Posted by cache-monkey on September 24, 2004, at 14:51:07
In reply to Cymbalta - When will the start-up SEs go away?, posted by cache-monkey on September 24, 2004, at 14:11:15
[I forgot to add that I've also been experiencing crazy neck/back tension that follows the anxiety in its daily cycle...]
Hey folks,
I just started Cymbalta on Tuesday. Mainly for dysthymia and GAD. Funny thing is that both of those had gone mostly subclinical for a little while, with about 2 "bad days" a week. That's largely due to smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day in combination with a low dose BuSpar. The main reason I started Cymbalta was to stop the couple "bad days" and to see if I could get myself off the nicotine without going into a depression.
Tues-Thurs, I did 15 mg around noon. Within an hour I started to get very sweaty and anxious, plus get racing thoughts and very tense neck and back muscles. This got worse over the afternoon, at which point I took a nap to shut it out. The anxiety lifted a little bit in the late evening, and I think the muscle tension got better. But, than I started to feel really cold chilly. Couldn't sleep until really late, much later than my normal bedtime, largely due to the persistence of the racing thoughts.Am trying 30 mg today; still waiting for it to kick in. But would like to know from people with experience with Cymbalta (and maybe SSRIs/Effexor):
Are things like sweating, anxiety and racing thoughts are just start-up side effects? How long do they hang around for?
Thing is, I wasn't feeling that bad before and this is definitely getting in the way of my productivity right now. I have a big presentation to my department (I'm a grad student) coming up in a few weeks, and I'm not sure if I need this right now. I'm wondering if maybe simply upping the BuSpar and keeping up the smoking for now might not be a better course.
Any input would be appreciated.
Best,
cache-monkey
poster:cache-monkey
thread:394564
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040921/msgs/394577.html