Posted by RockDoc on April 23, 2007, at 11:11:36
In reply to Re: cymbalta withdrawal - but I'm now off cymbalta » mizloopy, posted by LlurpsieNoodle on April 18, 2007, at 11:38:56
Wow! I sure wish I did a search for Cymbalta a long time ago so I knew what I was getting into. I've been on wellbutrin, paxil, effexor, zoloft, and now cymbalta (each one by itself--never more than one at a time). Each drug would work for a while then wear off (something the Doc just happened to not tell me). I would then switch to another drug or up the dosage so I never really had the withdrawals. The side effects of this class of drugs are bad enough.
I had:
extreme fatigue
dizziness
moodiness
apathy
sexual side effectsBut now I've decided that drugs are not the answer (especially SSRIs) and I am tapering my cymbalta dose down from 120mg/day (I will never again ask this particular "doc" for help). What I am doing is I basically cut the dose in half, don't take any more until the "brain shocks" start up, then take half again--repeat. I'm now down to about 8-10mg every couple days. The withdrawals while doing this are horrible:
Extreme joint/bone pain (the worst symptom for me) especially in the tail-bone/lower back and legs--so painful sometimes its hard to stand or walk
Dizziness (kinda always there)
"Brain Shocks" (electrical discharges in my head--they come and go)
irritability (I can get moody and moods can swing very fast)
migraines (rare)
nausea (mild)The weird thing is that when I went from 120mg to 60mg I had a tremendous improvement in mood, outlook, activity level, etc. Even though the physical pain was there, I was in a great mood! Now my mood isn't as great (still better than when on 120mg) and the physical pain is increasing. Anyone else experience this?
Been 3 days now with no cymbalta and so far--tolerable. I'm hoping I'm at the end of this hell. Good luck to all of you going though this! You can and will beat it!
poster:RockDoc
thread:466069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20070419/msgs/752707.html