19 replies to this topic

[JuliaL]

I'm currently at the beginning phases of weaning off Cymbalta (bead-counting, at 55mg now) and the reason I'm stopping it is because I think it contributed to my fatigue (sleeping 12+ hours a day), but looking online it seems like I'm one of the only ones. I tried taking all kinds of vitamins, changing my diet to include less gluten and sugar and even drinking coffee (which I hate!) but none of it helped. Has anybody else had this problem? I've even considered stimulants like Adderall and Provigil but I'm hoping the fatigue will lessen as my dose of Cymbalta decreases. Sorry if this isn't in the right forum, I wasn't sure where else to put it

[fishinghat]

This is a fine place to post it JuliaL. The FDA says that 7.14% of those reporting side effects report excessive fatigue. I think if you do a search on this site you will find where many of the members have complained about the fatigue as well.

 

Are you taking any benzos? They are famous for causing fatigue as well.

 

I hope all goes well with your bead counting. It sounds like a good plan.

Best Wishes

[FiveNotions]

JuliaL, yes, I had extreme fatigue! While on cymbalta I could easily sleep 12 hours, then have a nap later in the day. For the first couple of years my sleep improved, from horrid insomnia to normal...7-8 hrs. Then,mat some point, I started sleeping every chance I could....I'd go to bed at 9 on a week night, and sleep until 9 in the morning....I even arranged my work hours to not have to arrive until 10 a.m. (We had the choice of several work schedules, I took the latest start possible.) because I live a short bus ride from the job, I'd sleep until 9am, get up and dressed and out the door of the apartment building by 9:15 (yeah, no attention paid to careful dressing or breakfast or shower), and be able to arrive on time. I'd drag myself through the day and go home and do it all over again. On weekends I could easily sleep until noon or 1 pm. And then take a nap later in the day.

The only change in that was the nights I'd drink a bottle of wine...yeah, I also started drinking heavily...and stay up until 2 or so am doing weird online shopping stuff....

When I quit the poison, my sleep was nil, horrid insomnia.....and then, over the past 6 1/2 months of been free of the stuff, my body has pretty much returned to a normal pattern...7-8 hrs, waking up feeling normal and rested....with some night waking up for an hour or so, but still able to go back to sleep.

If I'm having a period of anxiety, say over a couple of days, I still have insomnia....I also have periods of time when I have a very hard time falling asleep...had been using lunesta, but quit that entirely last week....I think it was causing me to have poorer quality sleep, and, when I quit, I discovered I had withdrawal symptoms from just several weeks of daily use! The withdrawal itself was very mild, and it lasted just one day, but it convinced me to stay away from any drug I possibly can.

In other words, you're not the only one!

[thismoment]

Julia

Yes indeed. I had Vampire Syndrome (I made that term up), where I was so fatigued during the day that I couldn't rise off the couch until evening. At night I stalked the TV, YouTube, and the fridge. The fatigue was overwhelming during the first few months of discontinuation.

Then I had wave-action intermittent fatigue over a few more months, and it slowly diminished to ripples. After about a year it was gone.

[ShadyLady]

JuliaL...ADDERALL IS NOT THE ANSWER,! Stopped it at the same time I started down dose off 120mg 2 months ago. I was on 25mg ER...I could go back to sleep after taking it...diagnosed 21 yrs ago with Fibro after having neck surgery, shrink put me on ADDERALL 6 years ago. I'm 57, 58 in August and am a basket case from Dr. Prescribed mads!!

[ShadyLady]

FN. I also was on Losesta! Ended up with total insomnia and doing crazy stuff (so the old man said!) eating, shopping online, rearranging crap all with no memory of it the next day...have no idea. But, and a big but, is this CYM crap seems to be truly killing me with physical and emotional problems no human or animal deserves to go through! How can this be a LEGAL drug that dumbs you down and then when you try and get off of it the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD part begins? I am a raging machine at the Dr who has prescribed it since it came on the market, 2002? Can't remember much beyond 60sec. Right now, sorry:(

[FiveNotions]

Ain't it the truth, Cymsilk! That's why I'm so glad xman found Knox Ricksen for us to sign up with....your rage is justified and healthy....don't deny it or repress it, just set it a bit to the side while you first focus on getting yourself through withdrawal...

Then, at some point, you'll realize your ready to call them and take action against the poison and Eli Lilly....

While it would be fabulous if each of us could receive a nice fat settlement check for personal injuries, I'm not even thinking about that...I want to get this stuff off the market and prevent what has happened to us from happening to anyone else!

[air3333]

Cymbalta has had a major impact on my life. I think Cymbalta increased my fatigue and yes, I did sleep a lot. Fatigue and memory problems are the main reason I want to quit the drug. 

[thismoment]

air3333

 

There are waypoints, signposts, and plot points in life, and Cymbalta certainly represents a spike in the waveform of my timeline. And just as I sat down to rest in a gentle trough on my waveform-- it spiked!!  And ever since, it's been painful to sit down. Know what I mean?

[FiveNotions]

I recently realized that I need so much less sleep now...just 7 hrs or so....that I have more awake time than I know what to do with! This has been another big adjustment....I now have time for reading, hobbies, you name it.....I used to come home and be in bed by 9 and sleep until 9 am...or longer on weekends....the only thing that would change this was that I was also drinking heavily...so on the "whole bottle of wine nights" I'd be up until midnight, then sleep until 9 am....between sleeping and drinking, I did very little else other than drag myself to work and to visit my friend in the nursing home....I was missing Mass on Sundays, etc...I just lived in my darkened little apartment, blinds shut...a cymbalta cave....

I also "woke up" mentally early this month...like a light switch going on.....and I "registered" the magnitude of the sleep thing fully, I remembered a huge number of awful,stupid and/ or embarrassing things I'd done while on the poison....I realized that I was literally someone else for all the 7-8 years I was on this drug.... when this switch flipped, and I became "me" again, the person I was before the drug, I felt devastated and overwhelmed, and had that anxiety meltdown that's landed me on diazepam....

The self I presented to the world during the cymbalta years was a shadow self....looked like me, talked like me, but wasn't me...I was possessed by this evil malevolent drug....it damaged my memory, my intellect and my will.....it tried to consume my soul.....

I've got one friend now who's only known the cymbalta me....and he's totally weirded out that I've changed so much, so rapidly....he thinks who I am now, the genuine me, is a false me....he wants me to "get back to being the you I've always known"....

.....and very likely this particular "friendship" will end...because it's based on a me who never really existed and is now gone forever.....

I feel like I'm living in one of those old Rod Serling "Twighlight" episodes .....

[gail]

Now, let's hear FiveNotions, such a fine and loved member. Also missing in action for a long time. We so miss you FiveNotions.

I'm being nostalgic lately, that's the reason I'm bringing up the old but valuable posts from the ancients.

[fishinghat]

I miss her also Gail. Such a knowledgeable lady.

[KathyInFL]

I used to be able to sleep for 12 to 14 hours, now I wake up very early in the morning and can't get back to sleep. I still feel tired so I try to lay in bed as long as I can, but it's annoying just laying there. I didn't equate this with weaning off the C (I'm still on 2 little beads) but I guess that's the reason? I have anxiety too while laying there in the morning. Oh I wish I had never started this drug!! 

[gail]

Hi Kathy,

You just answered your own question.

Working this hard on bead counting and here comes this.

FH will know more about this and how long it lasts.

[fishinghat]

It seems to vary a lot in people but this is where a slow taper helps as it seems to last a shorter time. 3 to 6 weeks? Educated guess there. Funny, I was just the opposite. I couldn't sleep at all after my last dose but on I got rid of the anxiety I made up for it. lol

[invalidusername]

I can usually get close to 7-8 hours, but living in an apartment block with noisy neighbours, building work going in the next building and at the corner of one-way street where idiots like to take advantage of nothing coming to test their engines, it can often be difficult. 

 

So, I do exactly the same Kathy. Once woken, I am still so tired and just cannot get to moving - even the bathroom. I'll just hold it in. I've even toyed with the idea of getting a toilet system which would mean I didn't have to leave the bed! Think the wife would have something to say about that however..

 

The one thing I do miss is that lovely "refreshed" feeling that one would get after a long day and a long sleep. Regardless of how long I sleep, it doesn't happen...

[fishinghat]

Have you tried a white noise machine? Turning on your furnace fan at night to cover some of the noise?
Is it illegal to shot noisy neighbors in UK?

[invalidusername]

Is it illegal to shot noisy neighbors in UK? 

 

Give me a few days and we'll find out...

[KathyInFL]

 

So, I do exactly the same Kathy. Once woken, I am still so tired and just cannot get to moving - even the bathroom. I'll just hold it in. I've even toyed with the idea of getting a toilet system which would mean I didn't have to leave the bed! Think the wife would have something to say about that however..

 

I am probably much older than you! I wake up at 4am to use the bathroom, then again at 6am, and again about 8am.... seems to be every 2 hours and I can't get back to sleep after the first 4am tinkle. Grrrrrr...

 

 

And, I have a train outside my condo, it's probably about 200 feet away, it runs from 5am until about 2am!!! Maybe someday I'll take a picture of it and see it I can upload it here.

[fishinghat]

"I am probably much older than you! I wake up at 4am to use the bathroom, then again at 6am, and again about 8am.... seems to be every 2 hours and I can't get back to sleep after the first 4am tinkle. Grrrrrr..."

Can I understand that!! every 2 hours day and night however I am stable enough to go to sleep again. even though I am older than dirt I have had that routine ever since being a child. I guess it is because I drink water like a fish. lol