Please help, my mind is going wild

[Ethansmom]

please don't move this post to the medication forums as I don't get any responses from there.

Has anyone had luck with Cymbalta? I'm having a tough time. I bumped up from 30MG to 60MG a few days ago. I'm having terrible upper back pain (which makes me think it's my heart), AND having terrible stomach pains. I've tried taking the medication at different times of the day to see what helps. Yesterday I was okay. I took it with lunch and no stomach pain all day. Today I woke up and am dealing with the back and stomach pains again. Is this medication safe? Since I have health anxiety, i'm worried that it's hurting my liver. There is a liver warning on the med which is freaking me out. I have a call in to my doctor. Not sure what I should do?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Sorry to hear you are struggling :hugs:

Yes, it's safe. That liver warning came about due to a trend of heavy drinkers getting liver disease. The warning applies to them and their doctors consequently won't put them in that position.

I've had a concern over being on this med as I've seen my health deteriorate a bit over the last few years. But I've just had a liver test for something else and it came back fine. I mentioned the liver warning, due to feeling fatigued so much, and the senior nurse told me that it would be a specific part of the test that picked that up if it was the case and it was all normal for me.

I've been on this med years.

I can't tell you if it works because I don't think it has helped me much and I struggled very badly with it for a long time so in hindsight this was never the med for me. But I've seen others on here find success in it and not have my experience with side effects.

If taking it with food helps, keep doing that. There is a Serotonin receptor in the gut which is known to cause nausea in the early stages of meds like Citalopram and taking them with food has been shown to mitigate this.

I had nausea with 10 minutes of taking this dose the first two days but it only lasted about 30 minutes and after two days it stopped.

The back ache could be muscular tension. This med has given me loads of that when I never had it before. You may need to see how this goes as it will hopefully stop as you get through the side effects. You could try some exercises to see if it helps it e.g Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR).

[Ethansmom]

Hi My name is Terry. Thanks for responding. I don't think i realized you are taking cymbalta-- that's why you know so much! The problem is i get such bad stomach pains and they freak me out. It makes me think my liver is shutting down. The other issue is i take Klonopin, which is probably very liver toxic as well. I've been taking it for a year now, while trying to find the right med.

I almost had a panic attack last night thinking about liver disease! Maybe i should switch meds? i don't know what to do.

Sara