Posted by Meghan J. on January 11, 2006, at 13:16:49
In reply to Cymbalta withdrawal, posted by Regina on March 3, 2005, at 16:37:18
I have never posted on a message board, but I'm so grateful that's it's here, because I feel like I can't trust my doctor anymore. I just don't believe she knows what to do about this. And I have to decide what to do TODAY.
In December I tapered off Zoloft and "ramped up" on Cymbalta over about three weeks. As soon as I was at full dosage, I got VERY depressed, weepy, panicked, totally irrational. So I called my doctor and she said that since it had only been three weeks, I could just stop taking it. Bad mistake, as I found out, but I figured I'd just grit my teeth and get through it.
That was about 8 days ago. I'm not depressed, mostly, but I'm dizzy, nauseous, all the same stuff that's been described. It gets a little better, then it gets worse. Yesterday I had to leave work--I teach school, and I was afraid my kids would think I was drunk. When my doctor called back last night, she said to take 20MG of the Cymbalta to see if that would help. And I did that. I can't tell if it's helping or not because I'm too scared to even try to get out of my chair.
Here's the thing: although nobody's come out and said this, it seems like NO amount of careful tapering off has actually helped anyone avoid the withdrawal symptoms. Several people have said that no matter how careful they were, reaching zero kicked off these awful reactions. So do I take the Cymbalta again tonight or not? I can't afford to be sick like this--I gotta go back to work sometime--but if all it's going to do is postpone the inevitable, I'd rather "get credit" for the misery I've been through so far and stick it out to the end. I don't want to start over.
Thanks for reading.
poster:Meghan J.
thread:466069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20051018/msgs/597937.html