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DanielleSA: Cymbalta withdraw


DanielleSA

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Hi all... so second day without cymbolta. For 3 years i was on 60mg then last month I went to 30mg. I spoke to phyc and now I went off it from Tuesday. Wow I can not explain or really type how i feel everyone else who has explained has nailed it. I just feel like sh.. when I spoke to doc she never told me how bad I would feel . All she said was you may feel depressed or anxiety. Only after after today did i realise something was up. My pupils are the size of a pin. Please tell me this gets better soon or what on earth can I do to make it better. I am a teacher I cant take off work. O dont wish this on anyone

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Hello Danielle and welcome to SA.

 

What you are experiencing is called SSRI withdrawal syndrome. Not only your psychiatrists but actually most of them deny that it exists. That's why we this forum was established.

 

You can find more information here. 

 

http://survivinganti...rawal-syndrome/

 

Were you on any other drugs before Cymbalta?

 

Going back on the drug will very soon relieve the symptoms:

 

See About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms 

Since you were on the drug for 3 years, one month on 30 mg and 2 days off, I would reinstate 30 mgs asap.

 

While you are waiting to stabilise you can learn about how to safely stop taking this drugs which sadly and incredibly most doctors don't know.

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/

You can find specific information on how to tackle Cymbalta here:

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/283-tips-for-tapering-off-cymbalta-duloxetine/?hl=%2Btips+%2Bcymbalta

 

 When you feel up to, ​adding a brief drug history in your signature would helps us:

 

 Please put your withdrawal history in your signature

 

Let us know how you are doing.

 

Once again welcome.

 

Bubble ​

Current: 9/2022 Xanax 0.08, Lexapro 2

2020 Xanax 0.26 (down from 2 mg in 2013), Lexapro 2.85 mg (down from 5 mg 2013)

Amitriptyline (tricyclic AD) and clonazepam for 3 months to treat headache in 1996 
1999. - present Xanax prn up to 3 mg.
2000-2005 Prozac CT twice, 2005-2010 Zoloft CT 3 times, 2010-2013 Escitalopram 10 mg
went from 2.5 to zero on 7 Aug 2013, bad crash 40 days after
reinstated to 5 mg Escitalopram 4Oct 2013 and holding liquid Xanax every 5 hours
28 Jan 2014 Xanax 1.9, 18 Apr  2015 1 mg,  25 June 2015 Lex 4.8, 6 Aug Lexapro 4.6, 1 Jan 2016 0.64  Xanax     9 month hold

24 Sept 2016 4.5 Lex, 17 Oct 4.4 Lex (Nov 0.63 Xanax, Dec 0.625 Xanax), 1 Jan 2017 4.3 Lex, 24 Jan 4.2, 5 Feb 4.1, 24 Mar 4 mg, 10 Apr 3.9 mg, May 3.85, June 3.8, July 3.75, 22 July 3.7, 15 Aug 3.65, 17 Sept 3.6, 1 Jan 2018 3.55, 19 Jan 3.5, 16 Mar 3.4, 14 Apr 3.3, 23 May 3.2, 16 June 3.15, 15 Jul 3.1, 31 Jul 3, 21 Aug 2.9 26 Sept 2.85, 14 Nov Xan 0.61, 1 Dec 0.59, 19 Dec 0.58, 4 Jan 0.565, 6 Feb 0.55, 20 Feb 0.535, 1 Mar 0.505, 10 Mar 0.475, 14 Mar 0.45, 4 Apr 0.415, 13 Apr 0.37, 21 Apr 0.33, 29 Apr 0.29, 10 May 0.27, 17 May 0.25, 28 May 0.22, 19 June 0.22, 21 Jun updose to 0.24, 24 Jun updose to 0.26

Supplements: Omega 3 + Vit E, Vit C, D, magnesium, Taurine, probiotic 

I'm not a medical professional. Any advice I give is based on my own experience and reading. 

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Welcome to the forum. I'm glad you found it when you did. I agree going from 30mg to 0 is not good. Bubble is right, get back on your 30mg. Take some time to read about tapering before you adjust again.

Lexapro four times in the last ten years. Each time 6 month use. Two week taper.

Lexapro 20mg August 2014 until Feb 28 2015. Two week taper

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Ok so im 27 now when i was about 17 i went on to cilift and then 23 i think i had nervous break down and went into hospital thats when i started the cymbolta devil tablet lol.. to be honest i dont know if i can wrap my mind around outting th awful thing in my mouth. I want it out my system and gone

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Here is a piece of text where our moderator Rhi described why withdrawing from psychiatric drugs is not a matter of getting them out of your system...

 

A lot of people, including healthcare practitioners; in fact, I guess, most people-- are operating from entirely the wrong paradigm, or way of thinking, about these meds. They're thinking of them like aspirin--as something that has an effect when it's in your system, and then when it gets out of your system the effect goes away.

That's not what happens with medications that alter neurotransmitter function, we are learning.

What happens when you change the chemistry of the brain is, the brain adjusts its chemistry and structure to try to return to homeostasis, or biochemical and functional balance. It tries to restabilize the chemistry. 

For example: SSRI antidepressants work as "serotonin reuptake inhibitors." That is, they cause serotonin to remain in the space between neurons, rather than being taken back up into the cells to be re-used, like it would be in a normal healthy nondrugged brain.

So the brain, which wants to re-establish normal signaling and function, adapts to the higher level of serotonin between neurons (in the "synapse", the space between neurons where signals get passed along). It does this by removing serotonin receptors, so that the signal is reduced and changed to something closer to normal. It also decreases the amount of serotonin it produces overall. 

To do that, genes have to be turned on and off; new proteins have to be made; whole cascades of chemical reactions have to be changed, which means turning on and off OTHER genes; cells are destroyed, new cells are made; in other words, a complex physiologic remodeling takes place. This takes place over time. The brain does not grow and change rapidly. 

This is a vast oversimplification of the amount of adaptation that takes place in the brain when we change its normal chemistry, but that's the principle.

When we stop taking the drug, we have a brain that has designed itself so that it works in the presence of the drug; now it can't work properly without the drug because it's designed itself so that the drug is part of its chemistry and structure. It's like a plant that has grown on a trellis; you can't just yank out the trellis and expect the plant to be okay.

When the drug is removed, the remodeling process has to take place in reverse.

SO--it's not a matter of just getting the drug out of your system and moving on. If it were that simple, none of us would be here. 

It's a matter of, as I describe it, having to grow a new brain. 

I believe this growing-a-new-brain happens throughout the taper process if the taper is slow enough. (If it's too fast, then there's not a lot of time for actually rebalancing things, and basically the brain is just pedaling fast trying to keep us alive.) It also continues to happen, probably for longer than the symptoms actually last, throughout the time of recovery after we are completely off the drug, which is why recovery takes so long. 

With multiple drugs and a history of drug changes and cold turkeys, all of this becomes even more complicated. And if a person is started on these kinds of drugs at an early age before the brain has ever completely established normal mature functioning--well, it can't be good. (All of which is why I recommend an extremely slow taper particularly to anyone with a multiple drug history, a history of many years on meds, a history of past cold turkeys or frequent med changes, and a history of being put on drugs at a young age.)

This isn't intended to scare people, but hopefully to give you some idea of what's happening, and to help you respect and understand the process so you can work with it; ALSO, because you are likely to encounter many, many people who still believe these drugs work kind of like aspirin, or a glass of wine, and all you need to do is stop and get it out of your system. 

Now you can explain to them that no, getting it out of your system is not the issue; the issue is, you need to regrow or at least remodel your brain. This is a long, slow, very poorly understood process, and it needs to be respected. 

Current: 9/2022 Xanax 0.08, Lexapro 2

2020 Xanax 0.26 (down from 2 mg in 2013), Lexapro 2.85 mg (down from 5 mg 2013)

Amitriptyline (tricyclic AD) and clonazepam for 3 months to treat headache in 1996 
1999. - present Xanax prn up to 3 mg.
2000-2005 Prozac CT twice, 2005-2010 Zoloft CT 3 times, 2010-2013 Escitalopram 10 mg
went from 2.5 to zero on 7 Aug 2013, bad crash 40 days after
reinstated to 5 mg Escitalopram 4Oct 2013 and holding liquid Xanax every 5 hours
28 Jan 2014 Xanax 1.9, 18 Apr  2015 1 mg,  25 June 2015 Lex 4.8, 6 Aug Lexapro 4.6, 1 Jan 2016 0.64  Xanax     9 month hold

24 Sept 2016 4.5 Lex, 17 Oct 4.4 Lex (Nov 0.63 Xanax, Dec 0.625 Xanax), 1 Jan 2017 4.3 Lex, 24 Jan 4.2, 5 Feb 4.1, 24 Mar 4 mg, 10 Apr 3.9 mg, May 3.85, June 3.8, July 3.75, 22 July 3.7, 15 Aug 3.65, 17 Sept 3.6, 1 Jan 2018 3.55, 19 Jan 3.5, 16 Mar 3.4, 14 Apr 3.3, 23 May 3.2, 16 June 3.15, 15 Jul 3.1, 31 Jul 3, 21 Aug 2.9 26 Sept 2.85, 14 Nov Xan 0.61, 1 Dec 0.59, 19 Dec 0.58, 4 Jan 0.565, 6 Feb 0.55, 20 Feb 0.535, 1 Mar 0.505, 10 Mar 0.475, 14 Mar 0.45, 4 Apr 0.415, 13 Apr 0.37, 21 Apr 0.33, 29 Apr 0.29, 10 May 0.27, 17 May 0.25, 28 May 0.22, 19 June 0.22, 21 Jun updose to 0.24, 24 Jun updose to 0.26

Supplements: Omega 3 + Vit E, Vit C, D, magnesium, Taurine, probiotic 

I'm not a medical professional. Any advice I give is based on my own experience and reading. 

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Ok so im 27 now when i was about 17 i went on to cilift and then 23 i think i had nervous break down and went into hospital thats when i started the cymbolta devil tablet lol.. to be honest i dont know if i can wrap my mind around outting th awful thing in my mouth. I want it out my system and gone

 

I can't really add anything that hasn't already been addressed on this thread.

 

I would also like to echo a reinstatement followed by a slower tapering period.  YES you want it out of your system, but NO you do not want to end up disabled and incapble of functioning for many months or even many years.

 

I was on cymbalta and did a taper of 5mg every 2 weeks, and I still ended up really screwed up because my taper was too quick.  Cymbalta is one of the most if not the most powerful of all the drugs out there and needs to be very carefully tapered.

 

I'd strongly suggest reinstatement followed by a slow taper - I'd hate for you to be another member on this website complaining of long term symptoms years after their last dose.

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Hi 'Daniellesa' welcome to SA.I also tapered too quickly and was relunctant to go back on a smaller dose.I'm so glad I did its a lot more comfortable.

I wish you well

Sertraline 100mg amytrip 60mg diazepam 4mg (and when needed) since late 90's.Reduced all meds over 6 wks (too short) last doses 13 wks ago.Still having withdrawals.I would have done it differently

5th august 2015 reinstated 5mg amytripiline.increased to 10mg amtrip 9th sept 2015.

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Very well written explanation. Thanks for posting.

Lexapro four times in the last ten years. Each time 6 month use. Two week taper.

Lexapro 20mg August 2014 until Feb 28 2015. Two week taper

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Well i took my 30mg. I think i was so afraid that i may have blocked it out and not wanting to taking one.. aswell as the doctor not informing me at all. Im seriously upset with the doctot i dont know what upside down mess i would have been in if i never found you guys you seriously saved me. Thank you everyone for your advise and information sent it has opened my eyes as to what situation i am actually in. If i could i would hug you all.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone just giving an update on my way to coming off cymbolta. I have been in a process of about 6 weeks to get down to 15mg. Benn a very difficult process. I take 15mg every second day. So far i am managing. Everytime i go down a bit i have very bad head aches and i am very tired. What i have noticed is since dropping my dose i now look like a baloon. Please tell me that weight gain is normal and it goes away. I train 5 days a week and im eatting right. I just cant loose it. 5kgs i have put on. This makes me super depressed. I dont understand it can anyone help me on this.. i was on cymbolta for 3 years before dropping down if that helps.

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Hi Daniellesa,

Welcome to sa

 

One important game plan in tapering (sorry still recovering from the close rugby match between our nations this morning...huge as usual...commiserations) is to not skip or alternate doses. This is the best way to trigger withdrawal symptoms second only to a cold turkey. 

What was your initial dose before tapering started ...30mg?

Symptoms can be  delayed

 

The  rec rate of taper is 10 % of previous dose per month  here is the link you might find useful to read

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/

 

Also check out the link tapering off cymbalta

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/283-tips-for-tapering-off-cymbalta-duloxetine/

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6632-the-rule-of-3kis-keep-it-simple-keep-it-slow-keep-it-stable/

 

Many find weight gain is lost on getting off the drug...the main concern at this stage is safe tapering imo

Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen

We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. 

URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting  for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651   

Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos.

Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you

Recovering paxil addict

None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. 

This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! 

  "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped."  Dr Mosher. Me too! 

Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015

I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015

Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017

 

 

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Well i was in 60mg then went to 30mg. Now i think its about 15mg. I dont gat the brain zaps at all the way im doing it. I dont count beads as i honestly dont have the time. The weight gain its not easy to handle im so embarrassed. So you saying weight gain is normal. Sigh this has been a very long road for me to get where i am now. Feel like it will never be over!

 

That was a tight game☺

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  • Administrator

Hello, Danielle. Please put your updates in your Intro topic.

 

How have you been reducing Cymbalta?

 

As you have been getting withdrawal symptoms, you may wish to hold on tapering for a bit and let your system settle down.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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That was a tight game☺

What a clash of the giants ...boy i am still recovering from that battle...my fingernails have dissappeared .

 

I dont count beads as i honestly dont have the time.

If you are saying you dont have time to taper at the rec rate here and you are too busy and you are going to do 50% cuts instead then it may come back and bite you.

And when she bites it is not pleasant.

 

Sorry i didnt realise you had created two intros.

 

If i am guessing correctly  that in sept you went from 60mg to 30 mg and now in Oct 30 to 15 mg ...that is too fast.

Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen

We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. 

URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting  for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651   

Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos.

Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you

Recovering paxil addict

None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. 

This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! 

  "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped."  Dr Mosher. Me too! 

Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015

I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015

Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017

 

 

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  • Administrator

Please do NOT skip doses to taper Cymbalta or any other psychiatric drug. That is very wearing on your nervous system and sets you up for more difficulties later.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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