Stopped Duloxetine / Cymbalta this week, it's been fine.

Hi All,

I have been taking Duloxetine / Cymbalta for about a year, I came on here when I started and its often said that once people get better they leave these places and don't come back. I'm glad they're better but I felt I wanted to come back and spread a bit of cheer seems people were here to support and help me when I needed it.

If you search for my other threads, there is plenty about my experience on them, this is specically about coming off them.

I have read threads all over the internet about nightmare experiences but I was determined not to buy into it. I've had many a terrible hangover all due to my own actions and i've been very sick with illness before. It always passes with time and even if its uncomfortable, it's not the end of the world.

My dose at the end was 40mg a day.

Doctors advice

Doctor suggested 40mg and 20mg alternate days for two weeks to a month. Then reducing to 20mg for a same period, then 20mg and no dose alternate days, then no dose.

This is obviously quite a long time and I really felt I was ready to come off them and wanted to come off fairly quickly.

On the internet

I read on various places, sudden changes sent the body into shock and gave various side effects. I read some people had to break open the capsules and count the little balls reducing them by tiny amounts over the best part of a year.

This seems absolute madness to me. You have to remember as I stated above most people come online when they're in crisis, so I take the horror stories with a pinch of salt as being a norm.

I also noted that the people that spent ages coming off still had these same side effects but just less savere, so you're just prelonging it even longer in my mind.

Then I read a post where one person in the US said he had an alergic reaction. The psychologies and docotrs in hospital told him in extreme cases, they take you down 3 days at a time. I.e. 40mg 3 days, 20mg three days and off. I did a few googles and found further evidence of this.

Essentially the side effects were extreme for this person but they went after a week or two and although the quick withdrawel was more likely to give very bad side effects, it was unlikely to give long term adverse effects.

NOTE: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

This is just stuff on the itnernet, the best advice is always to take your doctors professional adivce. I choose to take responsibility for my own health but I do so at my own risk.

Supporting drugs or supplements

If you google, you'll find there are also sorts of websites that suggest lots of different supplements to support yourself as you come off them. These all seemed overly complex. However, what came up again and again was using cod liver oil, which apparently stop the brain zaps.

My strategy

What the above made me think was, I could experiment coming down quicker, if I started to get bad side effects I could always go back to what the doctor had suggested.

So I went straight from 40mg to 20mg a day and took 1,000mg of cod liver oil. I've also been eating lots of fresh fruit, healthy food and avoiding caffine and booze.

For the first few days I got brain zaps, to be honest I have had those all along and use to it. Had some disturbed sleep. Felt tired alot (no more than usual) and had the sensation of slightly passing out, very mildly.

This passed by day three and by the end of the week I almost felt back to where I had been before droping the dose.

I was going to give it another week on 20mg, then do the day on day off strategy. But I went away for a weekend and actually forgot my pills. So inadvertantly I ended up going totally without it for two days.

I had the same side effects as before, but fairly mildly and i just felt I could cope with them so i decided to just carry on knowing that if I really went into body shock I could always take 20mg at any time.

I'm now a whole week without any drugs at all, and only two weeks ago I was on 40mg I had been taking for a year.

I had a few days being very irratible and finding myself feeling very angry, but only for short periods and I could control it.

The usual side effects I have been having for best part of a year, with a few suddenly bouts of them being a bit more harsh.

Today (friday) is day five, I took the day off today as I was just feeling very exhausted. I've slept a few tmes during the day and when I close my eyes I get the sense of almost passing out. Very mild brain zaps.

Apart from that I feel like my real senses are coming back.

My mood is very stable and I feel calm. I did feeel a bit tearful earlier, but I think it is because you're just suddenling FEELING again for the first time.

Also, my life is going fantastically well at the moment and I'm feeling very grateful.

Alternative therapy

I have also been being supported by having some other healing stuff done, I'm not sure how much this has played a part in helping but its been very nice. I have seen someone that does Reiki.

Each to their own whether you believe in that sort of thing, but it's about clearing out your energy, someitme the ancient orientals belived in and many still do today. I have found it very helpful.

I also get massages, this also helps the body detox itself of toxins and is very relaxing.

Appreciate the above all costs money, btu if you can afford to get yourself some support then do so.

Will post again when the side effects finally wear off.

For the moment, it feels a little uncomfortable and I don't wan to do much more than laze around the house, but really it's not that bad. YOu'll cope.