Cymbalta ?

[aaMizer720]

Anyone familiar with cymbalta ? Been on it 60 mg 3 years. Seems like I go 25 hours without it I get brain zaps. I take it every AM around 830. But if I take it at 930, that hour I feel brain zaps. So wierd. Anyone else experience quick withdrawal symptoms ?

 

[Båtmannen]

Cymbalta is known for more severe withdrawal symptoms than SSRIs.

That's not ther most important question though. The question is: why are you taking it? Are you taking it for it's value as a medication or for fear of withdrawal symptoms? It seems as if you're taking it just to avoid the WD ... and that is very problematic.

Do you need the medication or not?


I have never felt any withdrawal symptoms, except higher depression and anxiety, from any anti-depressant at all, and I have used them all, from fluoxetine to anafranil to venlafaxine to vortioxetine.

 

[aaMizer720]

I've been on the cymbalta for anxiety and panic disorder for 3 years

 

[Båtmannen]

I've been on the cymbalta for anxiety and panic disorder for 3 years

Yes, and? Do you still need it?

 

[JessFR]

I was on it for 5 years or so. I got off it during the peak of my heroin addiction without noticing any withdrawal symptoms at all. I'd been spending all my money on drugs and wasn't buying the cymbata very often and was taking it more and more irregularly and stretching it out. By the time I'd stopped taking it entirely I'd pretty much tapered off it. Barely noticed any discontinuation symptoms at all.

I count it as a surprising upside of an otherwise extremely dark time in my life. For the time being I don't plan to get back on it unless my depression significantly deteriorates as I gather it's not usually so effortless to get off of. But it apparently can be done if you taper down slowly. I did barely trying.

I did get withdrawal symptoms from not taking it on occasions where I had been taking it consistently for months then missed a dose for some reason, but when I actually got off it I'd been taking it so irregularly for so long little by little I didn't notice anything at all. Probably slowly took it less and less often and took less of it by taking some of the contents out if the capsules that I'd effectively tapered down over 4-6 months before I stopped entirely.

Given how unpleasent people say it normally is, like I said, I count it as a lucky consequence of a very otherwise bleak time.

 

[Pilll_head]

I had major anxiety problems and I felt that the Cymbalta helped quite a bit. Personally, if you feel that you are getting a benefit from it then I don't see any reason to stop using it, especially for fear of withdrawals if you eventually go off it. I have to take Ambien every night without exception if I want to get any sleep at all. I asked my doc if I should be concerned about this and he said he was OK with it because not getting proper sleep is a much worse situation than having to take a med every night. Same thing with anxiety - when it's not controlled it is completely debilitating. Ambien has a small risk of abuse potential, Cymbalta has none at all.

60 mg a day is a fairly moderate dose, the normal range is 30-120 mg/day. And when I skipped it I would notice the brain zaps after about 24 h. If you ever do decide to go off the Cymbalta I would recommend tapering to 30 mg for 2 weeks then stop. The brain zaps are unpleasant but they will stop as your body adjusts to not having the med.