How long will I be going through Cymbalta withdrawals?

Losing weight I just put back on from cancer. I am angry. After all these years and a lawsuit can they keep prescribing this? And we aren’t told anything. Everyone should be complaining. To the FDA. Online anywhere. Social media. Seriously. I would have wanted to know this. This forum goes back at least 6 years! That’s insane. And on top of that some people were on a very large dose. I have withdrawn off narcotics easier than this. That was for cancer and osteomyelitis in my jaw. Very rare. This is worse than all that. Not exaggerating. But I pray. I meditate. I know it’s helping. Believe it. It is still very tough. It’s been about 2 weeks for me. The last two days were somewhat better. But now I’m getting the neck pain and headaches. I believe it affects people very differently because of dose and how long you were on it. We deserve something for this. Other people got money. But they stilll aren’t really reporting how horrible this is. And even docs don’t know. Tell everyone you can. I am. Good luck. If you have strong will and a good faith in God he will help. Blessings. Just know it will end. I wrote to the drug company and talked with them. I gave them the advice of making 15 mg , 10 mg, and 5 mg pills to help. I went off too fast. But I did taper. If I knew this I would have tapered much slower than I did. I’m freaking out! It’s very scary. They should have to pay us. God bless. Hope most of us can do this at least. I read many couldn’t. Boy that ruins your life. They weren’t feeling good on it and can’t get off it. That’s just so wrong.

There are videos on YouTube that you can watch to show you how it’s done. Others have done the weighing taper which can also be seen on YouTube. Some people have done their taper by getting it done at a compounding pharmacy. Doing your taper any of these ways your ‘withdrawals’ will be minimal. They now call the tapering process ‘The Discontinuation Syndrome’ so it has finally been recognized. Some people have been able to go a bit faster and some have had to go slower. You have to listen to what your body is telling you. It will let you know if you’re going too fast. I know that this takes longer than what your doctor will probably tell you and what you have heard but it will be worth it to go slower. These types of medications are powerful. That’s why there are groups with thousands of people trying to get off them. I am down to 10 mg now and almost every side effect is gone. I am still tired most of the time and I get anxiety a bit. It’s crazy that I was prescribed Cymbalta for chronic nerve pain but it caused me to have anxiety and depression. And it didn’t even help with the nerve pain. Sometimes I have taken a break from my tapering; like around Thanksgiving, Christmas or if I know that I have to go out. I’m hoping to be completely off Cymbalta by early next year (2019). I hope this helps someone to get Cymbalta free without having to go through the nightmare that some have had to go through. Take care and I wish you all the best. Cindy

I bought a mini scale capable of measuring as little as 1 mg. Each capsule can be opened carefully by sliding a small, non-sharp object from the white side under the blue side and when use your fingers to twist it apart in two half capsules. You empty the pellets slowly on the scale until you reach the desired number of milligrams and then pour the pellets back into the white capsule and close it again with the other half. Please notice that number of mg pellets is not equal to mg Cymbalta.

I went down 1 mg per day, which I realized was too fast. After reaching 15 mg, the above symptoms started to surface again and I spent all of yesterday in bed. Now I will take at least a week on 15 mg to become stabilized again and reduce the symptoms. Afterwards I’ll try to go from 15 to 10 mg over 10 days, 10 to 5 mg over 15 day and finally from 5 to 0 mg over 20 days.

Hopefully this will do the trick.

Unfortunately, there is nothing magical that makes it better other than talking about it with people who understand and giving yourself time. I would write my symptoms down every day with a 1-10 rating and as the days went by, seeing progress gave me hope. I also increased my talk therapy to twice a week. This is so hard and you are so brave!! It’ll get better even when you don’t think it will.

Your doctor has you on 5 mg Lexapro. You’ll likely require 10 or 20 mg Lexapro to get relief. My daughter is a psychiatrist (although not mine) and tells me many doctors fear giving patients too much seratonin blockers at the same time, causing something rare called seratonin overload. I believe that you are on no Cymbalta and only 5 mg Lexapro so should consider calling your doctor, report how you feel, and ask if he can increase your Lexapro dose. Right now your brain chemistry needs more Lexapro, and you can safely move to 20 mg a day, 10 if your doc is overly cautious.
I stopped asking my primary for help and went to a psychiatrist, the teaching schools accept Medicare and insurance and have good psychiatrists.
Best of luck to you. Cymbalta was great but NOT worth these cessation symptoms. I hope the Lexapro works for you. It helped me for 10 years, and my daughter (yup, the psychiatrist) has been on Lexapro 15 yrs.