) for the first week and relief by the middle of the second. If you go longer and feel like you are losing your mind and can't control your emotions, you need to stabilize yourself, my new shrink did not recommend my going back on Cymbalta because if I did and tried to discontinue, I would probably have a hard time again.

I am not a doctor, but the new and old doctor said that the Cymbalta leaves your body in 3 to 5 days. Cymbalta is out of your body now. What is going on is that your brain receptors are not able to fire correctly. I sincerely hope that you can allow yourself to be put on a SMALL dose of another less invasive anti-depressant to balance yourself out. I was feeling better the day after I took the first dose of the Celexa. My new doctor is working with me to wean me off slowly.

So, from my new doctor's advice above and my personal experience, please know that if you are feeling as badly as you say, it could be very beneficial for you to do a medical switch to another anti-depressant, balance out and wean slowly. I am so grateful that I did and in researching Celexa, (which, buy the way is a Sam's Club $4 prescription for 30 days) it does not seem to have the nightmarish withdrawal syndrome that the dreaded Cymbalta does. I feel so much better now and hopeful that in the next month or so, I will be anti-depressant free. The Celexa did not even hurt my head, make me feel sick or anything like Cymbalta did in the beginning.

You are at three weeks, without some sort of support, this could continue, I pray for you that it doesn't, but please, do not suffer, as my new doctor said, if you aren't feeling significantly better by 3 weeks, it only means that your brain chemistry is having a really hard time readjusting, it does not mean you are not a strong person, you are a strong person for holding out this long. A very strong person and I do admire you for making it this long if you feel anything like I did. You do not deserve to feel that way and have the right to work through this with some support. A strong steely will is great, but at 3 weeks, please get some support. A good doctor will not make you take more Cymbalta after coming this long off of it. Many people on the forum have "switched" successfully using Prozac. My new shrink did not want to use Prozac because I was so "agitated" from my brains not firing properly for almost a month and a half.

Best of luck to you, and please, I understand, I was in your shoes a few weeks ago, refusing to NEVER again take another anti-depressant, but just got to the point where I knew that my brain was not going to make it all alone without some help. And now that I have it, I wish that I did not wait 45 days. A few more days and I think I would have ended up in the hospital.

Please let us all know how you are doing. Please, don't do what I did. With some help and the strong will you have already demonstrated, you will be feeling better soon.