I have been on Cymbalta about six months. In the beginning, it was amazing. I have never felt so 'normal.' I was able to clean house without feeling desperate and overwhelmed and like everything is useless. I woke up feeling pretty happy instead of like I could not even contemplate the idea of living through the entire day. However, now I am back to where I was before, the stuff is useless and expensive and I cannot afford to keep taking it when it just doesn't help.

I saw online that it can be as bad to get off as Effexor, and getting off of Effexor was agony for me. Any experiences, tips, suggestions? My doctor seems relatively clueless.

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by My kids are cool

I have been on Cymbalta about six months. In the beginning, it was amazing. I have never felt so 'normal.' I was able to clean house without feeling desperate and overwhelmed and like everything is useless. I woke up feeling pretty happy instead of like I could not even contemplate the idea of living through the entire day. However, now I am back to where I was before, the stuff is useless and expensive and I cannot afford to keep taking it when it just doesn't help.

I saw online that it can be as bad to get off as Effexor, and getting off of Effexor was agony for me. Any experiences, tips, suggestions? My doctor seems relatively clueless.

Out of curiosity, did your doctor suggest increasing your dose? (I just started Cymbalta a week ago, so can't help you with your main question, just wondering.)

I did not even mention that. I just called and left a message saying I wanted to quit it. I guess I should have asked about the increase thing first. Thanks!

[simplydivine1030]

I decreased VERY slowly.. there are a lot of wierd side effects when getting off this med. Hated cymbalta, made me manic and paranoid :/ good luck!!

[elevatedsoul]

i stopped cymbalta cold turkey 2 times, from 60mg daily (once in IP, once on my own)

i had a bit of dizziness and brain zaps, other than that i was happy to be off it

Are you taking 60 mg per day? If for some reason you're taking 30 mg/day, then an increase to 60 mg/day might be helpful.

If you're taking 60 and feel it isn't helping, if you switch to another SNRI drug like Pristiq or Fetzima, you will probably avoid most or all of the withdrawal that way.

If you do a web search on "Cymbalta withdrawal" or "Effexor withdrawal", you can find lots of info. Most people seem to do it by dumping out some of the beads in the capsule and lowering their dose gradually that way.

I did a Cymbalta taper last year from 120 mg/day to 60 mg/day and it took me about five months. I took it at my own pace. Even at that slow pace, I still had a significant amount of anxiety each time I lowered the dose. I used Vistaril/hydroxyzine 25 mg for the anxiety.

Some people count the beads in the capsule. I wasn't that energetic - I just eyeballed it. I have read that some people got a compounding pharmacy to open the capsules and weigh the doses and set up a taper schedule for them.

I didn't want to stop taking Cymbalta completely because it does help my fibromyalgia pain.

Some people who are stopping it entirely switch over to 10 mg Prozac at some point during their taper and take that for a month then stop it.

The nurse practitioner that I was seeing last year suggested a dosage drop of 10% each time and to drop the dose again when I felt comfortable doing so. That's 10% of your current dose each time.

If you end up just switching to another antidepressant, just make sure it's not one that doesn't affect serotonin at all. I once had a doctor switch me from Effexor to Wellbutrin and that was miserable.

Back during the winter, I was very depressed and felt like Cymbalta was doing nothing for me. I was having very bad sleep problems, too. My doctor added low dose mirtazipine/Remeron at bedtime for the sleep problems, and I have been improving steadily ever since.

I also started going to psychotherapy again.

I hope you find something that helps and get off the Cymbalta without too much trouble if that's what you end up doing.