Posted by ngdodge on May 25, 2005, at 1:31:54
I had been on Klonopin long term ( 8 years ) and had been on Cymbalta for about 6 months and recently came off both.
Klonopin History: 1mg/day for first 4 yrs. 0.5mg/day for 3 yrs. .25mg/day for most of this past year. For the past few months I had tapered down even more -- taking .25mg every 2 or 3 days.
Cymbalta History: 60mg / day for the last six months
Withdrawl: About 6 weeks ago went off the Klonopin totally ( when the 3rd day came around I stopped taking pills ) . I didn't notice any adverse affects until about a month later ( see below ).
Since the Klonopin withdrawal appeared to go smoothly I decided to try to taper off of the Cymbalta also. I've been doing a lot of reading about diet and exercise and have been feeling a lot better as a result of doing better in those areas and my hope was to pursue nutritional routes to health.
I went off Cymbalta about a month ago. I took Cymbalta every other day for a week and then a pill every three days a couple times and I was still feeling good. I hit a stretch where I hadn't taken a pill for five days and then I quit for good from there.
I had some weird dreams and a bit of dizzy spells at night for a few days but other than that I didn't notice any bad symptoms and after a week I thought I was in the clear.
I felt good for a couple weeks. Exercise and diet seemed to keep both depression and anxiety away.
About two weeks ago though I began having some disturbing symptoms. I had disconcerting convulsions in my face and temples after orgasms which last for a few seconds. I had weird facial muscle tension and sensations that felt like the beginnings of contortions in my back and shoulders. Most of these symptoms seemed more like anxiety-related, or more related to the klonopin rather than the cymbalta. I haven't had depression symptoms since going off cymbalta, especially on days I exercise, and I haven't had any "flashes" or symptoms that others have posted about related to coming off of Cymbalta or Effexor.
Last night I felt sensations, just lying in bed, which made it seem like, if they worsened, I could have convulsions spontaneously ( I didn't have convulsions, I guess I'm just wary of the feeling of anything remotely like the onset of one. ( I've stayed away from sex after having the post-orgasmic convulsions ) ).
I realized that my withdrawal was getting worse, not better, so I took .25mg of klonopin last night and felt better. I took .125mg tonight and I feel ok. I haven't taken any cymbalta for a month.
I'm new to this group and I've been reading recent threads tonight on slow tapering of klonopin and I read the Ashton manual also. I guess coming off of klonopin will be a lot harder than I thought. The last two docs I saw told me to "just go off it" 'cause I had been taking "such a low dose".
Of course I'm not positive that what I'm experiencing isn't the Cymbalta as well ( or a combination of effects from the two ), but again, these muscular things seem to me more like what I've read about benzos.
I guess I need to decide if I go back on both meds and do slow tapers, or if I just do a very slow taper off of klonopin. I had hoped that I was out of the clear from both of them, but I guess I'm not. My hope is to at least stay off of one drug ( cymbalta ). If I taper from klonopin I wonder where I should start ( before w/d from these drugs I had been taking .25mg of klonopin every 3 days ).
If, as I've read lately, the benzos stay in the body a long time then my symptoms might make sense ( my body is protesting the lack of klonopin after it being in my system for so long ).
Sigh. How frustrating. To have some docs be ok with me taking klonopin long term and then have other docs want me off of it but be ignorant of how hard that might be.
poster:ngdodge
thread:502611
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050519/msgs/502611.html