Cymbalta--Does it help with anxiety?

I have a history of generalized anxiety and panic disorder. Over the past 4 or 5 months, I've also been having depression issues, most recently being diagnosed as being in a major depressive episode. Over the past 3-4 years, I've been on assorted SSRIs with varying effectiveness/side effects, and most recently Effexor, which I think made my depression much worse. As of about 10 days ago, I'm on Cymbalta. Either it's already helping my depression (which p-doc said was possible, since I was already on an SNRI), or just stopping Effexor helped it.

So I'm feeling considerably less depressed. However, I'm having issues with anxiety, both generalized and some panic. Not sure if the Cymbalta hasn't kicked in enough for that yet, or if I might need something else for anxiety.

Has anyone on here been prescribed Cymbalta for anxiety? Has it helped? Or has anyone been on Cymbalta and had another med added to help with anxiety? Thanks!

Hi there. I'm on Cymbalta, day 5, 20mg. I took it 4 years ago and it worked for 2 years and then just completely stopped. It took me over 5 months to taper off of it. Then we tried different meds with no luck....so trying this again. HOWEVER, this time around, my anxiety and panic is greatly increased and I'm not sure trying it again was good. Maybe I needed to give it more time then to just start up again. But yes, in addition to your question, it did help with low anxiety the first time..I always still Xanax as needed for more anxiety. I am thinking of asking about Prozac. Have you ever tried this?

What dosage are you on? And do you feel "out of it"? I'm only on 20mg. Going to bump that up to 30mg tonight I guess. Insomnia is bad, but had that before anyways. I'm having bad health anxiety over a "lump in my throat" feeling for two solid months now (Dr. said GERD and been trying to treat that) so maybe the extra anxiety is coming from Cymbalta. I don't know.

I have GAD and have had lots of anxiety lately. But I have been taking Cymbalta for a good while for depression/fibromyalgia, and I don't think it's related to that. I take Klonopin for anxiety, but I hope to eventually get off of it. Docs think it's affecting my memory.

Travelinlady,
How long have you been on it? And what dose? Did your anxiety go away at first? Mine did when I first started it 3 years ago, but I have fibromyalgia and my memory is kind of weird too :/

Hi, thanks for responding. Wow, I was started on 60 mg a day, but that was because I was on Effexor before, which is also an SNRI. Since I thought I was having bad side effects from the Effexor, p-doc took me immediately off that and onto a therapeutic dose of Cymbalta. I'm usually pretty sensitive to meds, so I was nervous at starting off on this dose. And since it's a capsule, it's not like I could just take part of it like I did when starting, say, Paxil.

Glad to hear it helped with some low anxiety at first. Maybe I should see if my p-doc will give me...Ativan? I can't remember what I had at one point before, but it was just a take as needed medication to help me with anxiety.

I did try Prozac before the Effexor. It affects everyone differently, but it actually made my anxiety worse. The ones that helped me the most were Paxil and Zoloft, I think (Celexa may have helped, but it made me so sleepy that I couldn't stay on it). I was on pretty low doses of those. I think I was having some breakthrough depression on the Paxil, and it seemed to be affecting my sleep, so that's why p-doc tried switching me.

But as she has said, medications affect people differently, and you can't predict how it will affect you. So Prozac could be great for you!

Thanks for the response. Sorry to hear you have fibromyalgia as well. Is it the Klonopin that docs think is affecting your memory?

I'm thinking I'm going to stick with the Cymbalta for another couple weeks and see how things go.

So we all have fibromyalgia? It sure isn't fun is it? 60mg is the therapeutic dose...but I start out at 30mg and stayed on it for a long time before going up to 60mg. I think your right, because of the Effexor she just put you at a high dose. But you can go up to 120mg, not sure I ever would tho, the side effects would make me way too edgy. I always have Xanax as needed for my higher anxiety; I have never found an SSRI or SNRI ever work completely on my anxiety. Celexa made me just sleep all the time too.
My pdoc's nurse wants me to stay on Cymbalta for now instead of trying Prozac just yet. She wants me to give it a full 4 weeks before switching; unless a "major" side effect. She said the 20mg I am on isn't even doing much, BUT I am like you, I am very sensitive to meds so I have to start at a low dose and work up. Sometimes I feel like a guinea pig. So tonight it was 30mg, and we'll see. How is your sleep? I'm having troubles with sleep; but was before taking this as well. Except every morning at 5am, I wake wide up and can't sleep. That is getting old. So I guess we'll be doing the Cymbalta together

OH, also, even tho Cymbalta is a capsule, they are filled with beads, so you can open the capsule up and take a bead out. That is how I did it when I went off Cymbalta, one bead at a time. I have the original Cymbalta, if you have generic, then I think they are like 6 big beads in the capsule, so that makes it a little more difficult, as the Cymbalta capsule has about 100.

Just please be careful - cymbalta sent me into the worst mania I'd ever have.. was wanting to build a panic room - literally.

Last night upped my Cymbalta to 30mg. Went to sleep at 12:30, up at 2, and wide awake at 5. Here it is 6:22am and I can't sleep. I hope this passes quickly. Yesterday evening was actually very nice so I was hoping that I'd sleep somewhat better. When I get little sleep like this it pretty much wipes out my day. I'll probably have to take a Xanax today. Ugh. One step forward two steps back. What's the most frustrating is that I'm not sure it's even going to work since it stopped once before, do have to go thru all this just to see.

Cymbalta has been wonderful for me. I responded very quickly with resolution of depression symptoms within 2-3 weeks. It took longer for the anxiety to get under control, a couple of months at the 60 mg dose. I feel very fortunate to be on this medication

Hi AncientMelody,
Did you have the initial start up increased anxiety? The insomnia? I hope it passes within 2 weeks!

Is it normal to have really bad morning anxiety? I'm on Day 7, and I'm out of it physically yet mentally wired. I get bad anxiety soon as I wake up at 6am and then stay like that until noon which I then can start to function. I'm trying to not quit but it's so hard.

Worked like a champ for me with both depression and anxiety. Stopping it was a bit rough, but I did that cold turkey, and wouldn't recommend that.

Cymbalta is not the best for anxiety. Its mechanism of action tend to increase anxiety. If you have pain issues, ask about elavil. Its a TCA thats good for depression and anxiety and helpful for pain. Good luck.

Not insomnia, but yes my anxiety was increased for a couple weeks.

Miche, are you taking the Cymbalta at night? I started on 30 mg taking it in the morning then my Psych upped it to 60mg and I took 30 in a.m. and 30 in p.m. When I did that I got the insomnia, anxiety and heart palpitations at night. We decided to try 60 mg in the morning and now I'm fine. I should mention that I also take Lyrica with it which helps with pain and sleep. Hope you feel better. This has been a great combo for me.