Cymbalta withdrawal, here I come

Sorry but nice to find someone else on 120 dose. I had no idea this drug was so powerful in every way and I live with so many side effects before I took it, I said I would not know the difference. It has been four months and I want totally off but my psych said to stay on but I could probably cut the dose in half to 60mgs. I had been taking Effexor, but it was not cutting it because life had just gotten out of hand the last two years and I had hit the wall of tolerance. I am nervous anyway, my younger sister died of cancer, jobs are being cut at work and mine was next, my parents are in poor health and I am married and work a 60 hour week. Going to a half dose has made for one of the toughest weeks I have ever had; headaches, racing heart, shakes, nausea, exhaustion, and before this a big weight gain. I am not going to make any more changes without my md, but it seems the medical world is not supportive of going off meds and maybe we support it by wanting to be better and expecting a pill to do it. I am not certain what brain shocks are, but I just had a sudden hearing loss of 100% in my left ear shortly after I started taking this medicine. I woke up deaf overnight and the ear/nose/throat doctor told me that the conductive hairs in my inner ear/brain are fried and I will never hear in it again. I lost my teaching job and do not know what my future holds. I do not know if it is related to Cymbalta but so much is scary here. I also take statin drugs and if I don't get to quit these and get to something natural, there will be no point anymore. Thank you for sharing your experiences; it helps to know I am not alone.

The jury is still out for me whether being on Cymbalta was worse than getting off the Cymbalta. I just figured out I weaned off of it  last Jan and Feb and was totally off of it the end of February. I had no idea the physical withdrawl would be like that. It was unbelievable the pain and the rashes and exhaustion, (oh I mean really). The weight I gained when I started taking it , well actually I never stopped gaining weight as I took it. Every month I weighed more and more.. The weight gain stopped, but I have not been able to loose one pound of it so far, not through diet and exercise. I have read that Cymbalta stores in fat, which I have an abundance of and perhaps that is why I am still covered in these wierd rashes that continue to come and go. So almost a year now, and I surely have days or weeks that I know I need "something", but I am not going there. I can now look at the problem and say is numbing myself from these fears and problems worth what I went through, and I can also just look in the mirror and see that for me it was not worth it, or at least would not be worth it again. But I am not saying that someone else shouldn'[t consider being on something if they are a threat to themselves or others, but I was never in that kind of position, and I really regret my choice to take the antidepressant. For one thing when I got off this stuff....my problem I was trying to deal with was sitting right there on the doorstep waiting on me. So I had to deal with them anyway and I wish I had just done it from the start, but hindsight is always 20/20. If anyone has had successfull weight loss after taking Cymbalta I would love to hear about it and also as I sit here with my back and legs itching out of control. Is anyone plagued with the rashes that you got from Cymbalta. If a rash starts you are supposed to quit taking the drug immediatley, but my physician DID NOT KNOW THIS, well she admits she really didn't know much about this drug when she prescribed it. So I started getting the rashes in June and continued on Cymbalta until January when I started weaning and almost one full year later the rashes persist. But I have most of my energy back, which is huge and wonderful. The weight is huge and horrible, the rashes are bad, but it truely was a very physical withdrawl that i would NEVER want to experience again. I would not recomend this drug unless you were commited to staying on it forever.  However, my brother has been on it for years and considers it his lifesaver.

I have been taking cymbalta for around 4 years while struggling with addiction issues. I recently (may 25/12) obtained a sobriety date from marijuana and other abused prescriptions. Cymbalta has saved my life and sanity, but when I, on occasion, didn't take it and suffered from severe withdraw. Even when sober, if I didn't take my subscribed amt (120 mg/ max recommended dosage) I suffered severely from nausea, hallucinations, and visual delusions. If you don't benefit from it DO NOT abruptly stop taking it! It is like coming off of the worst recreational drug you have ever taken! If taken as prescribed, and results do very, it can do wonders! 

My brain zaps are a living hell. Taper off if you can. I'm going on day 10 and I just want it to go away.

Hi, all! I have been on 60mg for about 9 months or so and stopped taking it cold turkey on Saturday. Cymbalta worked great for me- except it caused an ulcer. On Saturday my ulcer flared up so bad I just had enough and said I am over this! So right now I am going through the brain zaps, fuzzy head, numb lips and having a hard itme sleeping. It's pretty bad, but it is not constant withdrawal effacts, thankfully. So here is my thought. I can handle this for another 4-7 days if it doesn't get worse. I will grin and bare it because I am lucky enough to not be working right now. My concern is, what if it lasts longer? I know everyone is different so it is hard to say, but I figure I have made it 5 days without it- I hate to give up that ground in order to start a slow taper. My dr does know about the cold turkey quitting. She wasn't thrilled but said if I felt like I could handle it, that was okay, otherwise to let her know. So what do you guys think? Stick it out and ride out the *feeling stoned out of my mind* feeling? :-)

I was on Cymbalta  60mg every night for joint pain -on it for @ 6 months an didnt like the way it made me feel --stopped cold turkey an knock on wood have been off of it for one week an feeling great --no withdrawls at all:):) 

Just wanted to let everyone know a friend of mine was googling and found people saying they had taken dramamine and benadryl once they were off the cymbalta and it had helped significantly if not entirely with the withdrawal symptoms. I went and bought both immediately and I am very happy to report it is true! It has helped me so much! No brain zaps, no lightheaded stoned feeling and no more naseau. I am of decently tired because of the drug combo, but the benefit far outweighs the negative. I thought possibly the cymbalta was out of my system and that was why I was feeling better so I didn't take it on Tuesday and the symptoms came right back. Hope this helps anyone still suffering!

I tried to stop taking Cymbalta several times. Tapered from 60 to 30 (I did open capsule and divide in half with no problem), then every other day, then twice a week. no problems until 5 days, (except for vivid dreams which I found entertaining but tiring; no nightmares, more like being in the middle of an action movie). Then MASSIVE irritability attack and unable to tolerate even relatively small noisees and rage. Less than a day and I returned to  a 30 mg; symptoms disappeared within 2 hrs.

This time i decided to tough it out, with many of the often reported symptoms. Xanax helps a lot, so does Clonazepam (a relative of Xanax doc gave me for possible OCD issue which I believe is actually a side effect of either Cymbalta or Effexor which I took prior to Cymbalta) Omega 3, CoQ 10, Alpha Lipoic acid, Acetyl-L-Carnitine all are neuroprotective supplements that seem to help with some of the brain stuff; if money is a factor, I'd ask doc for one of the antianxiety meds (Xanax) and buy some omega 3 and Co-Q 10. It seems after 40 all of us should be taking these anyway. Best wishes 

The brain zaps are MISERABLE!!!!! have been on anti-depressents for about 15 yrs now due to anxiety, depression and PTSD. I have been on the Cymbalta for about the last 4 yrs, I had to stop cold turkey and NOT BY CHOICE. I ran out of refills and have no ins. or family doctor at the moment. I went from 120mg to NOTHING!! The brain zaps and nasuea are the worst, I am completely off balance and sick to my stomach. I started thinking something neurologically was wrong when the brain zaps got severe. WEAN OFF IT FOR YOUR OWN PEACE OF MIND!

Seriously try the benadryl Dramamine combo, it has saved my butt. I feel nearly normal!

I am finally free of this evil pill and feel like complete dog poo. I was on 60mg a day for almost a year before I decided this stuff wasn't for me. I had horrible side effects while on it, so I talked with my psychiatrist, and we agreed to ween me off. she told me to step down to the 30mg for two weeks and then stop all together. I have felt like since ever since. My brain zaps are bad, I feel like I've been on a boat for 5 years and my moods are a roller coaster. All I can do is look forward to it all being over. I am angy at my doc for giving it to me in the first place. I have tried everything for depression, and this med was like a last resort. I was told it was a very "clean" drug with little to no side effects, but the weight gain and loss of sex drive were enough for me to realize this was hooha

I am feeling the same way and I can not stand how horrible I feel!!!! My Dr is off no help and my husband doesn't understand any of it. I have been trying to wean off of my 60 mg but the brain fog, the dizziness, these brain zaps my heart does weird things. I am a mess. I can not stop crying tonight, I don't know what to do! I am thinking about going back on it because I can not function like this!!!

I was on 60mg for 8-9months, I finally decide to stop cold turkey on 19th March. Whilst on the med. I felt sooooo tired all of the time, my life was going by with me sleeping. I also gained a huge amount of weight and had awful dreams and nightmares. I decided I would rather face the depression than sleep my life away; and when I was awake, I had so little energy I could barely get out of bed. Before the depression and the meds I was extremely active, running and swimming everyday and now I am an obese blob that can barely move through extra weight and debilitating tiredness...

Anyway.... I decided on 19th March that I wanted off of cymbalta, I need to get my life back and that wasn't going to happen whilst I was asleep! Days 1 and 2 were fine, no withdrawal symptoms at all and then from day 3 started getting nausea, dizziness, small pain in stomach and even more tired. Days 3 - 8 I had the withdrawal symtoms listed as well as crying and diarrhea. Then came the 'brain zaps', bad dizziness and major aches and pains everywhere on days 9 and 10 (the two worst days so far). I feel different from most of what people have written on forums - I find that I am sleeping even MORE than before, the only good thing about the sleeping is that when I wake up, and for about 2  hours after, I have little or no withdrawal symptoms and I actually begin to feel like the 'old' me.

Days 11 and 12 were much easier, I actually had some energy yesterday, no brain zaps and felt more positive, thinking I might be nearly over the withdrawal symptoms.... Today I have woken up massively tired and I feel so angry and annoyed at everyone and everything; little things my partner does or says makes me feel like I am going to explode with anger and the things I say are full of venom! This is completely out of character for me, I'm usualy very placid with a very long fuse. Its kind of like an out of body experience, part of me getting really really angry, and the other part sitting back watching and listening, wondering why I'm so angry and cross. I also can't determine whether I am justifiably cross (am I being treated badly by my partner and now that I'm off meds do I now feel like standing up for myself, rather than just being walked over???) Maybe I'm just experiencing a pull between being medicated and somewhat emotionally numb to suddenly being able to feel and actually have a range of emotions.

Anyway, to sum up, it hasn't been easy to withdraw, but neither have I found it extremely hard. Sleeping through most of it has helped me, but I know most people seem to get insomnia.  i read somewhere that you should at least expect 3 weeks of hell whilst withdrawing (although I know some people have the effects longer), so I have been counting down the days!! I hope to find the 'real' me sometime soon and for longer than a couple of hours.

I have never written on a forum before, but wanted to share my experience so far; there seems to be so much scary information on the net, I almost stayed on the med. I guess I just want to say to some people (not all), if you feel like you are not benefitting from cymbalta and you are losing your life and you want to come off the medication, then not everyones withdrawal is as bad as some of the stories you read online. I was expecting the absolute worse and have so far only had 'marginally bad', just keep a goal in sight, I'm sure symptoms will ease and we will get better soon and back to the people we used to be before the depression and the medication :-)

 

 

I just found out I'm pregnant and have been on cymbalta and risperidone for about 4 yrs. 60 mg of cymbalta and 2 mg of the risperidone. I stopped cold turkey both of them and my p dr put me on haldol 2mg and prozac 20mg. I am on day six and feel a lot better. The brain zaps were crazy. The fuzziness was insane. Every step I took I could feel my head throb. I'm also weening off of ativan. Was on 3 to 4 mg a day and now take 2 8 hrs apart. I wish I never would have gotten on any of this sh*t. I took paxil for 5yrs....70mg the max dose and gained 80 pounds. Then I was switched to cymbalta and the weight stabalized but I haven't lost a pound in years until this week. I lost 4 pounds coming off the cymbalta. Anyway they're quick to prescribe sh*t but when it comes to tapering off their clueless. I always trusted my mh dr but I'm starting to wonder. I suffer from anxiety panic disorder ptsd and depression. Hopefully I can manage better on lower doses and get through these cymbalta wds and then work on tapering off the ativan. Sheesh what a mess

very insightful information. I've Been on 60mg cymbalta for 11 years. no, that's not a typo--eleven years. It had been very effective in treating painful body aches and depression. I'm not sure if i wil have to replace this drug with a different one but i do know i Have to get off cymbalta. i gained 60 pounds, I have bone pain, muscle weakness and a VERY stiff neck, cholesterol is through the roof , hypo thyroid, high blood pressure, have a BM maybe once a week if I'm lucky, my memory and concentration GONE... At least now i know what to expect. I tried to go off once before but quickly went back on . I thought i was loosing my mind. This time i will taper more slowly.