anyone ever successfully stopped taking cymbalta?

[Deleted User]

i'm following doctor's orders - i did a half-dose for about a week and a half. it was monstrous. i'm now on day 6 of none at all and i don't know how much longer i can take these fecking brain zaps before i hurl myself off a bridge.

any success stories? this is torture.

ricksang

My mom stopped taking it because it was giving her major depression. I am talking suicidal thoughts here. The Dr. put her on prozac instead.

salt78

Oh the brain zaps. I get those when I stop entirely taking my lexapro. I got myself down to a little less then a quarter of a pill a day now.

SwedishChick2011

I don't have experience with Cymbalta, but your doctor may have had you taper off too quickly.  When I went off of Paxil, I tapered off slowly for about a month.  Or, maybe your doctor had it right and it's just going to take a little more time for your body to adjust. 

SwedishChick2011

What exactly are these brain zaps though?  That doesn't sound like much fun.

salt78

It's hard to describe, but my zaps are normally accompanied by a tingling sensation in my tongue.

RachNRich

I just stopped taking it about 6 days ago too--I was on it for Fybro.

I went from 60mg, to 40 for 4 days, and 20 for 4 days. My whole body hurts, I feel "slow" (like it takes me a very long time for my brain to catch up), my night sweats, which existed before I tapered off, have become nightly--and awful, and I have this awful pins and needles feeling through out my whole body, constantly.

I've read reviews from others coming off of it--and had I known in advance, I would have never started it.

betrothed123

I took myself off of it one day, along with all of the other meds the doc had me on that weren't working.  I got lucky in that I didn't have any noticeable side effects from doing so.

I agree with PP, though, that maybe it's just too fast of a reduction for you.

SwedishChick2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_anyone-ever-successfully-stopped-taking-cymbalta?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:c6311f64-f970-4845-b9b0-48fba640b0d1Post:aa65ec04-0285-4a47-a6ab-707de3cc4d0f">Re: anyone ever successfully stopped taking cymbalta?</a>:
[QUOTE]It's hard to describe, but my zaps are normally accompanied by a tingling sensation in my tongue.
Posted by salt78[/QUOTE]
I think I know what you're talking about.  I may have actually experienced those, but I never thought of them as "zaps," just a weird thing going on inside my head. 

[Deleted User]

the brain zaps - how to describe? it's like a very brief zzzzz that screws up my vision, sounds like static, and radiates down to my hands, making my hands numb. it only lasts for a second but they keep happening.  for that second it's very disorienting and feels like what i'd imagine a seizure feels like (not that i actually know).  usually accompanied by more sustained lip numbness.

i thought yesterday it was tapering off a bit, but came back today with a vengeance.  this is fecking torture.

but i feel like if i cave and go back to my half doses, i've endured the past 6 days for nothing.

how is it legal for doctors to prescribe this crap? holy shiit.

[Deleted User]

oh - i've been having night sweats too. hadn't even thought that could be related. and when i'm awake it's like i'm hot i'm freezing i'm hot i'm freezing. ahdfjk;ahljas;jd

saschaduran

My attempts to go off Paxil and Effexor were horrid, but more like Rach's experience.  I ended up tapering myself over a period of a few months, which in reality probably just kept the foggy, achy, head pressure feeling  going on longer than necessary.

I tried 6 months without any and I was crying all the time and had zero motivation, so I started Lexapro.  We had discussed trying for a baby this year and I don't know how to deal with the horrible withdrawal again.

I had inquired about Cymbalta and was told it was as bad as Effexor to get off of....Effexor and Paxil are supposed to be the hardest.

Did it help you?  Do you feel ready to stop taking it?

RachNRich

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_anyone-ever-successfully-stopped-taking-cymbalta?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:c6311f64-f970-4845-b9b0-48fba640b0d1Post:d46dfb07-e7fd-48db-a349-efdd5bca8cb7">Re: anyone ever successfully stopped taking cymbalta?</a>:
[QUOTE]oh - i've been having night sweats too. hadn't even thought that could be related. and when i'm awake it's like i'm hot i'm freezing i'm hot i'm freezing. ahdfjk;ahljas;jd
Posted by daffodil_jill[/QUOTE]

This is what I hate the most---I'm not sure if it's related or not, but since I went off the meds (on xmas eve) I just assumed the increase was related to the meds. I've had to turn on the heated blanket in the middle of the night, despite being sweaty, because I'm so cold. And this morning, I was sitting on the couch shivering--but was sweating at the same time.

Cymbalta = Crack. I swear.

SwedishChick2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_anyone-ever-successfully-stopped-taking-cymbalta?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:c6311f64-f970-4845-b9b0-48fba640b0d1Post:d46dfb07-e7fd-48db-a349-efdd5bca8cb7">Re: anyone ever successfully stopped taking cymbalta?</a>:
[QUOTE]oh - i've been having night sweats too. hadn't even thought that could be related. and when i'm awake it's like i'm hot i'm freezing i'm hot i'm freezing. ahdfjk;ahljas;jd
Posted by daffodil_jill[/QUOTE]
I had night sweats sometimes while on the medication.  Then there was this time when I decided to try to go off of it myself (dumb), and I got the hot, then freezing thing too. 

RachNRich

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_anyone-ever-successfully-stopped-taking-cymbalta?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:c6311f64-f970-4845-b9b0-48fba640b0d1Post:38938dbb-155b-4c47-835e-7fb0c60bf88c">Re: anyone ever successfully stopped taking cymbalta?</a>:
[QUOTE] Did it help you?  Do you feel ready to stop taking it?
Posted by saschaduran[/QUOTE]

I'm sure this was directed at daff--but, I thought it helped. I was taking it for fybromyalgia--and within days of being on it, I noticed I was more alert, less run down. I never really thought it helped with my overall pain, until I stopped taking it--and my body felt like I had been run over by a semi. I had to stop taking it for fear it was making my other health issues worse.

Despite how much it may have helped--I'd never take it again. The withdrawals are just not worth it.

SwedishChick2011

Sascha - How is the Lexapro working for you?  I've had this on again, off again relationship with Paxil (or Pexeva) but without it I start feeling depressed.  I'm thinking about trying something else though.

bbyckes

I had a friend experience horrible "brain zaps" on Paxil.  She stated there was a class-action suit filed against them. 

This is my second round on Lexapro and I've had no problems whatsoever.  When I weaned myself off it the first time, no issues.  I really like Lexapro and I'm happy with it.

SwedishChick2011

I'm glad Lexapro is working for you, Capri.  I've been planning to ask my doctor if she thinks it's an option for me.

saschaduran

It was towards Daff, but I meant to ask you too Rach since I know you had fibro.  That's too bad you have to go off of it, but hopefully they can get to the root of whatever else is going on.

Coco...it is definitely my favorite of the 3.  With the others, if I forgeot a single day I started having withdrawal symptoms.  I had absolutely no adjustment period going on this one (usually I have to taper on them), and  I felt that it has helped me so much, yet seems to have the least side effects and feels mild.

I have only cried a couple times, and at an appropriate moment.  I no longer get agitated or lose my patience or feel so angry.  I don't feel such a feeling of dread when a stranger tries to talk to me, but I still need a lot of alone/quiet time.  I feel much more peaceful overall and it has REALLY helped me not obsess over things. 

bbyckes

Coco, I have a friend on Cymbalta - she likes it.  Lexapro has worked wonders for me.  I've never been so happy.  It's weird. haha

ETA:  I ditto what Sascha has said about the anxiety, anger, etc.  I am really calm and light-hearted.  Also, when I don't take it daily, I don't suffere from headaches or experience depression-like symptoms.  I don't obsess, I just deal with things as they come.  It's so freeing.

cris10c

Lexapro has helped me too. I started out on Cymbalta and it was the worse thing ever.

SwedishChick2011

Sascha and Capri - thanks for the helpful information. 

Sorry, I kind of threadjacked for a little while.  I'm done now. 

cris10c

Capri and Sascha,

How many days have you missed? I've always been worried about forgetting because I don't want to have any symptoms.

saschaduran

It is very freeing...great way to describe it.  I never had problems with depression until my early 30s, but it ran very severe in my family.  But the Lexapro has definitely helped me to be able to get upset at a problem and let it go, whereas I used to obsess constantly over things I couldn't change, like my family or the economy, or what I wanted to do with my life etc.  I finally just feel content.  H could have a huge role in that, but the Lexapro has helped since I started it after our wedding.   It has helped me treat him much nicer and more fairly.  He is very even and grounded and now I am more like him.

saschaduran

I have never missed more than one, but if I did that on Effexor I would get very sick. 

ootmother2

I've been taking Cymbalta for about 3 years for the nerve pain in my leg (from the surgeries)

I forgot to take it when I went away for 4 days but nothing happened.

Sorry, I can ask my doctor about it though

bbyckes

The most I've skipped is a day or two, no more than that.

maarico

If not taking it is having that much of an effect, maybe it's too soon? I was on it for about a year, then weaned off it for a month and didn't really have any problems.. I was a little more tired than usual, but that's about it.. On a side note, I had some pretty weird dreams while taking cymbalta.

lyndausvi

I went of Effexor without talking to my doctor.  I just didn't feel like it was helping anymore.  I did some online research for months before actually stopping.  The stories of side effects scared me.  In the end I took some advice from various different sites that worked for other people.

 I started taking Omega-3 vitamins a week or so before stopping.

I do not excerise like I should, but I started exercising before I started.

Once I decided to go for it,  I  opened a capsule (wrong I know) and I took half  of the pill for a few days with applesauce. The next day I took the other half.  After a few days of doing that I started taking 1/4 of the pill until it was done. 

During the whole process I continued to exercise which kept me happy for some reason.  I also was in a good point in my life.  I just got my captain's license, BFF got married. Overall I was just in a happy place in my life. (I met DH right afterwards)


Now I'm not sure if anythiing I did helped or not.  I'm just glad I did not have any side effects that I read about.

[Deleted User]

sascha - i guess they helped. i've been on them for a couple of years now. i started on them when my mother was sick. i stayed on them when she died, through the wedding, the lyme disease, and the home purchase.

i was thinking after we settled into the house i may want to stop them, just since the big external pressures were over with, and i don't want to stay on the stuff forever.  figured sometime soon was as good a time as any.

then, a few weeks ago, i ran out of refills and my doctor's office was being completely incompetent about getting a refill to my pharmacy (repeated phone calls and being assured it would be done that day, yadda yadda).  so i ended up being without them for 2 days and it was horrifying. i mean, it was worse than a fecking nightmare.  at that point, i decided i no longer want to take something that would do something so terrible to me if i didn't take it.

so, like rachel - even if it did help, i don't ever want to go back on this shiit because the withdrawals are so wretched.  it's poison.

saschaduran

That's understandable.  It sounds like it is a good time now that you have gone through the major issues and you just have the internal ones to focus on, much less pressure.

I felt the same way after going off effexor, about never wanting something that would make me that sick.  But then the sadness of family losses hit me so hard during my 6 month engagement and for the 6 months after that I reconsidered and tried the Lexapro.

Linda's tips sound good. Since you are halfway through getting off of them, just try to suffer through the rest and see how you feel in a couple weeks.  I know it is hard though.