My Journey of getting off 30mg Cymbalta

I was searching the internet in regards to finding a safe way to come off Cymbalta when I happened upon this forum.

In 2011 I had a severe kidney infection with a lot of torso pain coupled with major anxiety. I was put on 30 mg up to 90 mg of Cymbalta. It took months to get relief. I was working at the time and had to take off on short term disability.

Several months back a doctor gave me another anti-depresssnt and said I could stop the Cymbalta. For some reason he failed to tell me I needed to wean myself off of it. So I quit the 30 mg a day. I will never do that again. After two weeks I had severe, cold pain in my torso with major anxiety. I had to get back on Cymbalta at a much higher dose for several days just to get it all under control.

I have a lot of health issues including kidney failure. I want to put less strain on my kidneys so I am looking at all my meds and seeing if I can start withdrawing any. And Cymbalta is the one I want to start with. However, I plan a slow withdrawal so not to stress my body. I also have adrenal insufficiency and the added stress will only make matters worse.

I think I really want to encourage anyone coming off Cymbalta or any anti-depressant to be careful of the cold turkey method. It really isn't safe and it is okay if it takes awhile. There is no need to make yourself feel worse. It just isn't worth it. Just take your time. If you find you cannot get off it then maybe you need it. Talk to your doctor.

I plan to start weaning myself by 30 mg every other day for awhile. I don't know how long, but I will see how that goes before I move to the next step. I just have to see what my body tells me.

Best to all of you - just don't give up the journey.

I came across this site when searching for Cymbalta 30mg detox symptoms. Ive been taking Cymbalta 90mg for 3yrs in combination with Wellbtrin 300mg to help with my depression and anxiety. For a year now I've only taken 30mg of Cymbalta.
For the first time in 6 years, i was almost 2 months depression-free... I mean was actually smiling again! So Two weeks ago, I decided i didn't want to take Cymbalta anymore. So I began tapering off, every other day.
Ive been completely off Cymbalta for 7 days, and my health has done a 180! I cry for the simplest things, my back hurts, my headache & insomnia is back, and that awful zapping/swooshing sensation in my head is now accompanied with nausea. To give you an idea what this swooshing feels like, imagine having sea shells against each ear and hearing the waves hit against your brain. The ZAPPING feels like the vibrations of banging metal. ..Hate feeling this way!!

For some reason many people refer to Cymatia as an SSRI. It's not. Along with Effexor it's an SNRI. (Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors). These Puppies have a short half life as you know so getting off without discontinuation syndrome symptoms is much harder than most other antidepressants. I've learned how to do the Effexor dance so I'm applying that to my Cymbalta exit. So here is another approach:

Who cares that the lowest dose is only 20 mg? And why remove pellets and throw them away? It's not all that hard to make your own capsules. Buy one of these

http://www.amazon.com/The-Capsule-Machine-00-Kit/dp/B006OQ4316

It's only the "Top" that you care about. It will hold the open empty capsules for you as you can only work with two at a time. I use NOW Foods "OO" gelatin caps:

http://www.puritan.com/now-foods-brand-0089/double-00-empty-gelatin-capsules-072828?scid=3763&cmp=gpl-_-Specialty%20Products-_-072828&CAWELAid=1782918154&gclid=CLmJoOL8pr4CFciGfgodc3AAZw

I can easily make 5 mg doses by dividing a 20 first into 2 equal caps and then divide then in two again. Now you have 4 doses of 5 mg. No, the doses between them are not perfect unless you feel you need to count the pellets. But over a number of days they will average out to the dose you are going for. Close enough.

I was only up to 30 mg because I can't tolerate this med. The nausea was unsustainable at that dose and would not stop. I've been hanging at 20 mg for 6 months and even that little for such a short time makes it hard to stop. I've been dropping my dose 5 mg every week. That is slow enough not to have too much nausea. Others might need to go slower. I'm doing 5 mg a day this week and I may need to stay here another week. I may try making 2.5 mg doses.

Good luck to all you Quitters :)

Post Edited (Randy_H) : 5/12/2014 12:27:20 PM (GMT-6)

Lucy Ace,

I'm so glad you make if off. I'm sorry to say that when it's time to loose the Welburtrin you might need the education you gained dealing with the Cym. I've come off the "Bute" and it is a lot easier, but be careful.

For others on the Cym: It's easy splitting the 20 mg into two reasonable amounts of 10 mg + 10 mg. Get your strongest pair of reading glasses (if you need them at all), very bright light and patients. To the extent that your first split to 10 + 10 is off, the next splits to 5 + 5 will be even more off.

Say your first split is 9 mg + 11 mg. Then when you split the 9 mg into two you may wind up with 3.5 + 5.5 if you aren't careful. What you do is keep looking at how the little beads are filling up the open capsules. Keep poring the stuff back and fourth until you can't see a difference. As you tilt the fuller one over the less full one (hold them in your two hands) there reaches a point where all the beads what to rush down into the lower capsule. In time you can control them fairly well and balance the two capsules.

Again, they will never be perfect. But if close enough and you consume what you have made at random from your container, you will average out which is all you need.
Never Never do the "one day on the other off". While that does average you out to 1/2 the dose, the variance is too much on SNRIs. Plus dropping by 50% is way too fast. 5 mg is hard enough.

Look, this is a lot of work but then counting beads is also. The supplies I recommended are not expensive and you'll feel great taking your dosing into your own hands and beating the system.

"20 mg is the smallest dose we have". What are they thinking????

Post Edited (Randy_H) : 5/12/2014 5:18:54 PM (GMT-6)

Randy, im so m sorry your 10 to 5 mg back fired. Since you are already dividing your capsules maybe splitting them n thirds IS the better option for you. I personally think what you were doing, splitting them into 4 (2.5mg each), was a great idea.. This way you can go from 10, 7.5, 5, 2.5mg. You can count the pellets from there if necessary.

Whatever you do, I hope it works for you. I know first hand how sick getting off Cymbals can make us. The zaps were the worst. I suffer from migraines and occasional vertigo, and that seem to intensify them. :(

Good luck!

...I really don't know more about this than what I have read...(I have not taken meds, just researched info on them)

...but would water titration work once you got down to your lowest division/taper?

From what I understand, this is the easiest way to control division and get 'micro' amounts of your last step down.

This site has some good instruction I believe...http://theroadback.org/

...there are also tons of youtube vids...though you may have to check for their validity...

...and of course, always work alongside your doctor and his/her advice.

Best wishes everybody!

S.C. ;)

Hibee

Most likely add Prozak. Should help.

In chapter 15 on how to taper antidepressants the authors of "The Way Back" strongly warn never to open a time pill capsule. Rather they say "Go to the next available dosage of the antidepressant". Clearly I can't take their advise, not when I'm below the smallest they make. They don't say why but simply that it has never worked for people they advise.

This makes no sense to me. The only difference between a 30 mg and a 60 mg pill of Cymatia is the number of beads. So if you can remanufacture a pill with 1/2 the beads of a 20 mg capsule (10 mg) how could that be a problem? it just isn't.

Going up slightly to 66.6 mg has resolved my nausea issue for the most part. I'll stay here for a few weeks then back down to the 5 mm. It seems strange that for me at this time the lower the dose that I'm on, the smaller reductions I can make. I think I will need to "bead count" before I'm done. I always thought that was overkill. But that was before just 6 months on the Cym. We all are different but it may have the worst discontinuation of them all.

Great news A.B.!!

Thanks for updating us. I am so happy to hear that things are going well for you, and hope that it continues so!

Yes, please continue to be a part of the community here, and post whenever you would like to give or receive support/encouragement.

Keep up the good work, and talk to you soon.:)

S.C.

Carrie48 - I just wanted to tell you that although your journey of getting off Cymbalta is over two years old I am using it to help me come off it this week. thank you so much for posting how it went for you as it took a lot of fear away from me.

Day 4. Today hasn't been too bad - after a bad start. I didn't sleep at all last night and suffered a severe asthma attack. Left the bed really early and took the dogs out for a very very long walk which really helped. dizzy spells not as bad as yesterday but on a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Kept really busy. Took valerian. The reason I'm coming off Cymbalta is because my blood pressure raised on them and they drove me slightly manic but I didn't care for ages as my depression was dealt with. thanks to Carrie 48 for inspiring me to stop taking them. Hopefully I can inspire others

Day 6. I'm starting to wonder whether to bother to keep up this report as nobody seems to be reading it. Anyway today - I'm feeling a lot better and optimistic although very very sensitive. I could cry if you said boo to me. I've been going to the gym to use the sauna like Carrie 48 did and Ive been keeping very quiet and as much stress as possible out of my life. I believe now it is possible to stop taking anti depressants suddenly although it is a harder landing than doing it slowly. I haven't had my blood pressure checked yet but I hope this is going down now.
I'm wondering how Irish 13 is doing too. Are you Irish? I am Irish.
I will check in here tomorrow and if nobody has been reading my post I wont bother to post again. I will continue my journey off Cymbalta and hopefully stay off

You shouldn't have discontinuation syndrome from going off of Cymbalta and onto Zoloft. The Zoloft will "negate" it. Often, docs prescribe Prozac when going off an SNRI for the very reason to eliminate most of the withdrawing symptoms.