845 replies to this topic

[OffMyMeds]

2.5 weeks at 0mg now...

 

Brain zaps have not deminished

Sleep has stabalized and the bad dreams aren't so awful.

Body aches... I can't decide if they're better or worse because...

My concentration is still iffy.

The "Not giving a crap about my diet" has had a noticable effect.

 

I get enraged when people talk to me now. At least in person.. on-line is fine. The phone is worst of all.

[lady2882Nancy]

Hang in there OffMyMeds

 

I absolutely hate it when the phone rings. There is just something about it that instantly irritates me.

I also wish that everyone would just go away and leave me alone.

Online is good and I spend alot of time reading comments online.

I wish there was an instant chat on this site, maybe if we had a chat posting where we could just stay on the page and message each other it would help.

 

Get some omega 3 and L-theanine (make sure it is suntheanine) they really help the zaps.

[OffMyMeds]

A doctor friend of mine suggested prozac temporarily to help with the brain zaps. but I really don't want to mess with my head anymore. I'd rather just tough it out.

 

btw, has anyone else had a problem with conversations the follow this pattern:

 

Other person: *asks reasonable question*

Me: *snarky answer that implies the other prson is a complete f'ing moron*

Me: *falls all over myself appologizing; blame meds*

Other person: *laughs and says it's ok*

Me: *bitch*

[lady2882Nancy]

Oh yes that sounds very familiar.

That would be ummmmmm............. ME

And that happens just about every day either late afternoon or early evening.

I remember GreenMachine saying the same thing at one point - his was around 8pm everyday.

Don't worry, he says it settles down the longer you are off the Crapalta

I'm only day 6 at 0mg so have a ways to go yet  before the irritability starts to fade.

[GreenMachine]

lol

Does that sound familiar or what!  Don't worry; that does improve with time.  In the mean time, just try not to say something that'll get  you fired or divorced!     

[OffMyMeds]

You're right now that I think about it! it's the worst in the afternoon!

[Newmommyof2]

I'm so glad I found this site. I'm currently on day day 6 without cymbalta. I took 20mg/day for 8 months. I was put on it the last 2 months of pregnancy and I'm so upset I ever did. Although I suppose at the time, my anxiety and depression were bad enough to warrant it. I'm still breastfeeding too. Aside from all the horrible withdrawal symptoms everyone is listing, I have paralyzingly fear that by breastfed baby might be experiencing symptoms (though my husband doesn't think so). I'm crying a lot because I feel horrible and am so scared the baby is having a reaction. Has anyone ever heard of breastfed babies going through withdrawals? Ugh, what a horrible feeling.

[lady2882Nancy]

Newmommyof2 - welcome

We are here for you.

I cannot believe that your doctor put you on this during your third trimester. Even Eli Lilly (the drug company who makes this crap) says not to take while pregnant or breast feeding. I am quoting the drug directory here and it says "Lilly maintains a pregnancy registry to monitor the pregnancy outcomes of women exposed to Cymbalta while pregnant. Healthcare providers are encouraged to register any patient who is exposed to Cymbalta during pregnancy by calling the Cymbalta Pregnancy Registry at 1-866-814-6975 or by visiting cymbaltapregnancyregistry.com" For the future health of your baby please make sure your doctor has done this. If not then make sure it is done. There has to be a record of when and why you took it and this is the best way to do it. Also keep all receipts for the drug somewhere safe.

So take care of this then forget about it and take care of you.

 

Since you did not say anything about the baby (boy or girl?) having any problems after birth then I would say that you were lucky as the problems would have happened right away. If your baby isn't crying and fussing steady then it's safe to say that Baby is fine now too. Your husband is more than likely right as it would be very obvious if Baby was having withdrawals. The baby has probably been getting a much more gradual decrease than you did and babies sleep alot so that is good.

 

Some of your anxiety and the crying too is from stopping the drug so you need to start taking care of yourself so that you can take care of your baby.

I hope you are still taking prenatal vitamins, if not then start taking them again. Get yourself some omega 3 capsules too. Both will help both your and the baby.

Everything will be fine as long as you try to keep yourself calm and rest as much as possible. Don't overstress yourself. If you find you are getting anxious then do some deep slow breathing to calm yourself down. Baby needs a relaxed Mommy.

If you have questions or just need to message someone. we are here for you.

This is also a great place to vent and spill it all as we all understand.

We are here to support each other.

 

You will see the name Crapalta in some of the more recent postings as we given it a more appropriate name.

Come back often and let us know how you are doing. We Care.

Take care of you

Nancy

[chimera]

side effects:

insomnia

weight loss

lack of motivation

did get me talking to people again though, so not all bad

nightmares

thirsty all the time

 

withdrawal effects:

headache

brain zaps

nausea

acid reflux

diarrhoea

unfocused eyes

slurring

numbness in fingers, lips

skin crawling

yawning

insomnia

[Newmommyof2]

Wow. Just wow. So I never knew any of that and totally trusted my dr would have known or done research in the matter. This was my SECOND baby while on cymbalta. My first child, i took through the entire pregnancy, was born with a (I won't spell it right) condition where his intestines were coming through his umbilical cord and BOTH have large birthmarks on their foreheads. I've asked repeatedly if the cymbalta was the cause of my sons defect and was told no, hence my comfort with taking it during the last few weeks while pregnant with my daughter. Since my anxiety attack early subsided, I do think I was imagining her "with drawling" she seems her usually happy self. My husband is fantastic and helping with the kids as I bounce between normal and panicked. I just feel horrible knowing I could have been the cause of my sons birth defect. He had surgery at 4 days old and hasn't had a single issue since that day. But now I worry what his and her future holds, have I poisoned them for life...ugh. I hope this anxiety fades soon. Thank you for all the info....I don't know quite what to do with it yet, but when my head is clear ill figure it out.

[fishinghat]

Lady2882Nancy is totally correct. Cymbalta is fat soluble and can be transferred to the unborn infant directly through the placenta. What a loser doctor. I am going to see if there is any research out there on this situation and I will post back what I find. Meanwhile, hang in there and get off the crapalta!!

[fishinghat]

Here is what I have found. If you have any questions or can't get access to a particular article just let me know and I will see if I can find a copy. Unluckily most of the recent articles are copyrighted so a trip to your local university (they usually subscribe to the journals) may be necessary. Let me know if you need help and hang in there!!!

 

 

[Newmommyof2]

Thank you all! I'm definitely going to get in touch with the kids pediatricians and my OB and follow up with everything. As far as symptoms go, day 8 now, I'm still having the following...

Confusion
Upset stomach
Brain zaps (much better)
Delayed focus when I move my eyes to quick
Agitated by small things
Dizziness

All are much less intense than the day before. And my anxiety about the baby having withdrawals is completely gone. She is fine and showing no ill signs. I am throwing out all my stored up frozen milk :-(, but I don't want to take any chances. Thank you again and I hope everyone's feeling a little better than the day before, it gets a little better every day.

[lady2882Nancy]

I am so relieved that everything is ok with your baby girl. I was thinking about it all afternoon.

I hesitate to ask but is your son ok after his problems when he was born?

It disturbs me to think that a doctor would prescribe this drug to a woman who was pregnant.

[Newmommyof2]

My son has had no issues, what so ever, since his surgery at 4 days old. He just turned 3, eats me out of house and home and recently learned how to go "huh?" when I ask him to do something (even though he knows exactly what I'm saying) haha. Thank you for asking! I'm still in just enough of a haze coming off this stuff to figure out where to even start with the drs..do I try to educate them or just start lodging complaints with AMA. The withdrawal rages say lodge complaints....the peaceful person I normally am says educate, we'll see what wins out :-). Thanks again!

[lady2882Nancy]

Thank you for letting me know how he is. I have a huge soft spot (all of me) for children and so just had to ask. I'm so glad that he is ok. Children are so precious.

I'm sure that over the next week you will be wanting to close him in a box to make him be quiet (if you haven't already wished to already that is ).

Just remember it is the Crapalta that is doing this and not you so don't be too hard on yourself. At some point usually in the 2nd week off we can become very irritable and angry over just about anything. Our brains are out of chemical balance and that is the result. Try to rest as much as you can, it helps.

 

Take care of you so you can take care of your precious babies

Nancy

[niel]

hi every one

I am 3 days in cold turkey from 30mg every other day I found that after going every other day for two weeks on the day I would take it I felt worse so I just stopped all together .felt good this morning after the vitamin b/omega 3 /l theanine .and I still feel ok but ambition has left me I feel kind of flat and my mind kind of blank

niel

[Ibbits]

...btw, has anyone else had a problem with conversations the follow this pattern:

 

Other person: *asks reasonable question*

Me: *snarky answer that implies the other prson is a complete f'ing moron*

Me: *falls all over myself appologizing; blame meds*

Other person: *laughs and says it's ok*

Me: *bitch*

 

Thank you. This made me laugh really, really hard just now and I really, really needed that. 

 

I started taking Cymbalta about 6 weeks after a hysterectomy in 2011 thanks to a combination of constant, constant crying and pain from surgery related nerve damage.

 

My kidneys have been trying to crap out on me for a few years, and in the past year have taken a pretty good leap towards failure. There's no discernable reason for this to be happening, but after some research, I've learned that Cymbalta shouldn't be taken with pretty much any other drug, so I started weaning myself off a few months ago, knowing full well that it was going to be unpleasant. 

 

Yesterday was my first "second day in a row" without the drug, and this morning got off to a TERRIFIC start with a 45 minute effort to thaw out my car and maneuver it through the 12 inches of spring snow in my driveway. On top of that, I knew I had a nephrology appointment today, but had no clue about what time it was and started to panic about being charged a 60 dollar copay for an appointment I was probably gonna miss, had to follow the most, uhm, "cautious" driver EVER out of my mountain town, got to work and scoured 5 (count 'em FIVE) electronic calendars and a paper one for my appointment time to no avail... and then absolutely raged at my husband on skype about what a flippin moron I am. I couldn't fit enough f-bombs into the messages. Just about then, a coworker who always comes into the office in the morning singing (which would annoy me on pretty much ANY day) came in, singing, and I typed "and (insert name) can stuff her (blanking) girl scout songs up her (blanking blank)" ... and then couldn't find the enter key, so I punched my keyboard. 

 

I'm guessing this is Cymbalta withdrawal induced rage? 

 

Heh. 

[fishinghat]

Oh Yea!!! Matter of fact I don't know of any emotion it does not cause. Up, down, rage, confucion, irritability, etc.....

It will get better though so hang in there.

[lady2882Nancy]

Welcome and thank you for the belly laugh Ibbits

Yup that sounds like Craprage to me (Crap = Crapalta = Cymbalta)

 

Once a month I have to take my mother-in-law to the doctors and then grocery shopping. Today was the day.

My hubbie, being completely familiar with Craprage now, walked in the door and immediately asked me "Well is my mother still alive?" I snarl at him "Yes she is, but it was a close thing!"

Last month I was just off Crapalta when I took her and the poor woman almost have heart failure as for the first time ever, I told her that You really don't need to look at ever item in the grocery store. I really want to hurry up and get home so don't waste a bunch of time today".

She called me yesterday to see if I was sure that I was "up to taking her to the doctor's" lmao

 

Biggest problem with the Crapalta affected emotions is that people just don't get why we think some things are so hilariously funny.  My hubbie just doesn't understand why I think this is funny.

 

Posted by Nurse1963 on 20 July 2011 - 04:31 AM
"I described it to my husband and children like this:  I feel like I am about 10 weeks pregnant, very hungover but drunk, coming down with the flu, premenstrual with a brain tumor. "

 

Does anyone else think this is hilarious or is it just me?

 

Oh well, I never said that I was completely sane. In fact in my family - You don't have to be crazy to be part of the family, but it sure helps.

 

Take care all

[Alicemarie]

I was recently diagnosed with atypical trigeminal neuralgia and my psychiatrist thought I would benefit from taking Cymbalta. She started me off at 30 mg. Within 3 days of starting it, my blood pressure plummeted, my resting breathing rate and depth slowed down and was very shallow and my temperature went down to 96.1 and my urine output had also decreased. I developed a horrible cough and became hoarse. By the 5th day I was in the emergency room. I seriously thought my body was shutting down. What they found at the emergency room was low sodium, chloride and calcium and a high lactic acid level (lactic acidosis indicates that your body is not getting enough oxygen. I did an internet search to find out which of my medications or combination of could be causing all this, but to no avail. I continued taking the Cymbalta at the low dose for 7 days, then increased the dosage as the doctor told me to. Shortly after I took the 60 mg, I called my sister and told her what had happened and she said she had taken Cymbalta for 2 months and also ended up in the hospital where she was told her kidneys were failing. She had the same other symptoms as I did. I called all of my doctors and told them I was no longer going to take it. I don't think I had taken it long enough to have withdrawals as bad as the symptoms were. My psychiatrist told me not to do cold turkey, and to continue taking it until I see her in 4 days, but I refuse to do that. Yesterday I took one 30 mg capsule and this morning, I emptied half a pill and took it. I called the FDA hotline to report what I went through and they are sending me and my sister forms to fill out. Do any of you know if I am in danger of having the horrible withdrawal symptoms as others have had? Alicemarie

[lady2882Nancy]

Alicemarie - Hello and welcome

Strangely I was just reading some reports online about adverse reactions to what I call Crapalta.

 

Good news though, we recently had a member who had only taken it for 2 weeks and he did okay coming off.

He did take the omega 3 1000 to 3000mg per day and either the high potency Vitamin or a complete B-complex which I suggested. If you have been on it for less than 4 weeks my understanding is that any side effects from stopping should be minor.

With the problems you have had I don't know if you should take a high potency vitamin, a one a day vitamin may be better. The omega 3 is what gets the drug out of the fat stores in the body so I do recommend it and either a salmon oil one or a flax oil one will work.

 

Please let me know how you do Alice and if you have any questions at all I will be happy to answer as best as I can.

Take care of you

Nancy

[Alicemarie]

Hi!  Alicemarie here.  I just did some research on warnings doctors should know before prescribing Cymbalta.  Here is what I found:

In extremely acidic conditions, or when a person's stomach contents move out of the stomach slowly, Cymbalta, unprotected by the enteric coating may undergo hydrolysis to form Naphthol.  Caution is advised in using Cymbalta in patients with conditions thatmay slow gastric emptying."  "Naphthol is found in pesticides and is toxic to lungs and mucous membranes.  Repeated exposure to Naphthol may produce general deterioration of health by an accumulation in one or many human organs."  "Naphthol may cause DNA damage to human lymphocytes."

 

In regards to urinary problems:  "Cymbalta is a class of drugs known to affect urethral resistance.  In some instances of urinary retension associated with Cymbalta, hospitalization and/or catherization has been needed."

 

I find all of this very disturbing.  How about you?  Alicemarie

[lady2882Nancy]

Yes there are so many things that the doctors should know about Crapalta. Many of these warnings were on the initial Prescribing Information yet the doctors do not seem to be aware of them.

Here is a good example of another warning.

 

http://pi.lilly.com/us/cymbalta-pi.pdf

Screening Patients for Bipolar Disorder — A major depressive episode may be the initial presentation of bipolar disorder. It is generally believed (though not established in controlled trials) that treating such an episode with an antidepressant alone may increase the likelihood of precipitation of a mixed/manic episode in patients at risk for bipolar disorder. Whether any of the symptoms described above represent such a conversion is unknown. However, prior to initiating treatment with an antidepressant, patients with depressive symptoms should be adequately screened to determine if they are at risk for bipolar disorder; such screening should include a detailed psychiatric history, including a family history of suicide, bipolar disorder, and depression. It should be noted that Cymbalta (duloxetine) is not approved for use in treating bipolar depression.

 

This is directly from the Prescribing Information yet how many have been given this med without the recommended screening.

[chimera]

2.5 weeks at 0mg now...

 

Brain zaps have not deminished

Sleep has stabalized and the bad dreams aren't so awful.

Body aches... I can't decide if they're better or worse because...

My concentration is still iffy.

The "Not giving a crap about my diet" has had a noticable effect.

 

I get enraged when people talk to me now. At least in person.. on-line is fine. The phone is worst of all.

only just noticed this about the phone- yes yes yes lol! I physically jump and tense every time it rings, nearly jumping out of my skin. whoever is at the other end does not get an overly warm welcome, but I have never been a phone person at the best of times. it's just magnified by a 1000 right now;)

[lady2882Nancy]

hello chimera

I still jump at bit when the phone rings, but not as bad now.

The urge to rip the phone cord out of the wall when the darn thing rings has finally passed.

How are you doing?

Take care

[chimera]

hallo:) thanks, this is another thing that I now know will pass! I am doing ok, the nightmares are still cropping

up (along with some rather Exorcist like levitation hallucinations when they happen, but a bit of research 

showed this to be a phenomenon of sleep paralysis luckily. I wasn't buying the 'you're possessed by demons

of Allah!' theories I'd seen online lol.) the dr is wanting me to wean off the antihistamines slowly. I am doing so

at the speed of an elderly snail, as still having some burning and itching. so I will do this veeeery gradually.

I saw in the other thread you aren't doing so good, so replied to you there too x

[lady2882Nancy]

I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get off the antihistamines especially if you are still itchy at all. They aren't habit forming and they sure help get through the sensitive to everything stages. They work to ease anxiety and stress too.

Of course the L-theanine does a really good job at that too and is something the brain needs to restore normal function anyway.

 

We are having a bright sunny day here and the snow is finally melting, but it is so windy that you can hardly stand.  I wanted to go for a walk today.

[Newmommyof2]

Hi all! I'm rounding a month and wanted to update my symptoms. Had a few good laughs reading the most recent symptoms and of course was disturbed to hear about how it's effecting others. But here's my current symptoms one month in..

Rage!!! Pleasant. Rage!!! Pleasant. (Shifts pretty drastically. Fortunately I'm really starting to be able to catch myself as it's happening and control it better each day)
Some random dizziness, lightheaded.
Very very few and far in between brain zaps
Stomach issues have resolved
Sleep issues have resolved.
Sex drive increased (much to the surprise of my husband lol)

I'm really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and want to thank everyone for their help when I was in my darkest point of withdrawals!

[lady2882Nancy]

Way to go Newmommyof2

You did it. 

Those mood swings will settle down soon too.

Take care of you