Where Is All The Info?

It seems that Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms only exist on message boards and blogs. Other than that the only cautionary warning is to not stop taking Cymbalta without consulting your physician. If you enter the term Cymbalta withdrawal in a search engine you will see that the top results are message boards.

Just try and find some site actually associated with the pharmaceutical company listed...you won't. That is completely shocking to me. It is a fact that Cymbalta is causing moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms in people yet the company doesn't feel that it's necessary to address this?

Take A Closer Look

Even scarier than the number of message boards and comments being left by people suffering Cymbalta withdrawal is what is actually being said in these comments. There people who have been going through Cymbalta withdrawal for up to 3 weeks just crying out for help from anyone.

A common theme in these messages about Cymbalta withdrawal is that the people suffering are not getting the help they need. They are either going to there doctor and being told that they are being "extra sensitive" about what they are going through which is magnifying the intensity of the withdrawal symptoms. Or they are being told that Cymbalta does not cause withdrawal symptoms.

I have over 80 comments on my Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Suck post and out of those 80 there are about 2 people that were taken seriously by their doctor about the withdrawal symptoms they were experiencing. In those cases the doctors either changed the rate of the tapering schedule the patient was following or got them on a supplement routine that would replace what their body was now lacking due to the withdrawal.

It just seems like Cymbalta is being prescribed more and more for not only depression and anxiety but now also for diabetes nerve pain. People find, after taking this drug for sometimes only a few months, that it is no longer serving the purpose it was intended for. Instead of being able to quickly taper down they are now stuck taking Cymbalta for months and months after it is needed just to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms.

I Gotta Do SOMETHING

I read this stuff and it makes me crazy. But then I say "what can I do?". Not much actually. Along with keeping this topic in the spotlight on my site I decided to create and online petition which I will be sending to Eli Lilly at the end of 6 months. I strongly urge (and beg you) to please sign my Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms online petition. As of writing this article I have one signature and it is my own. Come on...be a pal!

Related posts:

1. Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Being Kept Secret?
2. Cymbalta Online Petition: Make Cymbalta Withdrawl Symptoms Known
3. Report Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms To The FDA

What is really weird about the whole thing is that if I didn't have someone around me with a health libido (my husband) I don't think I would have even noticed the problem. The only reason that it seems like a problem to me is the tension and fighting that it is causing between me and my husband.

I have to say even though I feel that Cymbalta isn't working for my depression and now it is causing a low libido I am scared to switch antidepressants. I'm nervous that the next one won't work either and the negative effects will be worse than the Cymbalta. Right now I am allowing myself to live in the land of the what if's.

Even though I am nervous about it, I do have an appointment set up with someone who can adjust my medication. I'm going to try and stay positive that the next prescription will be the winner. My ideal antidepressant wouldn't make me tired, wouldn't make me gain weight and wouldn't have a negative effect on my libido.

Am I looking, once again, to be able to take a pill and have everything be perfect? It may seem that way but I don't think so. I have been told that I have depression. Since I have depression and have to take an antidepressant I just want one that I would get the most benefit from.

I think that if I stay honest with myself about what symptoms of depression I have, I won't get caught in that "take a pill and everything will be great" way of thinking. In addition to taking medication I am also trying to make improvements in my life and to steer clear of things that are conducive to depression.

So, to my libido I say "olly olly oxen fried". I'll find you sucker.

Related posts:

1. Slowly Leaving Antidepressants Behind
2. Cymbalta for Depression Ain’t Cutt’n It
3. Cymbalta Withdrawal Only Exists On Message Boards

So let's take a look at how my life is different now that I'm off the narcotics and have an anti-depressant that "works correctly".

Remember When

When I was actively using Oxys, which will from here on be referred to as Jams, I would wake up in the morning hating life. As soon as my eyes opened and I realized that the day had begun I would instantly be in a pissed off mood. I would think about all of the things I would have to do that day. Laundry! Are you kidding me? Go for a walk with my son! When will I get a break from this grinding routine? Take a shower...maybe tomorrow.

You might say, "wow, to get all of that done in one day you must have gotten up pretty early in the morning". Not exactly. I was sleeping later and later. There were some days that I didn't really start to get moving until about one in the afternoon. Did I mention I am a stay at home mom?

Of course I would go to any lengths to be able to get a Jam. To me, that wasn't work. I would drive here, there, anywhere. My source didn't feel like driving...I'll go pick it up. My source didn't feel like selling me a half...I'll find the extra cash for a whole. The whole time feeling embarrassed at my desperation but not being able to control myself. I want a Jam. I'm getting a Jam.

I got a Jam. I would come home and quickly prepare my "friend" for intake. You know, at first it seemed really gross to me to suck the time release coating off of a pill. But I actually grew fond of that taste. It also used to seem like a real pain in the ass to have to use a strainer to change the jam from pill form to powder. But that too got to be something I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the, I think I have to shit, stomach ache I would get while preparing my drug because my body was so excited that it was finally going to feel some relief. You read that right...I would enjoy a stomach ache.

I would line up one monster line for myself to snort. One pill makes a lot of powder. I would do it in one swoop. One snooter is what I would call it. Sometimes I would almost puke in my own mouth because the powder would rush down my sinus and right into my throat and set off my gag reflex. That's a pretty picture huh? I stayed away from doing snooters off a mirror. I truly did not want to look at myself doing this. Done, put all my tools away. I know, I'll smoke a cigarette which should take up the seven minutes between me doing a snooter and the effects of the drug kicking in. And there it is.

Finally, I can get some work done. Well maybe I'll just sit down for a minute and watch some cartoons with my kid. Well maybe we'll just color for a little while. Maybe we'll play toy store for a little while, I'll be the customer. Maybe...oh shit, it's 4:30! My husband is going to be home from work soon and I haven't done any of the things I was supposed to do today. Well, that's ok. I'll so them tomorrow.

Day after day it went on like this. I got nothing done other than getting high (and playing with my kid).

Wow, Clean Life Is So Different

Instead of waking up in the afternoon I wake up at about 8:30 now. My eyes open, I listen to my husband in the shower and right away I think, "jeez I should be getting him some breakfast". I think that, I don't actually do it though. What I do is lay in bed listening to the radio for about another half hour. Opie and Anthony are on for christ sakes, I have to listen until the end of the show.

What do I have to do today? I ask myself this because I want to see if I really need to leave the house today or if it something I can put off until tomorrow. Why do I not like to leave the house? Honestly, I'm not real sure. Good thing I'm on anti-depressants.

By this time my kid is awake and I get out of bed to turn cartoons on for him. Do I go into the bathroom, take a shower and get ready for the day? No. I get a cup of coffee and sit infront of the computer. Depending on what I need to get done I could sit there in my pajamas for hours upon end. The whole time I'm thinking about all of the other stuff I should really be doing. You know, laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the bedroom. This sounds eerily reminiscent of my drug day. But it couldn't be the same, I'm off drugs and my Cymbalta is working for my depression. There is no reason for me to be sitting here dreading all of those things.

The hours are going by pretty quickly. It doesn't look like I did anything around here today. I quickly do some of the things that I need to do around the house. Hating every minute of it. Forcing my self the whole time not to quit in the middle. I know, you are probably saying to yourself "it's household work, what is the big deal?". I ask myself the same question on a daily basis.

My husband comes home, I don't have dinner ready. I haven't even taken a shower yet today. "You want to go OUT to eat? Leave the house and go to a restaurant?" This usually starts a little fight because he realizes that I've been in the house all day and doesn't understand the big deal with leaving the house to get something to eat. I honestly don't understand what the big deal is either but there must be one because I never want to do it. Good thing I'm taking Cymbalta or else I might think I'm depressed.

Oh thank god it's getting to be late night. You know, 8:30. Now I can actually relax after my hard day. Jeez, I should really be getting to bed. I've got another big day ahead of me tomorrow. What the f is my deal? Does that sound like someone who is off drugs? I'm starting to realize that my drug problem wasn't the only reason that I sucked as a stay at home mother and wife. Something else is going on here.

When you compare my daily routines both on and off drugs...not that much of a difference. What does that say about me? I'm going to go with the conclusion that my Cymbalta is not working for my depression and start from there.

Related posts:

1. Here is My Cymbalta, Where is My Libido?
2. Slowly Leaving Antidepressants Behind
3. Cymbalta Online Petition: Make Cymbalta Withdrawl Symptoms Known

I understand that people aren't throwing their entire lives away to get another pill of Cymbalta like what is sometimes done (myself included on that) with Oxycontin, but there really is a similarity here. For Cymbalta to cause such severe withdrawal symptoms in people for such an extended period of time there must be some real brain dependency going on here.

What's worse is that some doctors don't even realize that Cymbalta causes these withdrawal symptoms and so they are not weening their patients off of it at the speed necessary to avoid severe withdrawal. I had gotten sample boxes from my doctor with the informational sheet (which has "please remove from box before dispensing to patient" written on it) inside and no where did it list the severe withdrawal symptoms. It did say that Cymbalta should not be stopped abruptly. To me, that doesn't really drive home the fact that severe withdrawal will ensue if it is stopped to quickly.

To me, if doctors are unaware of the severe Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms this could mean that the pharmaceutical reps are going in the doctor's offices and are not giving the entire scoop on this drug. Possibly...obviously, I'm not there and I don't know this to be true.

Because of Cymbalta's pain reduction property, the FDA has now approved Cymbalta being prescribed to Diabetic patients to treat pain due to Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy. What I have been reading from patients making posts on message boards here and there is that it works for a couple of months and then is not so effective. Once that happens the patients end up having to continue to take Cymbalta for months and months after it stops being effective to ween off.

I'm not trying to say it's some huge conspiracy like what happened with Oxycontin but it does make you wonder. Why aren't Cymbalta patients being told upfront about the long weening off process and the severe withdrawal symptoms? Ultimately it is up to the patient to make an informed choice when starting any medication but it would help if the information was more readily available.

Related posts:

1. Cymbalta Withdrawal Only Exists On Message Boards
2. Last Post On Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms
3. Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Suck

I figured rather than just inform the pharmaceutical company themselves the FDA should be informed. I was able to find the FDA MedWatch Online Reporting Form and I filled out a complaint against Cymbalta. I'm going to tell you how you can file a complaint with the FDA too.

I urge all of the people that are effected by Cymbalta withdrawal to do the same. Just follow the link above and answer the questions. There is also a field that allows you to explain in your own words what your complaint is about. This section allows you something like 6400 characters so you won't run into the problem of running out of space while ranting.

Who knows if this will have any effect but I figured if a good number of people start reporting this problem directly to the FDA maybe they will start to look into this situation.

I'm a realist so I am assuming that Cymbalta is too much of a money maker to ever be taken off the market completely. My complaint focused on the fact that the information about the potential for Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms is not made available to physicians and patients. Therefor there is no effective way to avoid or treat them.

The FDA form takes about 5 minutes (depending of course on the length of your rant) and I beg anyone who has experienced Cymbalta withdrawal to fill out a complaint. Thank you

Related posts:

1. Cymbalta Online Petition: Make Cymbalta Withdrawl Symptoms Known
2. Cymbalta Withdrawal Only Exists On Message Boards
3. Last Post On Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms

Since we are trying to avoid the use of mood altering substances as our first defense against negative feelings, it leaves us with the question "How do you make yourself feel better?".

You know what I mean right? Those times in life when you feel lost, vulnerable, worthless, sad, hopeless...and all those other crappy feelings that I left out. How do you turn your feelings around and make yourself feel better without reaching for that instant fix?

The truth is there are a lot of ways to make yourself feel better without resorting to using drugs but the thing that we need to accept is that when feelings are concerned...there is no such thing as instant gratification.

It is a very hard thing to accept that sometimes you are just going to have bad feelings. I'm not talking like ouch I stubbed my toe, this is a bad feeling. I'm talking about..."oh my god, what am I doing with my life", "why do I feel so shitty all the time?", "why does nothing go my way", "why can't I help myself?"...those type of feelings.

I don't think I'm wrong in saying that from time to time everyone goes through some slumps in life. The key to a successful and peaceful life is your ability to deal with these times as they happen.

Before? Crush up a pill, lay out a line, and drift away into oblivion. Feel "at peace" for a few hours and then be further down in my pit of despair than I was before I started. Ok...that doesn't work.

Now? I go about things in a much different way. I realize that I am feeling negatively. I panic for a few minutes because I dread the thought that I have to fight my way out of a slump. I get a hold of myself and start thinking about what it is I can start doing today that will have me feeling better more quickly.

I try to avoid, at all costs, my urge to feed into my negative feelings. THIS IS HARD. I have to start by telling myself that I need to think more positively about my life right now. I have to focus on the good instead of the bad. I have to put this thinking into motion even though it goes against every fiber of my being at the time.

For me, doing something productive usually makes me feel a little better about things. This is not as easy as it seems. Do you think when I feel like my life is in shambles I really want to clean the toilet? No. But I just FORCE myself to do it anyway. Then when I realize that cleaning the toilet only took me about 3 minutes to do, I may decide to clean the sink. Wow, the sink and the toilet, I just about cleaned the whole bathroom. I did something productive that I can feel good about. It certainly isn't going to make me feel any worse than I already do.

I'm not saying that cleaning your toilet will brighten your day. All I'm saying is that in life you need to figure out what is going to make you have a positive feeling (why cleaning the toilet or the sink has become my thing in life...I have no idea).

Because doing even the smallest of things that give you a slightly positive feeling is at least a start in the right direction. It's better than sitting there and thinking of all the things that you aren't doing and then wondering what the eff is wrong with you that you can't even do these things in life when everyone else in the world seems to be able to do this stuff. Come on, you've been there.

Here is the most important part of how I make myself feel better. At the end of the day, while I'm lying in bed feeling defeated from the long day of feeling negative I make sure that I tell myself that today is over. No matter what went on, how horrible and sad I feel because of it...it's over. Today doesn't dictate what tomorrow will be like. Tomorrow is a new day that could be filled with positive feelings.

Then when I wake up the next morning still feeling shitty I start all over with trying to change my thought to become more positive, doing things that give me a positive feeling, etc. If that doesn't work and I still find myself going to bed at night with negative feelings I remind myself once again that today is over. Tomorrow is a new day.

Sooner or later I wake up and actually feel positive. See all of this doesn't really change the fact that I am feeling negative but it somehow gets me through and reminds me that I will feel better. It just usually takes some time.

Related posts:

1. Addiction Recovery: Using The Secret
2. Cymbalta for Depression Ain’t Cutt’n It
3. In Every Life There Is A Little Self Doubt… Right?

The purpose of this petition is to ask Eli Lilly to make the potential Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms public knowledge so that patients can make an informed decision about whether or not to start Cymbalta.

There is also some text in the online Cymbalta petition asking Eli Lilly to make sure that physicians are told by the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical reps what the potential Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms may be and the best way to taper someone off of the drug.

So for anyone out there that has not signed the online Cymbalta petition I would greatly appreciate if you do.

Related posts:

1. Report Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms To The FDA
2. Cymbalta Withdrawal Only Exists On Message Boards
3. Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Being Kept Secret?

After asking me a series of questions in which I answered as honestly as possible no matter how embarrassing it was, the psychiatrist told me something that I wasn't expecting to hear. I was not having the symptoms that I am having due to being under medicated or being on the wrong medication. I was having these symptoms because I was over medicated.

Based on the fact that my daily dose of Cymbalta is relatively low, it appears that I don't require an antidepressant. What? You mean that my medication which I thought was making my life a little better had actually been causing some of my most major problems? I couldn't believe it. So what do I do now?

Cymbalta is not the type of medication that you should just stop taking all together. It can cause some withdrawal symptoms and frankly, I'm all set with going through another withdrawal. So the psychiatrist suggested that I ween myself off slowly...very slowly.

My daily dose of Cymbalta has been reduced by half and I am to take that for 3 months. After that time, I can either cut that dose in half or I can stop taking it all together. That is a pretty long weening time frame if you ask me, but then again I'm no doctor.

Today is the second day of taking 20mg of Cymbalta. I actually still am feeling some withdrawal symptoms. I have something going on that I can only describe as brain shivers. If you have never had this, be thankful. It is really a bad feeling. It doesn't hurt or anything like that but every once in a while I get what feels like an electrical buzz inside my brain. I know that this is due to the decrease in Cymbalta because there was a time I went a week without taking the medication and I got the same sensation, although a lot more intense than what I am having now.

I'll grab a saying out of the narcotics anonymous bag o' sayings, ahh here we go...This too shall pass. Knowing that this withdrawal symptom will be short lived I am feeling pretty positive about weening off of Cymbalta.

It is great to feel that I don't "need" to take some sort of drug to be a functioning human being. After all isn't that why I stopped my substance abuse in the first place. I wanted to be free of "having" to take drugs to feel normal.

Today, although I have some weird feelings in my brain, I am proud of myself for taking steps towards becoming a better person on my own without the help of drugs. I'm also feeling good about myself for not caving in because of my "brain shivers" and taking my regular dose of Cymbalta. I never thought I would be weening myself off another drug in my lifetime but it is what it is I guess.

Related posts:

1. Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Suck
2. Last Post On Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms
3. Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Being Kept Secret?