Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Suck
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My Cymbalta dose is now down to zero and the withdrawal symptoms are brutal. I followed my doctors directions for slowly weening off Cymbalta…why are my Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms so severe?
In a previous post I had explained that I was slowly weening off Cymbalta with my doctor’s guidance. This started with me reducing my daily dose in half. I felt the effects of that in the form of Cymbalta withdrawal which included a weird buzzing in my brain that I have named brain shivers.
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Within a couple of days my body got used to this lower dose I was feeling back to my self again. That was a little over a month ago. The time was here for me to stop taking Cymbalta all together. Sure, I was a little nervous about the withdrawal symptoms but I decided to go along with the plan that my doctor and I had come up with which meant to stop taking Cymbalta.
Well…this time the Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms are far more severe than the last. Not only am I getting the brain shivers way more frequently throughout the day, I can tell that I am very short tempered and a little emotional. Since being emotional is not something I’m used to after being on antidepressants for over 2 years…it’s pretty upsetting to me. Of course it’s upsetting, everything is upsetting to me right now.
I had been reading a lot online about the withdrawal symptoms of Cymbalta and it seems that all of the symptoms I am having are the normal ones that go along with this drug. I can’t tell you what a bummer it is to be going through withdrawal again. I thought that when I detoxed in rehab
it would absolutely be the last time in my life I ever had withdrawal symptoms from anything. I guess I was wrong.
In my online researching of Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms I saw several different places say that Benadryl helps to alleviate some of the more severe withdrawal symptoms of Cymbalta. I was a little leary of trying this because I usually try to stay away from any over the counter medicine that causes drowsiness. This is due to the fact that I have been known to abuse these in the past. Pretty pathetic I know…but true none the less.
The day before yesterday I gave in and purchased some Benedryl. I can honestly say that I have not been abusing them at all. I have been taking one maybe two per day. Benedryl really did cut down on some of the uncomfortable feelings that I had due to the Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms.
I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Today I have not taken any Benedryl and I am not too bothered so far by any of the withdrawal symptoms that I have been over the past few days. Sure, I’m still noticing a brain shiver every once in a while but it is no where near the severity of the past few days.
In situations like this one, I start to realize just how far I have come on my road to recovery. This time last year I would have used these uncomfortable feelings as an excuse to abuse drugs. There is no doubt about it. Now? I was leary of even purchasing Benedryl because I know that I have tendencies to abuse drugs like that. It’s times like these that I really start to appreciate all of the hard work I’ve put into staying sober.
We’ve created a new site to continue the Cymbalta Withdrawal discussions here
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1,946 Responses to “Cymbalta Withdrawal Symptoms Suck”
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Pages: [65] 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 … 1 » Show All
Posts
November 19th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I’ve been on Cymbalta for over a year.I decided I wanted off after reading this website & others.My doctor, who is not a homeopathic doc.,does lean more towards natural things.He has me opening my Cymbalta (30mg) into Cranberry juice, drink half today, half tomorrow.Do this for like a week or so.After that, I switch to drinking a 1/4 of the juice every day for a few weeks or so. He also suggested that I could start taking 5HTP and SAM-E together as they do different things.I tried putting the pill into Gatorade- does not work.I believe the acid in the cranberry juice dissolves the “beads” like the stomach acid would.So,I will try that for tomorrow.Hope this can help others.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Let me just say that it is so refreshing to see others going through this, and hear about the brain zaps and shivers, I call them waves. No one else ever understood what I meant by those but I can see many of you do. This is my second time withdrawing from cymbalta, and I’ve gone from 60 to 30mgs. I started a few days ago and I havent felt the waves yet, however I have been having chest pains and pains in the veins in my wrist. I don’t know if this is normal, I’m trying to search for it now. But if anyone has heard or experienced this I would like some feedback. Thank you and goodluck to all.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I have been on Cymbalta for 2+yrs and have been off and on Cymbalta. I have had numberous side effects, too many to count and it’s unnerving! Today Nov 18th I’m going off cold turkey–I have found that weening and cold turkey are the same. I read another site that suggested using GABA 750 2x, bought at GNC. I’m trying this today for the first time and scared for the side effects to come. Hopefully with this supplement they won’t be as bad as last time. I do not recommend this drug to anyone!! I have been on alot of anit’s and this is the worst. Please people, tell your Dr’s and make him/her listen….this med is not worth it’s weight in gold. Good Luck to all.
Lisa
November 18th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Keri and Teri,
I also take 5-HTP…it helps my fibromyalgia and gets me a better night of sleep. I also take d-ribose powder and it helps me and my muscle aches. I highly recommend the book “From Fatigued to Fantasic” for anyone suffering from Fibromyalgia. Cymbalta did help with the pain of fibro, but wasn’t worth the 30 lb. weight gain I experienced. I weaned off Cymbalta in June and am still trying to get the weight off! any advice???
November 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Teri! yes! I took that stuff! it’s amazing and it helped me a lot!!!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
After visiting our local Whole Foods store Thursday, I got something called 5-HTP which is supposed to help with some of the withdrawal symptoms we seem to be experiencing. Since starting it Thursday evening (1 an hour before bedtime), well, I don’t know about this stuff but gosh I feel great! An employee at the store recommended it. Is anyone out there familiar with this product? I’m not crying–at all–and feel like having energy and interest in getting some things done I’ve ignored for awhile. I’ve read some pros and cons on the internet but just wondered since we’re already in the habit of taking a pill (Cymbalta) is it okay to now take this 5-HTP instead to help us thru this phase. Not taking any Cymbalta going on two weeks now and this is the best I’ve felt since going off of it. Thoughts, comments…..
November 17th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Brook: I’m no doctor but,
I think you’ll be ok!!! and boy does the sex life get better off this stuff!
Karen: Again, not a doctor here, but this worked for me: you should try tapering off of it, keep up the every other day thing and get used to that before deciding to come off completely…cold turkey is a nightmare!!!
“REAL McCOY”: I think i speak for everyone, and certainly agree with Jennifer that you had some nerve posting your bullshit on this site. Leave us alone and keep your thoughts to yourself. You’re an awfully cruel person to dump on people who experience a different walk in life than yourself, indeed we all do…each our own person and having our own journey. Do not belittle people for their feelings and observations, you have no idea what they’re experiencing!!!
November 16th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
ok question. I have been taking 30 mgs for about 8 weeks now, and plan on going down to 20 mgs because its messed up my sex drive.. but also because all the comments I have just read… do you think my withdrawals will be intolerable for work? I mean it is only 10 mg difference..
November 16th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I just came across this because I was looking for withdrawal symptoms. I forgot to take my medicine today and was out all day. All I know is that I started to feel funny like this dull pain in my head and I felt very out of it. I remember how bad it was to go off zoloft and I didn’t sleep for a long time and I cried all the time. I got some horrible side effects and I want to get off cymbalta now my doctor didn’t want me to back in June. I know that I am ready to get off my Cymbalta and part of me wants to do cold turkey but know that even skipping a day of it makes me feel dizzy and gives me a headache.
November 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Finally, my first day of no cymbalta after tapering down for months. feelin okay, but fearful.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
(trish)
I have research this for months for my daughter. No, one has posted much past serveral months. My daughter has been off cymbalta for over a month. Most is well. We placed her in a program, that helps people with personal promblems, that got them on a drug like cymbalta. But more importantly cymbalta messes with the whole body. I visited my daughter while she stayed at a (place of hope). I saw other people where coming off meds. while they were there as well. They would first start your mom on supplements and then find out what she really needed to stablize her. My daughter and some other people at a place of hope, have said that they feel better than ever. What got us to thinking about supplements was a blog on the book (the road back). I suggest your mother see a ND not a MD. He would start her off on the right start. We never really thought much off natural remedys, but we do now. We are believers of supplements. My daughters withdrawal was horrible. She seems to be stablized after one month, I pray with the help of natural vitamans, this remains. Best of luck. Debbie
November 15th, 2008 at 2:33 am
My Mom is really suffering from Cymbalta withdrawal. It just seems to be getting worse with time. She has horrible stomach pain and terrible tremors. Please note she has been off the drug since September and is just getting worse. We didn’t know what was wrong with her and thought it was just her anxiety, but are thinking it is this withdrawal. They had her on 90mg for over 5 months. They weaned her to 30 and then told her to just stop taking it. Can anyone share how long their symptoms have lasted? After 2 months off it, and feeling worse, she is losing hope and her health is failing because she can’t eat or sleep.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Dear Real McCoy,
If you know you have gone through worse, maybe you should go to another website for those withdrawls. But DONOT minimize our real struggle to get off this intense brain abuseing drug. Sounds like you just want a pity party. We cymbalta suffers need to support one another, and to us this IS the worst thing we have been on then off of…so you need to step off! AS for the rest of us , It will get better , been over 2 months now I am feeling better every day.
November 12th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Thanks Keri! You couldn’t have said it better about the raw nerve endings being exposed. I FEEL everything right now. It’s good most of the time but anything sad or depressing, negative, etc. just makes the tears start rolling and it’s impossible to turn off. I can cry while I’m at home but I can’t be this way at work. I have a new job and I have to pay attention to details and be acurate. Hard to see anything thru the tears as well as I’m trying not to flaunt my personal business in front of everyone. It’s a new job (only a couple of months)so I don’t want to do anything that might send me home or lose the job. Having hormonal hootannanies on top of this doesn’t help much either. Thanks for all the info and guess what feels best is just being able to talk about it and getting some support. Good luck to everyone. It’s just good to know that I’m not alone with this and maybe I’m not crazy afterall….well….maybe a little but a fun kind of crazy.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Teri-
the crying is very difficult to get past. I have to tell you that during that stretch in my “recovery” from Cymbalta *now a month off of it…I just let myself cry…and it’s like weeping and wailing crying..it’s not just a few tears spurting out…it’s really difficult to embrace this time that you’re feeling most vulnerable, but my comparision to people in my life is that these emotions feel like nerve endings…raw and exposed and the slightest touch to them sends shockwaves through your being. the cymbalta had been, for me anyway, like caps covering those nerve endings from exposure…
so, i think it’s important to let yourself feel these emotions as raw and seemingly unpredictable as they may be because you’ll feel stronger once you have established a tolerance for how readily available they are now that you’re off the medication. Does anyone else agree with me on this?
I have to tell you that I’m feeling better and better each day…i’ve posted on here since the very early days of coming off of cymbalta and it’s helped a lot to be on here reading what others are going through and to offer support to each other. It’s (this site) certainly saved me from my lack of understanding and feeling so alone.
I wish you the best and agree that a good diet and exercise help tremendously…also, if you’re into expressing yourself through art or writing or music, now’s a good time, and if you generally don’t do that form of expression, try it! it might serve as a healthy release for you! it did for me!
take care, and best wishes!
November 12th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I went through withdrawals for a week and i couldnt stand it… My doctor gave me a short term prescription for Zoloft and that took the symptoms away. Its been a while since ive posted on here… So update is, im off everything and feeling fine.. Ive gained 5 pounds for some reason, but i think that was a side effect of the zoloft, so hopefully now that im off the weight will go away…
Good luck to everyone… Its hard but in the end its worth it to be off this type of medication.. In my opinion any medication that makes you feel like this and effects your brain so bad when your off the medicine shouldnt be legal..
November 12th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Thank God I’ve found this site and all of your comments. I’ve tapered off of the Cymbalta after being on it for about 4-6 years. Last Tuesday I couldn’t stop crying. Doc wanted to do the easy fix of having me go back on it. I did for two days then stopped. Been doing a lot of research and finding information about nutrition like avoiding gluten that feeds depression (according to one article) but point being, I’ve decided I’m doing lots of exercise and trying to find a better diet. So when can I expect to stop doing all this crying? It just doesn’t stop. I feel very lonely, turned the news off and only watching comedy programs and listening to lots of music mostly New Age as it doesn’t have many words to think about. I can just brim over in a heartbeat and it’s quite embarrassing and hard to stop. So I’ve been off of Cymbalta for one week. What advice can you give me to stop the tears. I’m tolerating the other withdrawal symtoms; just keeping in mind that the brain has to get itself back in balance. Found another article about withdrawal but it started out telling us about our emotions and feelings. Let them out! Well, yesterday at work I got upset over another employee having one of his “anger moments” that I couldn’t say anything so found the more I held my frustrations in the worse the crying was and longer it took to get over. I don’t want to cry all the time. Have any of you experienced this as well? I’m trying a whole new healthier diet, exercise, music, sleep and yes I have the most wonderful loving patient dog in the world. So how long do the waterworks continue and what can I do to avoid them or cut it short?Thanks and good luck to all of you. I had no idea this was going to be so hard but I’m stickin’ to it.
November 11th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Linda, Get some v-8 splash with ACAI berry in it some omega fish oil capsule (odor free ones) and Natures Bounty Melatonin at 5 mgs max strength found at meijer all natural tablets. have him take one tablet just before sleeping. I have had the best sleep I have had in years, and I wake up refreshed not groggy…I quit 120 mgs of cymbalta cold turkey about eight weeks ago, it will get better, sleep is key, but stop the nyquil, just more drugs. vitamins and supplements and sleep lots of sleep to help his body heal. Cymbalta is a poison.
November 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I am going through this right now. I was taking 60mg 3X a day. When visiting Pittsburgh, PA - the state wouldn’t fill my doctor’s prescription saying that the legal limit on 60mg was only 2x a day. So I’ve dealt with mini withdrawls off and on when I couldn’t obtain my regular dosage. I don’t know anyone else on this high of a dose and it would be a nice change to be able to talk to someone else that has had the same experiences that I have.
I credit my psychopharmacologist from Columbia University for saving my life. He would NEVER suggest that anyone go cold turkey from these drugs but once again I didn’t have the money to get my prescriptions and I ran out of options. After 10 years of being on various mental drugs I might be at a place where I can stop my medications once and for all.
In the past I had the “brain zaps” but I would be “fuzzy” more than anything. I would sleep a lot when I was fuzzy sometimes because I was exhausted and sometimes because it was out of habit. I feel as though I have a cold but not the flu. I have spent the past 4 days sleeping long periods at a time and things seem to be getting better.
So my withdrawls so far have not been too horrible. But I know better than to think I’m getting off easy - who knows what tomorrow brings?
I feel for anyone going through this and also for their families. Glad I found this site. I am going to add it to my endless list of favorites on this subject. Thank you for sharing - it means more than you will ever know!!!
And my hearts go out to our soldiers who are given medication in Iraq without being properly diagnosed. Many are given drugs with the hope of preventing depression!! They are doing more damange than anyone is admitting.
I wish I had kept a detailed diary during the past 10 years. I always thought about it and it is my biggest regret.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
been on cymbalta for about 4 months now, started off good and felt great. guess that is why when i started not feeling well i thought it was something else. went to the doctor and had many blood tests done and they couldn’t find anything wrong. thought i was losing my mind!!!!! i had shaking of the hands, which as a barber isn’t a good thing. had to leave work many times cause i was shaking and had a terrible dizzieness and felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head.
iam tired all the time and am having extreme mood swings.
found this site and must say iam relieved to know iam not the only one having these problems. but scared as hell to go off this stuff after all i have read. i just was suffering from some anxiety and nowiam a mess!!!!!
going to doc today to give him a piece of my mind!!!!!
November 10th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I have been off Cymbalta since 10/24. The brain zaps went away for about two days and then returned. Will the “ZAPS” go away for good? Has anyone had this happen to them? Mood swings are diminishing, memory has not improved, but joint and neuropathy pain are present. I started taking this crap for the nueropathy pain and now that is back along with joint pains that I did not have before taking this Cymbalta. I can’t lift my arms above my shoulder level without pain. I have to use a step stool to reach objects above my head due to this pain. This withdrawal is worse than I first wrote about so I am interested in a lawsuit is anyone is sueing.
November 9th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I am so thankful I stumbled upon this ’site! I have been slowly coming off Cymbalta and it wasn’t until I was down to one pill a week that the withdrawal symptoms became unbearable. I had gone from 60mg. daily, to 30 mg. daily (several months on each dosage) and when I was sure I was ready to wean off, began 30 mg. every other day. I didn’t want to “undo” all that the medication had done for me, so I stayed on every other day for about 6 weeks. Then I went to every 3 days for about 5 weeks, and finally twice a week for about 4 weeks. I have never liked being on medication, but my depression had been so severe and debilitating that I figured, “Since I have invested this time in getting better, then I had better come off of Cymbalta slowly so in the long run it was really worth it.” Well, once I was down to twice a week I got really “itchy” to just be done, so I went down to once a week. I never had any brain zaps (thank God! - my heart goes out to you out there experiencing this - I can’t imagine dealing with that!) but I had severe fatigue, achiness and exhaustion. I felt dizzy as well. Honestly, I thought something was seriously wrong with me (it never occured to me that it was withdrawal) and then I was anxious, emotional and teary all the time! Little did I know this was a side effect!
Well, I know this is lengthy, but I hope someone else will find comfort in the details, as I did in all of the sharing before me. I was so desparate to know I was OK, that I was thirsting for MORE detail! I don’t feel any animosity toward Cymbalta, its creators or its prescribing doctors. For me, it was practically a life or death decison to go on, and it gave ME back to myself and my family. All of you here - those suffering in the grips of whatever illness makes medication necessary; and all of you coming off, at the end of this journey and moving on to better things - YOU ARE IN MY PRAYERS!
November 8th, 2008 at 3:25 am
While I do understand this site is helping all of you through withdrawal effects I am a bit confused. I have read nearly 500 posts and all I’m hearing is extremely mild side effects and not really withdrawal symptoms. Yes, yes if it makes any of you feel better write to me in all caps about how miserable you or your significant other are. I just went through Cymbalta withdrawals:
Flu-like body aches and headaches,
the infamous “brain zaps”
dizziness and other balance problems,
cold and tingly hands, feet, face and lips,
extreme sensitivity to any sensation-touch-smell-hearing-taste-smell are all hyper sensitive,
no appetite, fat stuffy head syndrome,
a sensation of palpitations (explained to me as not a palpitation when presented to the attending physician at the ER), random nerve twitches, concentration problems, and some anger issues…
Depression is fairly prevalent as well.
Despite all of these problems I would hardly call this a
“withdrawal from hell”
nor does “I feel like I’m dying” apply.
And this humorous but over dramatic description “I would rather give birth to triplets - naturally, without any pain medication of any sort - in the back of New York taxi cab that does most of its business escorting drunken club-goers home, with only the help of a driver who doesn’t speak English, than go through Cymbalta-withdrawal symptoms again” actually improves my mood!
And anything resembling any of these actual descriptions of the effects of weaning from Cymbalta seem extraordinarily over done. why?
Because I have had pain clinic doctors send me into true withdrawals by taking away my opioid pain meds cold turkey and sent home to suffer for mistakes in drug screenings not once but twice!
The first time, due to the analgesic patch known as Fentanyl (100mg patch every 48 hours) (Fentanyl is an opioid analgesic 100 times more potent than morphine that is designed to deliver pain relief over a 72 hour period.)It succeeded in killing my appetite 101% I had lost 35 lbs even though I expressed concern every appointment (for 3 months) leading up to the day the pain doc screamed at me that he is not a GP and it is not his job to keep track of my weight. Next day I blacked out while attempting to get my mail. At the emergency room the on-duty physician prescribed an IV for nutrition and fluids, send home with Marinol (synthetic THC) for appetite. Two days later back at the pain doctor, I handed the nurse a slip of paper from emergency room physician describing the episode and the prescribed Marinol. Doctor ordered a drug screen. Return for appointment next week, naturally had failed drug screen, explained situation with the Marinol and the note he had from emergency room physician and asked if the drug screen could not decipher the difference between synthetic THC and marijuana he said yes had they known in advance…. Sent me home with no pain medication and nothing for withdrawals…
I would trade EVERY symptom combined from the Cymbalta for any, single one of the withdrawals from the Fentanyl patches which included:Extreme abdominal pain, severe diarrhea (every 20 minutes for 4 days straight)
anxiety to the point I honestly thought I was insane, irritability (for a lack of a better description of being rip roaring insanely mad because my eyelashes touched the pillow I was using and other now laughable irritating things), tremors to the point of biting through the tip of my tongue, true palpitations, sweating to the point of perspiration pooling in my belly button and neck in-between retchings, muscle aches like I entered a triathlon with many large vice grips attached to each individual muscle, violent vomiting to the point of cracking several ribs on my right side, rapid panting for three days straight (of course between vomiting and groaning it was hard to do anything else as far as breathing). Oh yeah, and of course the incredible pain from three ruptured disks, impeded sciatic nerve, arthritis in the spine, two torn ligaments and one ligament torn from the thigh bone that I was prescribed the medication for in the first place.
I will at this time not repeat the symptoms from the second episode,(this time involving withdrawal from morphine) nor the circumstance that brought it on…
This is due to a current lawsuit for gross negligence, fraud, and malpractice due to a drug addicted nurse’s actions and handling of my urine sample. (My lawyer says I can state “Make certain you sign your bottle and the seal is intact before leaving it in the receptacle(little cupboard) at the Dr. Office”
So to sum it up in something you can all relate to? I know from your point of view life is hell right now, but remember, it will end, you will get your life back, and a positive attitude (yes it takes a great effort)despite your brain and body telling you exactly the opposite, will make things go much better both now and later (in a few weeks or months)when you have to face the people that are putting up with you now.
Oh drink plenty of fluids too!!
Best of health to you.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Hi everyone, (Mellissa Get some supplements, there is a lot of nature supplements that can help take the edge of and help calm down the anxiety. it helps to start taking them before you taper off.) My daughter says she finally is feeling better. Her doctor at (A place of Hope) has her taking DL Pheine. Its a supplement. He thought that Cymbalta messed to much with one side of the brain and the DL Pheine would help balance her. She say she feels really clear for the first time in a long time. I saw her today and thought that she seemed clear and her mood was stable for the first time in three weeks.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I watched my boyfriend go through Cymbalta withdrawals and it was horrible. He tried cold turkey which was a mistake. Then he tried to wean himself off. Weaning was not any better than cold turkey for him. The brain zaps and fullness in his head was more than he could handle. He tried Wellbutrin to gradually come off of it and it helped some. We heard of taking Benedryl to help with the side effects but that didn’t work either. He was having some really strange dreams at night and not getting enough sleep so in order to get some sleep he took a dose of Nyquil one night and actually had a pretty good day the next day. He noticed that when he missed the Nyquil he would have brain zaps again. And his aggitation level was really high. He took the Nyquil again and it seemed to help. We finally saw the pattern that whenever he didn’t take Nyquil he had problems. When he did take it he did better. We don’t really know what it is about it that helped but it did. For him anyway. It may be worth a try for some of you. I know it was hell for him without it. After several weeks of fighting the Cymbalta beast he’s doing much better. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.
November 4th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Whoa there pardner, this is for that guy who said he’s taking 60mg every other day. Cymbalta is chemically very similar to Paxil, both are very short-acting drugs. You’ll spare yourself some crazy ups and downs by tapering the dose a bit daily instead of doing the every-other-day thing.
Strength to all who’re enduring w/d’s.