First off..you should NEVER try to quit this med cold turkey..that is a REALLY REALLY bad idea!! Some try..some succeed..the way I look at it..you can experience a little withdrawal over about a month..or you can experience a LOT of withdrawal from 1-7 weeks..I guess it's your choice..i'll take the little withdrawal..even though..IT SUCKS!! Once you decide you are ready to get off of this crazy med..you need to taper your dose..the amount of time it takes to get off just depends on how much you take..i tapered from 60 mg down to 30 mg..well no i didn't taper..lol..i just went down..and for about a week..i felt like hell!! i was an emotional wreck!! But i stuck it out..and after a week..my body got used to that dose..then i went down to 20 mg..which also SUCKED for about a week..but then again..my body got used to it..after i was there for about 2 weeks..i slowly began the taper..i took out 3 of the little beads a day..it's LONG process..i know..and it sucks counting the little beads..but believe me..it's much better than going cold turkey which will almost definitely take you back up to the same dose you tried to quit..usually within 4-7 days because the withdrawals are THAT BAD for some of us..so 3 beads today..then 6 tomorrow..then 9..and so on and so on..it took me about 4 weeks to go from 20 mg to 10 mg..i sometimes jump up 3 beads if i am having a few really good days in a row..like 6 today and then instead of 9 tomorrow..just jump to 12..whatever works for you..i plan on continuing this taper until i get down to ZERO..yep..8 weeks of tapering..but once i'm off..i'm done with it..no withdrawals because i allowed my brain to adjust every day to a new dose..and i do NOT plan on going onto another medication..if u do plan on that..just taper from cymbalta onto the other med and there should be very few problems..if any..now as far as supplements..everyone will tell you something different..BUT..i tried the gaba and the 5htp and all kinds of other stuff..didn't do anything for me..but..it may work for you..i am using something called lecithin and vitamin b complex..it works for me..if you are having vivid nightmares or trouble sleeping as i did in the beginning..take some calcium/magnesium about an hour before bed..or you can take melatonin..but make sure you have at least 6 hours planned for sleep on the melatonin..otherwise ur gonna feel like crappola!! the calcium/magnesium worked well for me..if u experience rage..crazy emotions..which i do..ask your doc for a very low dose benzo..i take 0.25 mg xanax just once a day..i have some pretty bad tremors that i've had since i started cymbalta..and the xanax makes those stop..that's about all i can tell you..it's a tough road..and there are people..and PLENTY of them who say they are only on it because they can't stop it..i withdrew from effexor..and that was no fun..no walk in the park..i also had withdrawal from some pretty nasty street drugs and nothing..i repeat NOTHING has been so horrible as coming off of this crazy little pill..but..everyday does get a little better..you feel the fog lift a little more everyday..and you don't realize just how sedated you were until you start to come off of this drug..it caused some pretty bad bladder spasms, tachycardia, SEVERE headaches, 60 pound weight gain in 18 months..my vision has gone to c**p..that is still not better..but i'm not all the way off yet either..i didn't realize how emotionally dead i had become..and now..man..it's all just hitting me left and right..it's a little overwhelming..but it will never be enough for me to stay on this drug..NO WAY!! you will rant and rave..you will cry..you will be mad and sad and everything in between..you may have anxiety..but DO NOT let your doc convince you that it's just your symptoms returning..if, after you get totally off the med for a couple of months..you feel more depressed..then maybe you need something else..but get urself off of these pills and see how YOU REALLY FEEL without the drugs before you determine that..don't give up..it's worth getting off of ..don't allow this medication to run your life..you don't need a crutch..we can all do this..you will need some supportive people in your life..that's for sure..good luck!!
Your post has been extremely helpful. Thank you!
Thank you very much for this. My mother is on this drug and her doctor isn't very informative on withdrawals as she has been put into them before from him just stopping other drugs. So if she switches from this I have this post to at least give her some direction and she won't have to go through the mess. Counting beads... never would have thought.
Truly thankful.
Truly thankful.
Hello, Thankful, I hope things went well for your mother. Did she decide to stop the cymbalta? I'm writing this in 2023, so it's been a while!