The description of my cymbalta withdrawal

I didn't set out to write this post, but after I got started writing I realized that I needed to get this out and that it might actually be informative to someone out there. That is why I have used the actual name of the drug. There is very little information available about what it is like to come off of Cymbalta (believe me, I looked).

The terrible sinus cold masked the withdrawal symptoms for the first day or so, but by Monday oh.my.gawd was I ever a mess. I feel like I am just barely starting to climb out of the hell-hole, but I thought that yesterday morning, too, and it wasn't a very marked improvement over the day before.

I don't want to dwell on it, since it is what it is and it will be over some time in the (hopefully near) future. But here is my best attempt to describe what this is like:

Early on it felt like my brain was floating somewhere about a foot above my head. I had the feeling of being on a boat, very off-balance and floating-feeling. I was overwhelmingly tired. You can see how this was not altogether odd when I was also experiencing a sinus cold.

By the second day the symptoms above were even more intense but now I also had extreme pressure in my head (in the sinus area but also at the top or crown of my head) as well as nausea and dizziness. Mothership called in a prescription for a z-pac (antibiotic, since, um...yucky green stuff) and some heavy duty nasal spray that really works (Mucinex, which is OTC).

On the third day I had to drive over to the real estate agent's office in the morning and that is when I realized that what I was experiencing was not just due to the sinus cold. Driving was awful. I had to wear my sunglasses like some drugged-out rock star. By the time I got where I was going I was in a cold sweat and the world was spinning. I ended up sleeping for 5 hours afterward and Mr. C didn't let me drive myself home.

Day four consisted primarily of sleeping. As long as I was laying down and still things were OK, but any time I moved it felt like my brain was rocking up, down, side-to-side...terrible nausea. I finally took a Dramamine and it helped. I was reluctant to do this since it makes me so sleepy. That was just silly of me, though, since sleeping was all I was good for.

So yesterday was day five and, as I wrote at the start of this post, I thought I might be feeling better. In retrospect I guess I was feeling better than the days before, but still so bad that it doesn't seem right to describe it using the word better. At any rate, I finally felt like my brain was inside of my head. I suppose that description sounds odd, but it really is the best way for me to explain it. While it is wonderful to feel like my brain is no longer detached from my skull and being flailed about, I'm not sure that the new sensation can be described as an improvement. It felt like my brain was jumping around inside of my skull. If I was still and quiet and everything around me was still and quiet, then things were OK. Oh, but life isn't still and quiet. Light and sound and movement were intensified and all made my brain jump. I continued to take Dramamine for the nausea.

And here I am on day six. Let's hope today is much better. So far I feel pretty good, but I am sitting still and the curtains are drawn. I will update.

The following information might be relevant to some people:
>I was on the lowest dose, 20 mg, for six months. Because of this, I guess you could say I went off of Cymbalta "cold turkey" since there was no way to taper down from this low dose. Anyone taking a higher dose should taper down gradually. It is important to note that I consulted with my Doctor well before going off of the drug and we both decided that it was a good idea and we talked about how I would do it. If you are reading this and you are taking any medications absolutely talk to your doctor before changing your dose or discontinuing. Someone very close to me has had to take prescription meds for years and once ended up unable to leave the house for months (stopped taking meds without consulting doctor) and another time had to be admitted to the hospital (doctors messed up and bad medication interactions caused extreme symptoms).
>Cymbalta is still a pretty new drug and there is little research on how it impacts people long-term. It worked well for me and I don't regret taking it. I made a very thoughtful choice to go on it in the first place and weighed the costs and benefits. While this withdrawal sucks, it is a cost I feel is balanced by the benefit it gave me. I'm not sure I wrote enough to really give a good impression of how bad things were for me before I went on it, but they were bad. My MIL (Mothership) looked Cymbalta up in her handy-doctor's-database-thing and it has a 12 hour half-life. Apparently the shorter the half-life of a med, the longer it takes to get it out of your system. That helps to explain why it can take a while for the withdrawal symptoms to subside.
>The drug gets stored in your fat cells. Some helpful things to cleanse your system and/or help you feel better (I've been doing them, even though I haven't been feeling better yet, because I believe they are helping and will continue to help...besides, they are healthy regardless)
*Drink lots of fluids/water
*Take Essential Fatty Acids--Omega Oils
*A good multivitamin with all of the B complex
*B 12
*minimum of 1000 mg of vitamin C each day, more if you can tolerate it
>Meditation is amazing. I do it every morning. I started doing it around the same time that I started seeing my therapist and going on the Cymbalta. It was difficult for me to do when I was that filled with anxiety, but I stuck with it. To anyone who thinks they might be interested but isn't sure where to start I recommend looking into the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn regarding Mindfulness. If you are on medication and are planning to go off of it at some point, I believe that a meditation practice can be very helpful but recommend establishing a regular practice a minimum of 8 weeks prior.
>Exercise would be good, too, although I haven't been up for any yet. I would caution that if done too intensely it could possibly make a person's symptoms worse, since exercise causes your body to release toxins. Here's where lots of water, steam baths, and a whole foods diet would be very beneficial.
__________________________
Update, day six:
Just after I finished posting this morning I got a phone call from our RN asking if she could send a couple over to tour the Home. Since I already had two other families scheduled for today this seemed fine. But they were operating under a time-crunch and needed to come, uh, now. The house is very tidy and clean almost all of the time. After several days of spending most of my time horizontal there was plenty of tidying to do, though. I told her to send them in a half hour and then I was a whirl of action. I managed to get the house ready and get dressed in something presentable before they even showed up. I'm usually very good at the interpersonal communication, I'm a people person and good with the talking and all of that. I was far from being at the top of my game, but I did OK. I gave three tours and drove over to the house while the inspection was happening in between tour 2 and 3.

My symptoms today: Still off-balance and slightly dizzy, pretty much constantly. I didn't take any Dramamine because I had to interact with people and I also needed to be able to drive. My brain doesn't feel as much like it is jumping around in my skull as it feels like it is vibrating. I'm still sensitive to light, sound, and movement but it is getting to be less jarring. Today was definitely an improvement. Yay.
___________________________
Update, day seven:
Today I am confident to say that I am feeling considerably better than I have been. The cold is still hanging on, so that is a drag on top of everything else. My brain feels less like it is vibrating, now it is mostly noticeable when there are loud noises, bright lights, or sudden movements. I guess you could compare the way I feel right now with a bad hangover. My sense of smell is heightened and it can bring on nausea and I feel slightly dizzy most of the time. I did sleep late this morning, but didn't sleep at all during the day today (or yesterday).
___________________________
Update, day eight:
I felt almost like a normal person today. The most notable thing that happened is that I had a bit of an emotional meltdown which was caused by the realization that I was having a difficult time grasping a fairly simple concept. Mr. C was trying to explain something to me and he had to repeat himself several times before I got it. He was patient and kind and really didn't think it was that big of a deal that I was having trouble understanding him. But I just started bawling when I realized that my mind just wasn't working quite right. In the midst of my crying I said something to him about how I was finally feeling like myself again, with virtually no symptoms of the withdrawal. His response was "Um, do you mean no symptoms besides extreme emotional reactions?" This made me laugh. Crying jag notwithstanding, it sure was great to have a day without nausea, dizziness, and brain vibrations--just a little bit of the feeling of being on a boat that happened later in the evening.