Cymbalta withdrawal, here I come

Hello! I am new to this forum but I am so thankful that I found it. I was put on this drug because I was on Celexa and was gaining weight and someone told me that with Cymbalta >;) I would lose. LOSE MY MIND maybe!! I have gained a bunch of weight since being on this drug. I tried to stop it last friday cold turkey. I made it to sunday morning and found this site because I thought I was dying so I did some research. I didnt realize that some of the things I was experiencing while on cymbalta were actually caused by cymbalta >;) . Some of the things that happened since I have been on this is, I was drinking whenever I got the chance, I binge eat bad, no desire to do anything, I sleep all the time, and I dont feel like Im "ME". On sunday I started taking 7 beads out, I am up to 28 and I feel ok. I can tell that by the end of the day it is wearing off because I get extremely tired. I want off this drug so bad!! Has anyone completed taking 7 beads out a day and if so, how are you feeling now? Has your weight changed any? Do you feel like your normal self again? thanks in advance for any replies.

Sandy

Sandy, i too was sooo thankful I found this site. also check out if you haven't yet increased use of alcohol while on Cymbalta, if you say you are drinking/craving alcohol now, that is how i got too this site (somehow). I too know exactly what you are feeling as do so many others come to find out.

since my post about leaving work due to missing the Cymb. I have seen my doctor and have been reduced from 60 mg to 30 for 2 weeks, then 30 mg every other day. I'm not sure if I want to get off these so badly that i "think" i am actually feeling less stress and more focused, but I am doing pretty good on weening off of these things . If I feel I need to reduce more slowly then my doc has said then i will revisit him and go from there. perhaps going from every other day for two weeks, then every third day....... just want to do it right to avoid the horrible side effects. I have been on this c**p for about 3 years, thought it was less in years but the doc said nope.

if you are on the post site, say reading this, you can scroll to the bottom left and there are a lot of different topics on the effects of Cymbalta so check it out and good luck to you!!!!

ps, Cymbalta did not cause weight gain for me but i have in the past been on different things that did. do low carb diet for a few weeks to get back to the weight you want, i have done that in the past and if you stick with it, pounds melt off. :-D

The person who posted this:

"My fiance' stopped taking Cymbalta 'cold turkey' a week ago after having been on this drug for over two years. He has had NO side-effects.
I can't help but wonder if part of the withdrawal symptoms people experience depend partly on why they were placed on this drug to begin with.
He was on this for neuralgia, not depression.
Just a thought."

is FULL OF IT! Do you not see the sheer number of people having these symptoms??? I've been on it for depression and these brain zaps and being dizzy all the time is horrible! Maybe you should have kept your thoughts to yourself.

I have been on cymbalta for about three months going from a 30mg dose to a 60mg dose. I am not taking this for depression, but fibromyalgia. I felt great on the meds. It gave me no side effects, my pain went away completely, and I could finally sleep normally. However, my husband is a graduate student and not working and I lost my job so I could no longer afford to pay for cymbalta. My side effects have been horrible now. I'm not patient with my children like I used to be, my mood swings are so severe I can't even tell when they are coming, I'm so dizzy I can't walk straight, I can't sleep at night at all, my husband is getting frustrated because commercials on tv can make me start crying and I've never been that emotional. I hardly cry at tear jerker movies, normally. Finally my family has demanded that they pay for my refill because no one can stand me like this, not even myself. I don't want to be on this medication forever, I've had my fibromyalgia under control before and didn't need any meds at all. I'd love to be able to get back to that place again, but this is scaring the c**p out of me. I've stopped many medications cold turkey before, and never have I felt like this!

I am a chronic pain sufferer. I have been on Diloted for about 8 years for back pain, hip, and leg pain as a result of a fall. One of the issues I suffer with is anxiety attacks, sometimes I could not stop them. So I asked for something from my Doctor, I was originally given Diazepam it worked well. The injury spread to my neck over the last 2 years and now I have neck Tinnitus to boot.
When I was not coping well with it all my Doctor suggested Cymbalta. That was 4 months ago. After 3.5 months my tinnitus was not being reduced and I was having some problems with vivid dreams. Too vivid for my liking.
With a normal dream you are observing, or, that's how I perceive it now. With these dreams you are not only in them but 3D as well. So an occasional nightmare has new meaning to say the least. Bloating and weight gain were way way out of proportion to food intake.
I decided I wanted off Cymbalta. I was on 120mg, reduced to 60mg over 3 weeks, then 30mg over 2 weeks then 1-30mg every 2 days for 7 days.

I am off of the Cymbalta now and here is a chronicle of my withdrawal symptoms

Day1 nothing much Bloating
Day2 shivers, and something I could not identify but my tinnitus had company. Bloating was still bad
Day3 shivers, nausea, and what I now know are brain zaps. Day 3 was the worst I was getting 15 zaps per minute. THe easiest way to explain my zaps. is the noise you here if a stereo speaker shorts for a moment.
Day 4 was a good day. 5 zaps per minute, but hmmm diarrhea and muscle cramping and joint soreness.
Day 5 not so good, diarrhea, joint pain, nausea, zaps and a whooshing sound in my head.
Day 6 screaming diarrhea (hate to be so descriptive but if you are going to come off this stuff be prepared, don't go for long walks far from toilets) Brain zaps are almost gone, so thought that was good. Joint pain worse but got rid of the zaps, so is a good trade off
Day7 brain zaps back at 5-8 per minute. This time when I close my eyes while upright I get a flash of white light in both eyes with the zap.
Day8 Only had the one day with the white flashes in my eyes. nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea still here.
Day 9 is tomorrow. We will see how that goes.

Hi, I read your posting on cymbolta, if you had eased your self off a little at a time it would not have caused all those problems. Try taking sinus medication when you itch. I have been taking cymbolta for three years and they started me out on 60mg a day but I know my body and I knew that was too much so I bought some empty capsule from the vitiman store and seperated them to 30mg then to 20mg and that was still too much so now I make one 60mg capisule into twelve doses at 5mg a day and I find that is enough If I get under stress and feel like an attack is coming on I take an extra pill, so far this has worked for me and has controled the anxious attacks. One has to know their body, I itch too but the sinus meds with pseudoephedrine hydrochloride relieves the itching. This is not an RX drug but you must get it from the drugest no scrip needed. Hope this helped. I am a retired Lab. Tech. lpapion

I have been on 60 mg. Cymbalta for close to a year. My doctor put me on it because I had been suffering from insomnia. I saw no change in my insomnia for several months until the last couple of months. Now all I want to do is sleep. I turned into a zombie so I took myself off this drug cold turkey on Monday. Today is Friday. Yesterday was probably the worst of my withdrawal symptoms (I hope). Today I feel there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Except for profuse sweating and the feeling like I just had the flu for nine months, I feel pretty damn good. Yesterday I had the feeling like I didn't have enough energy to raise my arms, much less walk around. I forced myself to walk the dog and came back and collapsed on the sofa and didn't move the rest of the night. I slept from about eight p.m. until this morning. Oh, I also had a migraine earlier yesterday, the first one I've had in months so it's probably due to the withdrawal from the Cymbalta. I took a Relpax and that took the migraine pain away. I also took some liquid Tylenol (I have a sensitive stomach so I don't take solid Tylenol) a couple times during the day for muscle aches. I took another dose this morning and I feel good. I have a feel I'll be taking Liquid Tylenol on and off for the next several days as my body adjusts. I wouldn't recommend going off Cymbalta cold turkey if you were taking it for anything more serious than insomnia 'cause you might suffer much more serious side effects that I've been reading about on the various websites. I DID read one post from a woman who went cold turkey and she said after ten days, you should be through the woods. It's only been four for me so we'll see what happens in the next six days. So, far, I'd have to say that my side effects are much less severe than some cases of the flu I've had over the years. But I'm only one person. Everyone reacts differently.

I am now on day 32 still getting the Brain Zaps, joint and muscle pain, intensity now manageable. The lesson that should be learned here I think is, that this drug should not be just blindly accepted when a Doctor prescribes it. If you have some significant depression or whatever else thing thing is supposed to do, then go into it with an educated view point, I didn't. I just accepted it because my doctor said that it was good for tinnitus sufferers.

This is a very strong, mind altering drug. There is no two ways about it. I have not been on any anti-depressants for 32 days now and after experiencing what I have just gone through, I will cope with the problems I have. I do not need extra's nor does anyone else.

I would not recommend going cold turkey like I did, but I did it with Cigarettes and coffee, and was prepared for the worst. It was bad, and I went thru all the withdrawls mentioned here with the exception of 2.

The lesson I learned is that this is a significant mind altering drug. You are not the same while on it, and so far, while coming off it. My tinnitus is no worse for going off it, so it was a total disaster as a possible assisting drug.

No idea when I get back to what I perceive is normal, but the worst is behind me now, I think.

Good luck to those coming off it, breaking down the capsules is probably a much better way, but I have the attitude that if its not good for me, I want it out, and I want it out now.

This is my follow-up posting regarding going cold turkey off Cymbalta. My last 60 mg. pill was taken ten days ago, on Monday, August 2. Today is the first day I haven't had to take any liquid Tylenol to control shivering and body aches. Today is the first day I've felt like my old self. Remember, my doctor put me on Cymbalta because I was complaining of chronic insomnia. I didn't have trouble falling asleep. I had trouble staying asleep. My insomnia hasn't returned since I've been off Cymbalta. In fact, my problem was never actually fixed by Cymbalta. I never had trouble falling asleep. I had trouble staying asleep, even though I had been taking 60 mg. of Cymbalta for over one year. Overall, any withdrawal symptoms I've experienced over the last ten days have not been too severe nor too disabling. Like I said four days into this, I've had worse cases of the flu before. However, I would not recommend anyone go off this drug cold turkey. I've seen my doctor during this ten-day period for something unrelated, and she said it is common for persons who go off Cymbalta cold turkey to feel a whole grab bag of withdrawal symptoms, but they tend to be more severe in people who were taking it for depression. That's why they do not want depression patients to take themselves off this medication without substituting in another anti-depressant. Individuals who took Cymbalta for things like fibromyalgia don't seem to suffer severe side effects. Just because I sailed through these last ten days cold turkey doesn't mean you will. Consult your physician for advice on how to discontinue this medication. Tapering off seems the safest thing to do. I'm just one of those people who know how my body is doing, right down to be able to feel whether or not my blood pressure is elevated (despite it being called the silent killer). Anything higher than 120/80 and my head starts hurting. I'm that sensitive to medications. During these last ten days, if at anytime I felt that I couldn't handle any of the side effects; i.e., if they were anything worse than one migraine and a few chills and some sweating, then I would most definitely have gone back on the drug, and sought the advice of my physician for a system of gradually tapering off Cymbalta. I remember how I felt last Monday, and how I made up my mind that I needed to get off this drug before I became the worst kind of zombie. The worst side effects manifested themselves four days into withdrawal, with each day after that less severe until I reached today, with no side effects at all. I haven't had to take anything to relieve any weird kind of symptoms today, and so I'm hoping I'm done dealing with this. So, that earlier post I read from the contributor who said that I'd be through the worst of it in 10 days was dead on. I won't post again on this topic unless I suffer from more side effects. Suffice it to say that today is the first day I feel normal, and that Cymbalta is no longer controlling me. I wish lots of luck and good health to everyone posting on this website. And for those of you going cold turkey despite my advice, my opinion is that if you don't begin to feel normal by the tenth day, you should definitely see your doctor.

Tappering off Cymbalta. I have been on cymbalta for 3 years. I have gained so much weight, i can't breathe well nor sleep worth a flip. I figure i can't feel any worse coming off this than i do now. Wrong! Paxil was a whole lot easier for me to ween off than cymbalta has been. Paxil ended up having to make settlements with people who had a bad time getting off of it.... well look out cymbalta is worse. i weened down to about 7mg per day and stopped.....i thought this would get me off just fine. NOT! I am now again removing granuals and trying to change levels each week. This really sucks, brain zaps, vision blurs, you know the side effects. geeeezzz how low of a dose do i have to get to before i can stop? I was placed on paxil and later cymbalta for pain not depression. The side effects of these will cause you to be depressed and gain weight. I did lose lots of weight once i was off paxil, but my pain got much worse and they put me on cymbalta. Next time, well let me just say they won't do me this way a third time. my pain and the side effects of these two drugs is equal. To all my comrads i feel for you.

Withdrawal is the worse, this medication will not beat me I want my life back

AWFUL!!! I have only been on it since November 2010. Everytime I have tried to stop, ALL the symptoms listed in the other blogs I have suffered. Topomax is the same!

I have been on Cymbalta for almost 1 year...started at 60 mg...told the doc I really didn't feel that it was working...bumped me up to 90 mg about 6 months ago. I suffer from depression (mild) and sleeplessness. Had I known then what I know now about this drug, I would never have swallowed one of them.

Last week I suffered a gran mal seizure while visiting my brother out of state....

When I woke up in the hospital, the neurosurgeon explained to me that he believed the cause of this seizure was the cymbalta. He told me nobody should ever be on more the 60 mg, and after a cat scan, he felt that I needed to stop the cymbalta....COLD TURKEY.

Well I did, and once I got home I saw my doctor who told me it could very well have been the cause of the seizure, definitely stop taking it until further tests are done and they can determine the true reason for the seizure as I have never had one before.

My advice to everyone....get off this medication asap!!!

The side effects are devastating.

Brain zaps, dizziness, memory loss, can barely string a sentence together, can't remember words or phrases.....let alone 10 minutes ago!

Forget about sleep, unless it's in the middle of the day, when I should be getting things done, I wander around all night like a damn zombie....useless.

This drug should be taken off the market, there are no warnings of the side effects when you are on it or coming of it unless you are lucky enough to find a site like this where people share their experiences.

Cymbalta wasn't working for me when I was on it, and I had many of the above side effects already, just not as severe. I will never take this or any other anti-depressant again....

Once I bounce back from this, I will work it out myself through exercise, diet, and talk therapy if needed.

I will update my progress after 1 month of being off this evil drug...it has been 8 miserable days so far....wish me luck, as I wish each and every one of you the best in getting away from this horrible drug.

I took myself off Cymbalta after being on it for 6 weeks,I was put on it for poly neuropathy I was so glad to see some of your side efects thought I was going coocoo.I'v had the brain and ear jolts, bad dreams, I past out at work the other day and was at the hospital for 10 hours xrays CT scan they found nothing wrong, So I guess my question is how long are these side afects going to last ????? I just want to be healthy . :? :? Code:

I too just quit cold turkey. I have been on several other antidepressants and had no problem getting off of those. However, Cymbalta is in a different class of antidepressants. I tried to get off of it a couple of times before and within a couple of days, got back on. Didn't so much have the physical effects just ready to kill somone!!! I have never been like that. Always weepy, etc. but never aggressive and sooo angry! Recently decided to make lots of changes and one of them was to try and get off of it again. If I felt that "CRAZY" when I would try get it out of my system, it sort of scared me to have it in my system. I have been off of it totally for a little over a week. The first few days, I didn't notice at all. That was a change from before. I am now feeling the brain zaps, very dizzy at times and these weird ear things, sort of stopped up feeling and then I pressure?? Dunno how to explain that one. I also feel like the floor is moving sometimes. At first it was just the dizzy and I only noticed it when I sat on the couch with my head slightly bent and was using the computer so I thought maybe I had a pinched nerve. My friend has been off and on MANY things and I called to ask her and she said that is very common. Soooo the difference this time for me, that I feel is really helping, is that 2 of the changes I have made recently are working out and SERIOUS positive thinking. HARD WORK believe me but I really feel great. I am not a "feeling great, happy, sunshiny" type of person so that is a really big deal. I have suffered from depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember and will be 40 in a month (on no-that made me want to take a pill ;0)  Not doing huge workouts or anything. I walk quickly on the treadmill and try to do a couple of miles and then have been doing yoga. But really, any exercise will make you feel better. Seriously!!! And I am not a huge work out fanatic either! As far as the positive thinking, it is super hard to remind yourself to quit being negative and expect good things etc. Again, not usually this type of person. I have struggled MANY times when my kids, the dog, my mom, husband, those IDIOTS in the parking lot that won't get out of the way,etc. have gotten on my nerves but have managed to turn it around. This may not work for everyone but so far, it is really working for me. Trying to ignore the brain zaps and dizzy spells because they are annoying but otherwise, nothing too bad. My friend said that the withdrawl could take months. I had no idea?? I thought maybe a week or 2 but I am just going to keep on doing what I am doing. I may try the colon cleanse the person above suggested too. Good luck to all of you. It is very hard, I do not recomment doing it cold turkey and I shouldn't have but I have been off for over a week so not gonna start back up only to try and stop again. Hope you were able to suffer through this long message and I hope some of you can get something out of it. Its the first time I have every responded to any forum. They may actually cut my words off due to a limit?? Good luck everyone!