I went off my usual 60 mg/day Cymbalta (which I've been on for a couple of years I guess) because I was having unbearable hot flashes. I mean, yes, this is the South, and I know it's been a horrible scorching summer, but it was so bad I could hardly
breathe without breaking into floods of sweat---NOT NICE!!!
It was so bad I am ashamed to admit I was avoiding
BATHING because of it--it would take me sooo long to cool off, I would literally have to keep a towel on hand to dry myself off--and I don't mean just after the bath either!! I have air conditioning and ceiling fans--they might as well have been non-existent for all the good they did. Well, maybe not--without them I probably would have had a
heat stroke!!!
And I thought menopause was bad---HA!!
So I told my family doc (who prescribes all my psych meds with my pdoc's blessing) about that--she said that unfortunately Cymbalta can cause hot flashes, and the only thing you can do is "live with it". (She didn't say it in a mean way, she's a very kind and caring person and a great doctor, but I neglected to tell her no way was I going to "live with it!")
So--being a congenital moron--I took myself off Cymbalta. I had already been "forgetting" to take it some nights, so I thought, "Why not just stop taking it altogether? No more 'hot flashes'--what bliss, I'd prefer depression any day!"
Like I said--a congenital moron.
Since going off the Cymbalta, I've had weird numbness (thought I had had a mild stroke!), extreme irritability and anger, even worse nightmares than usual (the other night the Devil himself was trying to drag me out of the house!!! ), and aches and pains that are now threatening to turn me into a Tylenol junkie! (I do have enough sense left to be careful how much Tylenol I take tho--too much can destroy your liver. Yeah...as in kill you.)
How much of this is due to Cymbalta withdrawal and how much is just my assorted personality issues is anyone's guess! But I strongly suspect that the numbness, the pain and the over-the-top irritability/just plain MEANNESS is due to the Cymbalta withdrawal.
*sigh*
Fastcarwindowsdown (love your username!)--I am so sorry about all you've gone thru/are going thru, but when I read your line about "If anyone would like to tell BCBS to kiss my tingling as$ please feel free"--well, that did it. I laughed til I cried! Please don't think I don't sympathize, I agree with everything you said, but I do love the way you express yourself and I desperately needed that laugh, so THANK YOU!!!!