Is it easier to get off meth than Cymbalta?

It can take up to 3 months to get off of anti-depressants.

My mom quit cold turkey, no problem.

I've tried and felt so horrible, it's not worth it.

The brain zaps are miserable. I actually found that celexa helps me
with IBS, so I'm now a lifer.

is that everyone reacts to these drugs differently. As others pointed
out, some people have really terrible side-effects like you've had
while others have none at all. There's no way of knowing who will
react until they are already on them. By then, the damage is done.

I too have experienced phsychiatric professionals who only wanted to
write a script and actually got indignant when I challenged the logic
in relying so heavily on pharmaceutical interventions. You have a
right to chose how you get treatment. I would consider seeking other
professional help to get off these and back on track. If not your
personal M.D., another psych professional.

It's adding insult to injury that after all you've been through you
have to suffer this nightmare on top of it!

Thank you for all your answers.

Thing is, I am no longer sad about my baby. I have felt for a long
time that she is at rest and although it was a tragedy, I am at peace
with her death.

What I feel now is not simple depression. I truly believe it is
withdrawals, as I have no reason to be miserable and every reason to
be happy...yet I feel physically so bad that I do not know if I am
strong enough to get through this. The loss of my baby, and I hope
this does not sound callous, was easier than THIS.

I feel that I was grieving, and even hysterical when she died. I'd
give anything had I received counselling without drugs. I was just
drugged into a stupor, to be honest. Thank God I have been able to
kick Seroquel...but this Cymbalta is so much harder.

I have a good life, I want to get back to enjoying it. While I have
been on meds, I have felt so bland and unfeeling. On meds, hollow and
empty feeling yet easy for other people to deal with; docile.
Withdrawing, horribly unstable. Beofre meds: successful military
linguist with a 10 year career and no history of mental illness.

It's not me. It's the Cymbalta.

I recommend checking out a book called The Antidepressant Solution: A
Step-by-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal,
Dependence, and "Addiction" by Joseph Glenmullen. It has a
comprehensive plan for stopping drugs in the SSRI and similar
families. The case studies he uses follow 6 people on Paxil who had
different levels of difficulty in stopping (from no symptoms at all to
severe), but it discusses all the other related drugs, and the program
can be used for any of them. It includes a checklist of potential
symptoms and other tools to track your problems and progress. I found
it very helpful partly just because I knew better what to expect.
There are a lot of symptoms that you wouldn’t ordinarily connect to
the withdrawal, and I’ve read of cases where people ended up on more
medication because they and their doctor assumed that they had just
coincidentally developed another unrelated issue.

I stopped taking Effexor about a month ago and it is notorious for
withdrawal effects. I had some symptoms but for the most part it was
uneventful. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised. I took a week of
vacation from work, though, just in case, and I was not comfortable
driving for most of it. I still have some issues that may or may not
be related; this Sunday will be 5 weeks since my last dose so it’s
hard to tell. The irritability/rage certainly sounds familiar (the
heat and humidity - and resultant lack of sleep - this week in NJ sure
didn't help). Mostly I had dizziness/”disequilibrium” and trouble
sleeping; plus the first few days I had a headache. I walked around my
apartment holding on to walls for the first few days.

There are some good sites out there for information and support; the
trick is finding them without scaring yourself half to death with all
the horror stories.

Make sure to keep in touch with your doctor. If you don't have a
mental health professional, ask for a referral (especially if you are
having suicidal thoughts). You may be weaning off too fast; you might
need to go back up a bit on the dose and take more time to adjust. I
don't know what kind of pill Cymbalta comes in, or what dosage levels.
(Effexor XR can't be split, as it's a capsule, and the smallest dose
it comes in is 37.5mg). I was at 75mg for 6 years. I went down to 37.5
for a little over a month before dropping it altogether. Most of the
“standard” advice I’ve read says to lower the dosage every week or
two. For some people the standard dosage reduction options are simply
too big of a jump.

Do your best to eat well, get some exercise (slow and gentle, of
course), and get enough rest. You can do this…. Good luck.

I wonder if these side affects are the result of your body not
physically having the ingredients, or if it is a psychological thing.
Taking the drug has helped you overcome depression, so your mind may
think you need it or you will be depressed.
I wonder if the OP's doctor switched the Cymbalta to a placebo, what
would happen? Would the side affects continue as a result of the drug
being physically absent, or would the OP still feel the same as with
the drug because her mind knows not to be depressed because she has
popped a pill... For a college health class I took, we had to watch a
whole video on this, and the people who took the placebo pills felt
the same as the people on the actual antidepressant drug.

I had a hard time coming off Paxil (twice) but the second time I did
it a lot more gradually and that was better. I would recommend
drinking a TON of water, eating as healthily as possible, and talking
to your doctors about whether Benadryl might help with the brain zaps.
It made a HUGE difference for me -- it was well worth being a little
zooey in exchange for the zaps being gone.

I'm very sorry to hear about your difficulties with Cymnbalta. I know
it doesn't help you, but only a very few suffer the kind of side
affects you are suffering.

Cymbalta has been very helpful to me with no side affects whatsoever.
My point is that while it is awful that you are going through this,
Cymbalta is a very good drug for many people. I'm not a huge
proponent of taking meds, but sometimes it is needed. These drugs
help many, many people, but a number, like you, do not react well at
all.

Cymbalta, like other depression meds are not addictive in the same way
narcotics are, but you must wean youself off of it under the care of a
MD. If you've explained your concerns to your doctor and he/she isn't
willing to take you off of it then its time to find another doctor.
Do not let your doctor push you into taking something you believe is
harming you. Insist on a change!


Good luck.

http://tinyurl.com/yukg62

It's #5.6.

Your letter really got me. I care about how your sememster goes,
Remember that you need to v-e-r-y gradually decrease your dose. Come
back and let us know

www.cymbalta.com/

I clicked on the "Already on Cymbalta", which led to good info. Check
it out. You may find some good suggestions.

Please, Please find a support group. It could be a group of friends,
or a grief group.

Get in to see the best psychiatrist available. This professional can
help with the depression and can prescribe medications. Hopefully, a
psychiatrist would know the safest way to remove this drug from a
patient.

The symptoms you describe concern me greatly. Please, please, please
see someone, and take a printout of your letter so that he can work
for your mental health.

Please come back and update us. Your letter grabbed my heart, and I'm
sure I'm not the only one.

I am so sorry for your loss.

Can you find a psychiatrist, who can assist with the therapy as well
as the medication? A psychiatrist is an MD, and he may be able to
help you wean off the Cymbalta while enabling you to function.

I just checked the drugstore.com entry for Cymbalta. Please be sure
that you are under the care of a doctor you're comfortable
with--again, a psychiatrist?

You mention college. Can you get counseling on campus, with a
referral to a specialist who can wean off the drug. Please don't just
stop cold turkey.

A really good pharmacist *may* be able to give some direction on what
other doctors have done in this situation. I hope you can find a good
friend or two, who can also help you through this time.

I'm praying that you find the help you need.

That is correct, doctors are pill pushers.

This will only increase if obamacare passes.

I would seek out natural rememdies first, very few doctors do this.

They prescribe one drug for this, another to treat that side effect,
and another to treat the other side effect the second drug caused.
Pretty soon you are a zombie.


Good Day

First of all, I am so very sorry for the loss of your baby. I can't
imagine the pain you went through and still go through.

Second, please, go doctor shopping to find one who is able, willing,
and enthusiastic about getting you off of this drug. My dear friend
David is a psychiatrist, and he is one of those shrinks who could help
someone like you: He's all for using drugs with talk therapy, then
weaning a person off and helping them get their life and mental health
back on track, and drug-free.

More like David are out there. I suggest you call a local mental
health hotline or center and ask for some referrals. Don't be afraid
to visit one doctor after the other. I know it's a huge chunk of
time, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Good luck to you.