gardenlady

[gardenlady]

 

6 hours ago, Altostrata said:

gardenlady, are you still having symptoms of Graves? What have your endocrinological tests shown?

No.  My thyroid levels are stable and are checked every six months to ensure proper thyroxin levels.  Since tapering Cymbalta (I am still in that process), my Synthroid dose has decreased from 150 mcg (which I was stable on for 20 years) to 88 mcg.  My endocrinologist noted that psych drugs prevent the liver from metabolizing  Synthroid such that I needed a high dose to control my thyroid levels.  Now that I am at a low dose of Cymbalta, my liver is able to metabolize efficiently so that I need less Synthroid.  

 

During my taper, the Synthroid dose began to over-replace slowly as my liver metabolism improved resulting in some hyperthyroid symptoms.  The endocrinologist I was seeing at the time missed this as his son died from a drug overdose and he wasn't attentive, for obvious reasons.  My new endocrinologist picked up on the problem and corrected dosage by decreasing it slowly from 150 mg to 112 mcg and now to 88 mcg.  As I see him every six months, he monitors my medications  -- 5 mg rosuvastatin and the lowest available doses of HRT. 

 

My current and long-standing agitation is from withdrawal akathisia and not from Synthroid over-replacement.  For me, symptoms of hyperthyroidism and those caused by akathisia are quite different although most medical professionals lump them into the same category.  The terror, torture and internal sensations of withdrawal akathisia remain present and, for me, are quite distinct and discernible from symptoms of Synthroid over-replacement/hyperthyroidism. 

[Altostrata]

I am sorry you're going through this. Are your symptoms worse at any particular times of day?

 

Good that you found a smart endocrinologist, though.

[gardenlady]

5 hours ago, Altostrata said:

 Are your symptoms worse at any particular times of day?

Not so much time of day, but whenever I am in my bed whether trying to nap or otherwise, the terror intensifies to a level that is hard to describe.  I have severe insomnia and sleep inversion such that my circadian rhythm is completely backwards.  I don't know what about being in bed is worse than sitting up while quiet and doing nothing.  I dread going to bed for that reason and lie awake for many hours everyday before I can fall asleep.  The terror is unspeakable.  Often I don't sleep for 24+ hours. 

[gardenlady]

My sleep cycle is completely reversed due to tapering Cymbalta which I am doing very slowly.  Regardless of what time I go to bed, my body refuses to sleep until morning and even after falling asleep, I cannot sleep more than an hour or two before waking up.  Also, every few days, I stay awake for 24-36 hours.  Even as exhausted as I am after that, my body will not sleep until morning.  I'm wondering how to reset my circadian rhythm in this bizarre situation.  Sleep hygiene rules are useless as I'm so messed up.  I've tried them repeatedly and they have no effect. I do wonder how I can reset my system if I'm continuing to have periods of insomnia as frequently as I do.  I still have about a year or so of tapering until I'm off the poison.

 

Melatonin, magnesium and other supplements have had no effect.  The only thing that works is 25 mg of hydroxyzine pamoate. If I take it more than 2 days in a row, it has no effect.  Also, when I do take it, which is rarely, it takes me 2 days to get over it.  I'll sleep off and on for 16 hours or so. But, then, after I've recovered my sleep debt, the insomnia starts and I'm awake for 24-36 hours again.  I feel like I'm in a sleep-disturbance ditch that is impossible to get out of as this has been going on for 18 months and gets worse as I get lower in dosage.  

 

I do wonder if anyone else has had this happen and found a way to normalize sleep so as to be able to sleep at night rather than in the daytime.  

[Altostrata]

People use melatonin with sleep hygiene to correct their sleep cycles. This requires regular daily exercise with exposure to natural light, taking melatonin at nightfall, turning off lights, going to bed and getting up at the same time each day no matter how little sleep you get. The transition can take several weeks.

 

Tips to help sleep -- so many of us have that awful withdrawal insomnia

 

Path to Better Sleep FREE online for everyone from the US Veterans Administration

 

Music for self-care: Calms hyperalertness, anxiety, aids relaxation and sleep

 

What is the sleep cycle?

 

Melatonin for sleep: Many people find it helpful

 

TV or computer use in evening can disrupt sleep: Bright light signals the brain that it's daytime

[gardenlady]

My doctors have advised me that in two years I need to be off of my hormone replacement therapy which I've taken for 20 years.  I am on the lowest dose of estradiol (.5 mg) tablets and medroxyprogesterone (2.5 mg) tablets available.  I also have approximately 1 - 1.5 years left in my Cymbalta taper.  I need advice on how and when to start my HRT taper so that I'm off at age 70 which will be late October 2022.  Since I'm already on the lowest hormone doses possible, my doctor advised me to start skipping days and to gradually taper off that way.  He didn't offer more specifics as to how long to hold between drops, etc. Also, given that doctors are clueless about AD withdrawal, I need advice from someone here on when to commence my HRT taper as it will inevitably be concurrent with Cymbalta withdrawal.

 

One idea is to skip HRT dosing one day a week for a couple of months and then move to skipping two days a week, etc.  However, I am already having severe Cymbalta withdrawal despite a slow, one bead per month reduction.  I suppose there is no way to avoid this concurrent tapering, but the withdrawals from each will be compounded by the other.  I know that I am likely to have severe HRT withdrawal symptoms as that is why I took hormones to begin with.  I had insomnia, brutal hot flashes every 30 min. and other symptoms which I assume will recur as I taper off although I certainly can't know that for sure.  

 

I'm wondering if anyone here has suggestions on how to taper HRT concurrent with AD tapering and any tips that might prove helpful.  Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms are insomnia and sleep inversion, anhedonia, dp/dr, personality disintegration, intermittent akathisia, inability to socialize normally or be around other people, 20 lb weight gain. 

 

I could start the HRT taper now, or wait a year until I am nearly or completely off of the Cymbalta.  I'm not sure which would be the least harmful approach. 

[ChessieCat]

I've let the other mods know about your HRT tapering issues.

[Altostrata]

3 hours ago, gardenlady said:

My doctors have advised me that in two years I need to be off of my hormone replacement therapy which I've taken for 20 years.

 

This is TWO years away. Why are you worrying about it now? You should confer with your doctors about the half-lives of your drugs. If less than a few days, I would not skip pills to taper. You can still split tablets. People taper from patches by trimming the patches. There is a lot of controversy about whether HRT must be discontinued in every case anyway.

 

Suggest you do some Googliing, educate yourself, maybe join a menopause or HRT forum site, and discuss this there. We do not offer general medical services on this site.

[gardenlady]

I can see that my question irritated you.   I asked because this directly affects my Cymbalta taper.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have brought it up.  I'm surprised that you don't understand that. 

 

It's an issue now because it can take a year or more to taper from the HRT.   I HAVE consulted with my doctors, Googled and educated myself.  I haven't found any HRT taper forums and doctors are clueless about it.  They don't know much more about HRT tapering than AD tapering.  I was hoping to find other forum members who might have had experience with HRT and AD concurrent tapering they could share. 

[ChessieCat]

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php

[ChessieCat]

8 minutes ago, gardenlady said:

I asked because this directly affects my Cymbalta taper.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have brought it up.  I'm surprised that you don't understand that. 

 

It's not that we don't understand.  It's because this forum is about psychiatric drugs, not hormones.

[gardenlady]

Yes, but surely there are people on this forum who have tapered an AD and HRT at the same time who could share their experiences.  It's not an unreasonable expectation.  There are threads about COVID and ADs, antibiotics and ADs, and so on.  This is no different and shouldn't be dismissed summarily as irrelevant anymore than are those topics. 

[ChessieCat]

There is a topic here:  older-female-issues-perimenopause-menopause-wd-or-something-else

 

 

Here is another forum:

 

https://forum.menopausechitchat.com/

[ChessieCat]

The first one I linked to has a topic titled Tapering off HRT: 

 

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,47153.msg758294.html#msg758294

 

 

[gardenlady]

13 minutes ago, ChessieCat said:

The first one I linked to has a topic titled Tapering off HRT: 

 

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,47153.msg758294.html#msg758294

 

 

Yes, but it's only generic information like the multitude of other sites I've researched.  The menopausal sites I've visited all have the same generic stuff.  There is nothing specific about tapering plans for people who are already on the lowest HRT dose available. . Also, there is no mention of concurrent tapering of ADs and HRTs which is what I'm after.  This site is the only logical place one would find that which is why I brought it up.  

[ChessieCat]

I suggest you ask your question in this topic and other members may be able to assist you:

 

older-female-issues-perimenopause-menopause-wd-or-something-else

[ChessieCat]

25 minutes ago, gardenlady said:

Yes, but it's only generic information like the multitude of other sites I've researched.  The menopausal sites I've visited all have the same generic stuff.  There is nothing specific about tapering plans for people who are already on the lowest HRT dose available.

 

Have you joined and created a topic asking your question?

[gardenlady]

52 minutes ago, ChessieCat said:

 

Have you joined and created a topic asking your question?

Yes, to no avail which is why I asked here. 

[gardenlady]

1 hour ago, ChessieCat said:

I suggest you ask your question in this topic and other members may be able to assist you:

 

older-female-issues-perimenopause-menopause-wd-or-something-else

Thank you. 

 

5 hours ago, ChessieCat said:

I've let the other mods know about your HRT tapering issues.

Thank you. 

[ChessieCat]

Are there any women's clinics in the USA?  If not, you might see if you can find an obstetrician who knows about HRT.  Or perhaps a natural therapist.

 

I found this.  I went to the link at the bottom but wasn't able to find anything relevant.

 

Quote

 

In their book, "What Every Woman Needs To Know About Estrogen," authors Judith Sachs and Dr. Karen Ann Hutchinson recommend:

• Going from one estrogen tablet a day
• To one every other day for a month
• Then twice weekly for another month
• And, finally, one a week for a few more weeks before stopping.

They further recommend not cutting back on the progestin or natural progesterone cream while tapering off estrogen, but continue your regular dosage until the very end, when you can stop it completely.

There is additional discussion about tapering off HRT on the Power Surge message boards where you can read many other's experiences tapering off HRT at: Weaning / Tapering Off HRT

 

 

[ChessieCat]

https://www.drmichaelgoodman.com/weaning-off-estradiol-and-progesterone-hormone-therapy/

 

Quote

There is definitely a protocol for weaning down/off of estradiol and/or progesterone HT. Do not stop it all at once under any circumstances; slowly taper down! For my patients who are tapering from one dose down to the next lower dose, I have them do this by progressively cutting slivers of their patch off, or alternating every third day (then every other day) with a 1/3 or half lower dose of cream or gel, taking a full 3-4 months to wean down to the next lower dose and, if totally weaning off estradiol or progesterone, taking a full 6 months to one year to wean off.

 

[gardenlady]

51 minutes ago, ChessieCat said:

https://www.drmichaelgoodman.com/weaning-off-estradiol-and-progesterone-hormone-therapy/

 

 

Thank you.  Yes, I've read that same info many, many times.  Believe me, while I certainly don't claim to know everything about it, I've researched this topic for long time.  I know very well not to stop cold turkey and realize it may take a year or more to taper the HRT which is why I am thinking about it now.  For those of us not on the patch but on lowest-dose tablets, the only feasible way is to skip days.  Cutting the lowest-dose tablets isn't feasible for reasons I won't go into here.   My concern is how this will exacerbate my already-devastating Cymbalta withdrawal as HRT tapering has many of the same withdrawal symptoms, compounding an already scary situation. 

[ChessieCat]

2 hours ago, gardenlady said:

For those of us not on the patch but on lowest-dose tablets, the only feasible way is to skip days.  Cutting the lowest-dose tablets isn't feasible

 

If it was me I'd be do a test to see if the tablets dissolve in water.  You wouldn't have to waste it.  You could drink the whole lot as one of your doses.

 

2 hours ago, gardenlady said:

My concern is how this will exacerbate my already-devastating Cymbalta withdrawal as HRT tapering has many of the same withdrawal symptoms, compounding an already scary situation.

 

It understandable that you are concerned and it's an unfortunate situation to be in.  Many of us have found ourselves in a similar situation but with different medication/s.  I've recently had to have a cortisone injection for a bulging disc and I've had to take codeine and antihistamine for pain and sleep, and during that time I've also had a tooth extracted.  And just before hurting my back I made a reduction.  And yes, I did get dumped into a wave because of it.  I'm holding for longer to allow things to settle before tapering again.

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by ChessieCat

[gardenlady]

1 hour ago, ChessieCat said:

 

If it was me I'd be do a test to see if the tablets dissolve in water.  You wouldn't have to waste it.  You could drink the whole lot as one of your doses.

 

 

Without going into a complicated explanation, it doesn’t work reducing the dose of a lowest-dose hormone.  That’s why skipping days is the way it’s done.

 

I’m so sorry you’ve had such a hard time and so many difficulties.  It sounds really tough.

[ChessieCat]

Q:  Are you taking your Cymbalta once a day?

 

Cymbalta has a short half life - approximately 12 hours.  If you are a fast metaboliser then this would be shorter still.

 

Q:  Has this ever been taken into consideration by either you or the mods?

 

It may be that you are experiencing interdose withdrawal.

 

When this happens it is suggested to split your doses.  To do this you would take half (preferable) or part (I take the smaller dose in the pm) of your dose 1 hour later each day.  If you find that your sleep starts to be affected you would move the second dose back 1 hour.

 

You would need to keep daily symptoms notes (which could be provided to us if you want/need them assessed) during this time to see what effect the dosing time change has on your symptoms.

[gardenlady]

Yes, I'm taking Cymbalta once a day.  No, no one has ever suggested breaking up the dose.  I don't have inter-dose withdrawals or a fluctuating symptom pattern.  I feel like I'm on a bad LSD trip 24/7 with a myriad of awful symptoms that persist and, in fact, intensify as I get lower in dose.  There are no windows....only a steady-state misery.   So, I don't see how dividing the dose would affect anything.  Thanks, though, for thinking me. 

[ChessieCat]

If it was me, I'd be trying dose splitting.  You just never know it just might make a bit of a difference.

[Sunclast]

Hi Garden Lady. I'm sorry to hear that you are still suffering.  I just want to chime in for a few reasons.  Yes, no hormones seemed to mimic withdrawal sypmtoms for me too.  I went back on hormones a year and a half ago so I could tell what was what.  I take estradiol only pills and thank goodness it helps with the insomnia, hot flashes and anxiety.  I will not be coming off of my hormones until I die, hopefully. At least that's what my new doctor's have said I can do.  But, there are people out there that live successfully with no hormones, but not me.  I had a hysterectomy and oopherectomy 10 years ago.  I was on estradiol for over four years and then stopped on recommendation from a doctor.  The next four years or so was pure hell.  So back on and slowly things are getting better.  Anyhow, I wanted to tell you that I also take synthroid for over 35 years.  The first 20 years were fine. No problems.  The last 5- 10 years it seems that I don't feel good or right on it. I have adjusted it up and down for the last 5 years.  I'm still having withdrawal symptoms for the past year but slowly climbing out.  What I have noticed is that when I take my synthroid I feel those icky kind of feelings.....anxiety, burning skin, agitated, scared, mental...So I went to a new endocrinologist who said she got the same feeling from synthroid so she switched me to Levoxyl.  Now it's only been two weeks, but these sypmtoms are getting a little better.  I did some research on synthroid and sometime between 5- 10 years ago they changed the formula and allowing chemicals that are bioidentical?? I think that's what it said. Anyhow, I searched reviews also of synthroid and the last few years have been many negative reviews.  I'm not sure if you want to go down that road to see if the synthroid is causing some problems for you too?  And I haven't been on the new meds to say for sure that synthroid is another factor of feeling ill.  But I wanted to put it out there for you.  When I tapered hormones in the past went down to the lowest dose and started doing every other day, every two days and so on...

[gardenlady]

5 hours ago, Sunclast said:

Hi Garden Lady. I'm sorry to hear that you are still suffering.  I just want to chime in for a few reasons.  Yes, no hormones seemed to mimic withdrawal sypmtoms for me too.  I went back on hormones a year and a half ago so I could tell what was what.  I take estradiol only pills and thank goodness it helps with the insomnia, hot flashes and anxiety.  I will not be coming off of my hormones until I die, hopefully. At least that's what my new doctor's have said I can do.  But, there are people out there that live successfully with no hormones, but not me.  I had a hysterectomy and oopherectomy 10 years ago.  I was on estradiol for over four years and then stopped on recommendation from a doctor.  The next four years or so was pure hell.  So back on and slowly things are getting better.  Anyhow, I wanted to tell you that I also take synthroid for over 35 years.  The first 20 years were fine. No problems.  The last 5- 10 years it seems that I don't feel good or right on it. I have adjusted it up and down for the last 5 years.  I'm still having withdrawal symptoms for the past year but slowly climbing out.  What I have noticed is that when I take my synthroid I feel those icky kind of feelings.....anxiety, burning skin, agitated, scared, mental...So I went to a new endocrinologist who said she got the same feeling from synthroid so she switched me to Levoxyl.  Now it's only been two weeks, but these sypmtoms are getting a little better.  I did some research on synthroid and sometime between 5- 10 years ago they changed the formula and allowing chemicals that are bioidentical?? I think that's what it said. Anyhow, I searched reviews also of synthroid and the last few years have been many negative reviews.  I'm not sure if you want to go down that road to see if the synthroid is causing some problems for you too?  And I haven't been on the new meds to say for sure that synthroid is another factor of feeling ill.  But I wanted to put it out there for you.  When I tapered hormones in the past went down to the lowest dose and started doing every other day, every two days and so on...

Sunclast, Thanks so very much for taking the time to read my posts and to respond.  I'm glad that you're off of the Effexor poison.  It's interesting that you have had experience with HRT and Synthroid, like me.  I'm fortunate in that I've never had problems with either medication.  My endocrinologist wants me off of the HRT in two years due to increased cancer risk.  I'll follow his advice as I've always been wary of being on it for so long.  I underwent premature, overnight menopause at age 46 due to Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism treated with radioactive iodine ablation) with ensuing savage hot flashes every 30 min which were intolerable.  I do wonder what it will be like when I taper off HRT at age 70.  I plan to do a gradual taper over a long period of time, i.e., a year and hope that I'll be able to withstand the symptoms.

 

My brutal withdrawal symptoms are very obviously due solely to Cymbalta.  As much as other people want to offer up other causes such as diet and other medications, I've long ago stopped such futile investigations.  It's very simple, in my case....the problem is that my CNS has been damaged by a dangerous neurotoxin, Cymbalta.  I hope that I'll be one of the fortunate ones to eventually recover, but I realize that there is no way to predict who will recover and who won't.  Dickering with diet and other medications that I take does nothing but add to the frustration of an already atrocious situation.  Supplements are useless for my symptoms, and I've tried numerous ones.  Nothing I do or don't eat or drink has any effect on any of my symptoms, whatsoever, nor does exercise or lack thereof. 

 

I'm glad that you've found a suitable alternative to the Synthroid that was causing you problems and that you are managing well on the Levoxyl.  Please know how much I appreciate your kind words.  

[Sunclast]

In regards to quitting hormone therapy, there is a great book to read that I think someone else mentioned that is called Estrogen Matters by Avrum Blooming and Carol Tavris.   They also have a podcast on Dr. Peter Atiya's website if you want to watch a video. He is an oncologist and he has some great information on recent studies that talk about the importance of replacing estrogen and the very low risk of cancers.  There are 100's of studies done after the 2002 debacle of breast cancer and estrogen report.  There is also a great gal by the name of Dr. Barbara Taylor aka as Dr. Barbie and she has these fun videos about hormones.  They may help ease your concerns about hormones and cancer.  Anyhow, I just thought I'd throw that out there.  On the other hand, I do know some friends that after their 70's they were able to get of hormones successfully.  I don't know why things have changed for them but they are doing fine.  As far as the cymbalta, be proud of yourself you have come a long way.  And don't let anyone tell you that ANY antihistamine is okay because I can attest that my antihistamine use and withdrawal was just as bad if not worse than the effexor and maybe because I was on it so much longer.  Anyhow, my healing really started  when I was off completely.  The first three months were hell, but we know that life's pretty much hell while we're on and tapering.  So when you jump off you are going to know what to expect.  But very slowly, you will have sypmtoms start to abate that you never thought would ever subside.  And as they bounce back they seem to be less intense.  It's a roller coaster but you'll feel hopeful again.  I am only a year out and I'm still riding waves but I have so much more strength now and thank goodness more mental clarity.  I am not the normal me yet and I still haven't been able to go on vacation or get out like that.  But I can go anywhere and interact with people. A far cry from the agoraphobia that I felt for so long just trying to get to the grocery store and back!  I hope you have support at home.  I am so thankful for this website as it has helped me figure out what was wrong and helps me to keep up the faith and hope that I will get back to normal.   Just fyi, my best friend took cymbalta for approx. a year.  She had stopped cold turkey because she didn't know any better and she had a rough four - six months but after that she was doing remarkably well as some people do.  Gardenlady, I'm here for you anytime you want to chat.  Especially seeing that we share the hormone and thyroid history.  Blessings to you!

[gardenlady]

I've searched through the success stories and haven't been able to find any about people who tapered off of Cymbalta.  It's odd since a certain Cymbalta Facebook group is the largest of any of the AD withdrawal groups at 26,000 members.  That group defines success as merely completing the taper.  They seem to have an odd, almost militaristic view that slow-tapers completely eliminate harm and withdrawals, so if one slow-tapered and still has withdrawals, that group gaslights that person by asserting he/she didn't taper slowly enough.  They do not believe there is a lag time between completing the taper and full recovery and, therefore, do not provide a mechanism for people to come back months or years later to write a success story.  They believe success equates with merely completing the taper, which we all know is simply not the case.  

 

Since it's such a common AD, I wonder why there aren't any success stories on this site about people recovering from it, unless it's because people don't recover.   It does seem to be unusually difficult to get off of compared to other ADs.  Does anyone know of success stories relating to Cymbalta or where I might find some? 

[ChessieCat]

 

On 1/8/2020 at 6:40 PM, scallywag said:

It's been 17 months since my last beads. My weight has dropped (30-40 lbs) over that time back to what it was at the time of my initial prescription. All in all, I'm glad to be safely off cymbalta and to have learned extreme caution about reintroducing any neuroactive medication.

 

[gardenlady]

10 minutes ago, ChessieCat said:

It's been 17 months since my last beads. My weight has dropped (30-40 lbs) over that time back to what it was at the time of my initial prescription. All in all, I'm glad to be safely off cymbalta and to have learned extreme caution about reintroducing any neuroactive medication.

Thanks.  I do recall this thread, although she didn't write a success story as far as I can tell.  Is this the only one you're aware of?

[ChessieCat]

It's one that I knew of off the top of my head.

 

We have members who come here to SA, get the information with no further updates.  We have members who join but never post and there are also people who don't join but still get the information off the site.

 

People who don't have any issues with getting off their drug probably don't return to update.  The mods have just been discussing recently that we should make a concerted effort to ask people to return and update us on how they are doing because educating the medical community is part of SA's mission and members' Introduction topics are case studies which the medical professionals and researchers can use.

 

I think a lot might depend on what sort of life a person has.  People who are busy with families and/or careers etc are less likely to return to give a recovery update.  The majority of the ones who stay or return are doing so because they want assistance.  An analogy:  when you are sick you go to the doctor/hospital.  You might need to stay there for a while/have return consultations.  But you don't stay in hospital/continue to see the doctor once you are recovering/better.

 

My experience of how quickly I could type again (I'm a professional typist) after updosing (only 4 hours) so knew it was the drug, made me want to make a difference.  But if they had been less severe withdrawal symptoms, once I got the information and got on track I probably would not have returned.

 

And I've noticed that some of the members from long ago do continue to log in but do not post an update.  When I see this I usually send a PM or post in their intro asking them for an update but most of them don't.

[gardenlady]

1 hour ago, ChessieCat said:

The mods have just been discussing recently that we should make a concerted effort to ask people to return and update us on how they are doing because educating the medical community is part of SA's mission and members' Introduction topics are case studies which the medical professionals and researchers can use.

I hope you will do this as it's done very successfully on Benzo Buddies.  There are scads of success stories there from people who return years later to post them.  So, it is possible if the mechanism is in place to do so.  BB is smart in that they have one thread called Benzo-free Celebrations for those who have completed their tapers and who want to share their relief with others.  But, the Success Stories are only for those who meet these criteria: 1) benzo-free for at least two months, 2) mostly recovered from the experience, and 3) feeling positive about the future which should be reflected in the Success Story.   Many, many people come back to post such stories years afterwards which proves that if given the opportunity, they will do so.  I hope SA will follow their lead and example. 

 

It's very discouraging that there is only one positive story on this site from tapering Cymbalta, and that from a person who wasn't on it for long and who had a relatively easy taper.  It does seem to indicate that Cymbalta does more permanent damage to the brain than other ADs which is so, so frightening.  Especially for those of us who have been on ADs for 25+ years.  

[ChessieCat]

9 minutes ago, gardenlady said:

It's very discouraging that there is only one positive story on this site from tapering Cymbalta

 

It's not necessarily the only one.  It one that I was aware of who unfortunately didn't come back to write a success story.