I was on Cymbalta for a little over a year. I realized during that time, I had NO feelings. I was just always content. I couldn't get excited about things, I never cried, I never felt much of anything. For a lot of people, that's a good thing, but I started to feel like a zombie. I decided that I needed something else. If I knew then what I know now, I NEVER would have started Cymbalta. The withdrawal symptoms are HORRIFIC!!
I tried cold turkey and I literally felt like I was going to die. Brain zaps, itchy all the time, nausea, diarrhea, cold sweats, nightmares, lethargic... just awful!! The cold turkey attempt lasted about 4 days and I'd had enough. So I went on the wean off approach.
I weaned myself off pretty quickly. In order to do this, I was splitting the caps and actually counting out the beads inside. The first week, I took out half of the death marbles, I was on 60mg. The week after I left a quarter of the beads. The last 2 week, I took 10 beads every other day. The symptoms on the last week were present, but not NEARLY as bad as the cold turkey attempt. After the last week, I vowed that no matter how bad the symptoms presented themselves, I would not go back on Cymbalta. And to be quite honest, they were not that bad. The brain zaps got to be more annoying then anything. It wasn't the dizzying, flashy feeling anymore and it was only really happening at night. The nausea and diarrhea dissipated after a few days and I felt back to my pre-Cymbalta self after 2 weeks off of the weaning.
Yes, I did have to tough it out for a little while, but I was determined to not be poisoning myself with this crap anymore. You will read a lot of forums about how horrible the symptoms are and it makes it sound really scary, but if you WANT off of this, YOU CAN DO IT!!! It will take some time to figure out what works for you as far as detoxing yourself, and I won't sugar coat it, you will be uncomfortable. But in the end, you really can do it. I felt hopeless... but I did it. 2 months completely off of it and I feel like my old self. I'm actually HAPPY again!
Good luck... it's not easy, believe in yourself and be your own cheerleader. Only YOU will know how you feel so make yourself as comfortable as possible!! :o)