Anyone ever quit Cymbalta? - 120 mg/day to Zero in just 4 weeks (small fiber neuropathy pain)

[Imp]

I'm halfway to being through withdrawal if one week to clear is true. For a brief time Monday night I thought I was losing my mind, almost enough to drive me to restore my brain chemistry with that nasty drug. Funny thing my nerve pain is much better without it. Yeah I have neuro care for this and easy access if things get too hairy.

It's nap time now, headache, dizzy, nausea, but it's not as bad. There's no anvil chorus banging around now.

 

[Broadside]

Oh boy, I had a bad turn with that stuff. It gave me restless legs syndrome on steroids and I had to go to hospital. Awful shit man.

 

[CowPox]

It sounds like you have fake withdrawals from a fake drug to treat a fake illness etc.

 

[Garlic Salt]

That shit will fuck you up. You should have slowly weened off of it. Best of luck, hope you don't end up in the ER.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

withdrawal from pharmaceuticals is always a bitch. Some drugs like benzos (think Xanax) will not just kill you but give you a slow and painful death if you don’t properly ween off them.

 

[Blue Flying Leaf]

Talk to your doc about doing it first so you don't have a heart attack or some other stupid shit that it does.

 

[Sonic]

Holy shit man, I just started it this week.

Why did you quit? What did you think of it? I really don't know what to expect, I haven't given psych meds a shot in half a decade.

 

[Imp]

Holy shit man, I just started it this week.

Why did you quit? What did you think of it? I really don't know what to expect, I haven't given psych meds a shot in half a decade.

I am quitting to see if it relieves my nerve pain or not and so far I feel better without it. I wasn't taking it for a mood disorder but I think my mood was flat like a pooner's chest on it. No happy, no sad. Anhedonia land. That was on 60 mg/2x day for over a year, maybe even two years.

The info on nerve pain relief from Cymbalta is sketchy at best so I decided, after discussing with neuro, to try reducing, just to see what happened. My GP was not happy with max dose also. Why take if no need? I have the time and experience to ride out the sicks and I'm starting to feel some joy again.

Edit I forgot to mention the dreams. Every night for the past couple of weeks I've been having long, vivid, memorable effort dreams. I can wake up and remember them clearly, even the night I had 3 I could rehash them after. Such annoying dreams that no wonder I feel so tired. Last night my husband's sister's shady kids/stepkids/step grandchildren infested my former house. I stopped an armed burglary in my garage on intuition that I wouldn't get shot by the meth head. I went to a lecture on black achievement (different dream) in Minneapolis. I had a cinematic debut of a previous dream so my husband could watch it, in great detail. I wake up angry smh

 

[Quarter Pounder]

I know you said you weren’t taking it for a mood disorder, but Cymbalta is still an antidepressant. The official guidelines for stopping antidepressant use is garbage and dangerous to patients; doctors either genuinely don’t know shit about this, or don’t tell you about it.

You didn’t cold turkey it at least, but you still reduced the dose far too quickly. You’re in withdrawal now and the severity of it depends on the individual. Do not hesitate to take the dose again if you can’t cope. If that happens, you will need to devise a careful, slow and individualised taper off the drug (compounding pharmacies can help with this, because the drug companies make it very difficult to stop taking it with the doses they make).

Wishing you the best and I hope you can ride out the withdrawal as it is.

 

[Sonic]

Edit I forgot to mention the dreams. Every night for the past couple of weeks I've been having long, vivid, memorable effort dreams. I can wake up and remember them clearly, even the night I had 3 I could rehash them after. Such annoying dreams that no wonder I feel so tired. Last night my husband's sister's shady kids/stepkids/step grandchildren infested my former house. I stopped an armed burglary in my garage on intuition that I wouldn't get shot by the meth head. I went to a lecture on black achievement (different dream) in Minneapolis. I had a cinematic debut of a previous dream so my husband could watch it, in great detail. I wake up angry smh

I know exactly what kind of dreams you're talking about... for me, those dreams are going back to high school. They're benign as far as nightmares go but stressful all the same lol

Im going on it for Social Anxiety Disorder - I've come a long way working through a lot of the psychological aspects of this crap but the physical discomfort effects my ability to communicate with people at times. I come home from my desk job feeling like I just did a hard day toiling in the feilds or some shit because I'm so stiff all day...

Did it not help the nerve pain at all? I find it interesting that it also helps with nerve pain/damage...

 

[Imp]

You didn’t cold turkey it at least, but you still reduced the dose far too quickly. You’re in withdrawal now and the severity of it depends on the individual. Do not hesitate to take the dose again if you can’t cope. If that happens, you will need to devise a careful, slow and individualised taper off the drug (compounding pharmacies can help with this, because the drug companies make it very difficult to stop taking it with the doses they make).

Wishing you the best and I hope you can ride out the withdrawal as it is.

My neuro NP wanted me to reduce from 120/day to 60/day in one step but this wasn't my first rodeo so I used my pills on hand. (30 mg) She was good with that.

Sorry, today I have the headache and fatigue still but my blood test results from Tues are concerning and I'm going to hide in my closet and cry. Withdrawal ain't the primary mind fuck now.

thanks for the warm wishes

 

[Otterly]

Well I’d go talk to the person who prescribed them - the thinking now is that some people need a really long slow taper off these SSRIs and it can take quite a long time. As in a few months of time.
Hope nothing nasty comes up on the tests.

 

[Imp]

Here at ten days or so post quitting. The worst of symptoms are over but I have a lingering headache (might be eyestrain, need new glasses). I had another effort dream this morning but I can't remember it now - a step to better? My sleep has sucked though, late to bed, early to wake and feeling like a zombie because of that.

I'll send a portal message to my neurologist and see what she says. It's going to be another warm and glorious February day so I think I'll lie out in the sun and enjoy it while the warm lasts. Errands can be postponed a day. I might even use my new knees to go up and down my steep driveway for a bit of fat jiggling.

 

[JED]

I'm not on that one but I'm detoxing from a hard SSRI myself right now (Also being used to treat other brain issues and not depression) so I feel you hard. The zombie feeling is real, though most annoying is the random electrical zaps that make you feel like your body and brain got jolted.

According to my bestie it took about three months for hers to stop. Defintely got worse before it got better.

 

[Mandy Stroyer]

I'm not on that one but I'm detoxing from a hard SSRI myself right now (Also being used to treat other brain issues and not depression) so I feel you hard. The zombie feeling is real, though most annoying is the random electrical zaps that make you feel like your body and brain got jolted.

According to my bestie it took about three months for hers to stop. Defintely got worse before it got better.

The brain zaps were the worst, I swear I could feel that shit in my ears. I'm lucky I only got them with lexapro which is the only med I tapered off of but they did take a few months to stop. The zombie feeling is also so real and takes YEARS to get over. I've always referred to it as "bricking" since it literally feels like your brain is turned off. Been off a low end maintenance dose of risperidone for over 2 years now and only a few months ago did abstract thinking come creeping back. Doing creative hobbies really helps, especially writing.

 

[JED]

The brain zaps were the worst, I swear I could feel that shit in my ears. I'm lucky I only got them with lexapro which is the only med I tapered off of but they did take a few months to stop. The zombie feeling is also so real and takes YEARS to get over. I've always referred to it as "bricking" since it literally feels like your brain is turned off. Been off a low end maintenance dose of risperidone for over 2 years now and only a few months ago did abstract thinking come creeping back. Doing creative hobbies really helps, especially writing.

The feeling of motion sickness too is awful. I don't feel like vomitting but I feel like I just got off an amusement park ride.

I find concentrated ginger pills help a lot with this if anyone reading wants a tip.

 

[Imp]

It's nearly a month since quitting Cymbalta and

• dreams have died down and are typically no longer memorable
• I have emotions. again I used to look at gore and death to try to feel something but now it's very difficult for me (like it was pre cymbalta)
• occasional headaches
• neuropathy not better, not worse without cymbalta

I think it was a good thing to try to decrease/quit that wretched drug and I have no regrets at the speed. I only tapered that quickly because every decrease in dose did not have much of an effect on me, or so I thought, until I was at zero.

Also I accidentally decreased my pregabalin intake because I kept forgetting/shutting off my alarm for my afternoon dose. At my GP visit last week my doctor told me that my weight gain could be attributed to, at least in part, to both drugs. Sitting on my ass for 2 years because of knee surgeries and recoveries tanked my metabolism and fitness.

Thanks everyone for all the info. It's very disheartening that there is so little to be done to help relieve nerve pain and I wanted to go hard on it. My neurologist was pretty casual about explaining to me that there's no fixing nerve damage and not much relief to be had.

 

[Crunchy Bone Sandwich]

It's nearly a month since quitting Cymbalta and

• dreams have died down and are typically no longer memorable
• I have emotions. again I used to look at gore and death to try to feel something but now it's very difficult for me (like it was pre cymbalta)
• occasional headaches
• neuropathy not better, not worse without cymbalta

I think it was a good thing to try to decrease/quit that wretched drug and I have no regrets at the speed. I only tapered that quickly because every decrease in dose did not have much of an effect on me, or so I thought, until I was at zero.

Also I accidentally decreased my pregabalin intake because I kept forgetting/shutting off my alarm for my afternoon dose. At my GP visit last week my doctor told me that my weight gain could be attributed to, at least in part, to both drugs. Sitting on my ass for 2 years because of knee surgeries and recoveries tanked my metabolism and fitness.

Thanks everyone for all the info. It's very disheartening that there is so little to be done to help relieve nerve pain and I wanted to go hard on it. My neurologist was pretty casual about explaining to me that there's no fixing nerve damage and not much relief to be had.

im really glad youre doing okay cymbalta is serious shit. and to anybody reading this thread i would not recommend this medication at all. i went off it way too fast and it gave me the worst panic attacks of my life that i had to be emergency prescriped zoloft, a few months ago i stopped the zoloft too, and i have to say it feels really good to not be on any medication! honestly i dont think anybody should be on antidepressants when their depression is caused by outside circumstances or theyre not actively suicidal. doctors dont seem to understand how serious these medications can be