Misc Cymbalta... Is It Not Working?

[kanyeknievel]

So I stopped taking drugs, got on suboxone 22 days ago and been clean since. I was put on 60mg cymbalta as well on that day. Up until about 20 days clean I have been feeling good and pretty happy and content, as apposed to how I used to feel, and after that I've been feeling not as good...

Is it possibly the cymbalta finally kicking in and working against me? The past two days I have felt a bit worse, and it may be a coincidence , but i was told cymbalta starts working within 3 weeks and its been 3 weeks about when i started to feel not as good. Is it because of the Cymbalta?

How can I tell for sure if Cymbalta is the reason, what should I do? I haven't told my phsyc, besides about 2 weeks ago, thats i've been feeling good. But I think the reasons I was feeling good and a lot bette was because I started to stay clean, and was on suboxone. So both of those things come into play in increasing my mood, so its really hard to tell if the Cymbalta was actually working. Get what I am saying?

Basically what Im saying is I have three things that were possibly the reasons for my better mood, no more drugs, suboxone, and cymbalta. I know the suboxone definitely helped and not doing drugs, but I don't know for sure if the cymbalta is helping because of those other two things that make me feel good, so its really hard to tell what the Cymbatla is actually doing.

I don't know if Cymbalta is the reasoning behind my decrease in mood, but it seems like that would be the case since I've been taking it long enough for it the start working.

So what do you all think about this? Should I keep taking the cymbalta and see if my mood keeps lowering until I see my doctor and tell him? OR should I start to stop taking cymbalta and see what happens to my mood? Kinda sucks, Im pretty sure I have some chemical imbalance for depression because I have no reason to be unhappy, its just like the mood decreases by itself without any effects from the surronding enviroment.

IF this is in the wrong section of the site, please move this mods.

Sorry if you guys dont understand, but i just dont know if the cymbalta was helping, if this is coincidental, and if the cymbalta is working against me.

P.S last year I was on lexapro and stopped after I got a lot worse, figured a different anti depressant would work better, but i have no idea for sure.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

It is possible that a SNRI is making you feel worse.

 

[kanyeknievel]

SSRI didnt work a year ago, so I was up for trying a different type. Should I continue taking it for a few days and see if the feeling presists? If it does, should I try stop taking them? Is 22days of being on 60mg cymbalta going to cause withdrawl or should i taper or something? If i taper im not sure how to do it since its a capsule

 

[Nib]

I nearly lost my mind on Effexor after about a week only so they can definitely make you worse. Maybe the Suboxone is also not working as good now in boosting your mood since you been on it for 23 days.

 

[kanyeknievel]

I nearly lost my mind on Effexor after about a week only so they can definitely make you worse. Maybe the Suboxone is also not working as good now in boosting your mood since you been on it for 23 days.

I don't know really what the cause could be, since their are a few things it can be. So I'm not sure exactly what I should do, and my next phsyc appointment is friday i believe. Rather not have it get worse, but don't know what I should do. Seems like no anti-depressant ever works, which is why I try to avoid taking them but I felt this could work or something. Really don't know what the cause is for this

 

[kanyeknievel]

Okay so I really think that its the cymbalta causing me to feel a lot worse than I have been. So I decided today that Im going to get off of it asap. But i dont know what I should do.

Im very relieved to find out that ive only been taking 30mg , not 60 mg a day so it wont be as hard as i thought. I took it for 22days and I dont know whether I can stop cold turkey after only 22 days or not, so I took the capsule and opened it and took half of the little balls and then put them back in the capsule and swallowed it. so i took 15mg about today.

Is this safe? Or should I just stop taking it? I figured halfing the dose to 15 for a week or so then stopping would be best. But i dont know.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Okay so I really think that its the cymbalta causing me to feel a lot worse than I have been. So I decided today that Im going to get off of it asap. But i dont know what I should do.

Im very relieved to find out that ive only been taking 30mg , not 60 mg a day so it wont be as hard as i thought. I took it for 22days and I dont know whether I can stop cold turkey after only 22 days or not, so I took the capsule and opened it and took half of the little balls and then put them back in the capsule and swallowed it. so i took 15mg about today.

Is this safe? Or should I just stop taking it? I figured halfing the dose to 15 for a week or so then stopping would be best. But i dont know.

Just stop taking it. If you start to feel incredibly horrible and/or have brain zaps, you can take some again in order to taper.

Since it isn't tablets it may not be easy to taper but you can still get off of it cold turkey if you can get through it.

If not, then try to get some Prozac and taper with that.

 

[matchpoint88]

Cymbalta

Hey,

I have been taking Cymbalta for about 2 months, also to try and boost my mood, along with trying to help decrease some of my nerve pain from a sports injury. The first few days I thought it was a miracle, then as the doc raised my dose as it did nothing for nerve pain, I started to sink lower and lower. I was returning from a trip last week in Atlanta, and as soon as I got home I literally felt like I had nothing in me, so low that I just felt hollow. I walked in my house and didn't know what to do, I just literally stood and just looked around confused. I am normally the type to always be OCD and to have something, anything to do, but on Cymbalta i've sunk. Ironically for the first three weeks on it, "I work on wall st." my performance at work was insane, career best stuff, but even while doing that I felt depressed as shit. I got addicted to adderall because of wall st., then started popping them like candy since ironically they also r the only drug to numb my nerve pain and boost my mood. The hangover is shitty, but I was downing valium like a thirsty nomad who just found a bottle of water in a desert. Needless to say, after passing out one evening from taking it to far I wen to a shrink. I have no f'ing clue what he really does he talks to me for 10 mins, then makes me swallow pills.

I had him lower my dose, and I feel less inclined to run through a brick wall on a bad day, but im still on 60mg a day. My end goal is to get off all drugs, and I prayed that Cymbalta was my silver bullet, regrettably it ended up shooting me in the foot.

If you need any other info on Cymbalta aside from the decrease in mood after the initial boost, i've had a boat load of side effects, all not major, but still blah.

Hope this helps!
M.J.

 

[kanyeknievel]

Thanks for the replys. Captain : Im pretty sure I feel this way from Cymbalta. I hadn't felt like this since the first few days of being clean and I'm pretty sure the cymbalta is causing this because it starts to work , bad or good, in about 3 weeks and it was about that time that i started to feel more shitty.

I feel like i can go cold turkey but i dont know. Ill just take half for a few days, so its not so abrupt, then stop. Im happy i have suboxone to mood lift me from this, even though its not as mood lifting as it used to be.

Matchpoint: That sucks, anti-depressants are very hit or miss, and Im against mediation unless i really really feel like its necessary. I thought I was depressed from a chemical imbalance in my brain because I had no other reasons for being depressed *it was prob from constant drug use* but i also felt it had to be something to a chemical imbalance so i tried this anti-depressant, thinking i needed it. But it feels like I dont need it, maybe a different anti-depressant or maybe im just depressed from the drugs.
Im getting off of my benzos as well, so i hope within a month ill be off of benzos completely and just be on suboxone, and MAYBE something else if i can find a drug that will improve my low-moods.

I just really think this lowered mood is because of cymbalta. Does anyone else think its probably because of CYmbalta?

ALso a year ago i was on a ssri Lexapro and he put me on 40mg within 2 months! and that made me SO worse. There are only a couple more different types of anti-depressants i could try, but the ssri and snri* dont seem to help me.

 

[matchpoint88]

Lexapro is crazy. I've seen it send so many of my colleagues into mania that they end up blowing all of their savings, then make the stupidest, most stubborn investment and social moves, which leads them to end up either in a detox facility thanks to their loving families or just cracked out and gone.

I would highly recommend Instant Release Adderall for a quick mood boost. If you keep the dose low, it will still get the trick done. The XR sucks, but luckily my firm funds many health care companies so we can pretty much self medicate at will. Many, many of my colleagues take low dose adderall for a mood boost and love it, unlike me they don't take 400% more than prescribed. Then again I don't do coke as they do or drink caffeine.

If you haven't tried it long term, I think 10mgs twice a day will get you out of ur funk, hell I even found it in my moms purse for that reasons haha and shes in her 50's.

Back to SSRI's tho, My GF is taking zoloft and said it saved her life, and has been in love with it for the past 3 years. I also know many people who had great results with prozac.

Welleburtin or however it is spelled might also work, it releases dopamine along with serotonin, I have a degree in neuroscience, and although i'm in finance, I would bet big that dopamine is a more potent feel good neurotransmitter than norepinephrine, which Cymbalta releases with the serotonin.

 

[kanyeknievel]

Lexapro is crazy. I've seen it send so many of my colleagues into mania that they end up blowing all of their savings, then make the stupidest, most stubborn investment and social moves, which leads them to end up either in a detox facility thanks to their loving families or just cracked out and gone.

I would highly recommend Instant Release Adderall for a quick mood boost. If you keep the dose low, it will still get the trick done. The XR sucks, but luckily my firm funds many health care companies so we can pretty much self medicate at will. Many, many of my colleagues take low dose adderall for a mood boost and love it, unlike me they don't take 400% more than prescribed. Then again I don't do coke as they do or drink caffeine.

If you haven't tried it long term, I think 10mgs twice a day will get you out of ur funk, hell I even found it in my moms purse for that reasons haha and shes in her 50's.

Back to SSRI's tho, My GF is taking zoloft and said it saved her life, and has been in love with it for the past 3 years. I also know many people who had great results with prozac.

Welleburtin or however it is spelled might also work, it releases dopamine along with serotonin, I have a degree in neuroscience, and although i'm in finance, I would bet big that dopamine is a more potent feel good neurotransmitter than norepinephrine, which Cymbalta releases with the serotonin.

WEll no Im staying clean from everything, 23 days today.

Also its Cymbalta, SNRI i believe its called, not ssri, that did not help either.

ALSO. I talked to a pharmacist today, he said to call my doctor Monday about it, and I told him that I have only been taking 30mg for 22 days and he said I should be okay to stop taking the cymbalta cold turkey.

So for this, I bought 5-htp which I heard is a good idea to do. But i read its very bad to take both at the same time, so how long should I wait until I take 5-htp and how often should I take it, if i should?

 

[matchpoint88]

5-HTP is interesting. but I have no idea about a time line for u that is a question for the doc and pharma. Also if you are gonna go natural load up on Alpha Lipoic Acid, Magnesium, and Cod Liver Oil.

Just my thoughts.

 

[kanyeknievel]

5-HTP is interesting. but I have no idea about a time line for u that is a question for the doc and pharma. Also if you are gonna go natural load up on Alpha Lipoic Acid, Magnesium, and Cod Liver Oil.

Just my thoughts.

I bought magnesium actually today, along with valerian root and I take this every morning ( its possibly THE BEST fish oil/omega 3-6-9 supplement out there imo. Best absorption, best taste, and a lot of omegas and fish oil. Barlean's Total Omega Orang Swirl).

I just don't know a whole lot about 5-htp and I thought I read you shouldn't take it everyday, and definitely don't take it while u take a anti-depressant because of serotonin syndrome

 

[kanyeknievel]

Wow wow wow. This doctor I go to is FUCKING PISSING ME OFF. I hate him so much, he has never done anything for me, besides prescribe suboxone, to make me feel any better at all.

As I said, i was taking cymbalta 30mg for about 20days and the 20days BEFORE that, with my suboxone and everything I was feeling good. At that 20 day mark I just felt a lot worse and the past few days I've been feeling worse than I did and i've had bad thoughts such as sucidial type thoughts because of feeling hopeless.
SO i call him and leave a message, he calls me back and I tell him when it started and he goes "Well then maybe we will just have to add MORE anti-depressants!"

Which made me so mad, and then I asked "Is it possible that the anti-depressants are working AGAINST me since they started kicking in and making me feel worse?"

WHICH HE REPLIES

"No anti-depressants won't do that and make you feel worse, thats not what they do."

And THAT PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF. Why? Because a year ago the SAME doctor prescribed me lexapro and had me at 40MG! within 3 months! And at that point i felt so bad that I didnt take them withdrawaled, then stopped going to him and went to my GP and got off of it and I felt better. SO I KNOW THEY CAN FUCK YOU UP AND MAKE YOU FEEL WORSE. Now he is going to put me on even MORE anti-depressants, which is PROBABLY the reason I feel worse in the first place. But I can't tell him Im taking less and going to stop, cause if I do that he will not prescribe me anything anymore, and hes the only doctor I've talked to that DOES prescribe suboxone.

So basically this doctors a fucking idiot thinking just cause he is a doctor he knows more than me and because im 19 he thinks im retarded or something. He just wants to keep prescribing me more and more anti-depressants when I really feel thats the problem here. And ive read MANY people having WORSE moods FROM anti-depressants, INCUDING ME in the past! So I have to start lying to this doctor just to get prescribed suboxone, and go to ANOTHER phsyciatrist to actually help me with my problems.

The phsyc that im going to make an appointment with doesnt prescribe suboxone cause he isnt certified, but my phsychology teacher told me he is the best person he knows around to go to, and if i were his son he would send him to me. So im going to have to go to this jackass just to get suboxone, and then go to another to actually help me , since all of the refferals I've gotten from my therapist and my psych teacher cant prescribe suboxone.

This fucking sucks, im so god damn pissed off at this doctor.

Even the pharmacist said I should stop taking them if I feel worse like I do. So im going to do that and see how I feel without it, since I haven't been on a big dose or a long enough time to feel any big withdrawal effects.

this is such a fucked situation.

 

[kanyeknievel]

To simplify that last post : Ive been feeling worse because of Cymbalta ( I THINK MOST LIKELY ). So I called my doctor to ask what to do, he said we should up the dose. So basically im stopping taking cymbalta for a few days and see how i react, i didnt take it today and havent had any withdrawal. I was only on 30mg for like 22days before I stopped pretty much.

So im going to stop, if i feel better i wont take it, ill just go to him for suboxone and then find another doctor that knows what the hell he is doing to help me with other medication. Since i cant find a good doctor that will prescribe suboxone as well.

Would you guys say thats the best choice I have? To go to him just for suboxone, lie and go to another physc for other help?