Posted by Tennisplayer on September 26, 2007, at 9:35:18
In reply to questions for women re:antidepressant withdrawal, posted by Smittygirl on September 19, 2007, at 19:55:10
Smitty girl, I am so glad I found your post. I have recently come off of Cymbalta. When i was on Cymbalta I was sleeping almost all of the day and like a zombie, but didn't realize that was what was making me like that. I also take Lortabs for chronic severe pain from interstitial cystitis. While being like a zombie and sleeping most of the day and night for 9 months or so I lost 20 pounds--most people gain on Cymbalta). Then when I finally realized what was making me so apathetic and sleepy and stopped it, I didn't read that you are supposed to taper it. So I got horrible withdrawal effects and I am still going thru them. I started tapering off about two and a half months ago and have beeen totally off of it for about 3-1/2 weeks now.My system is apparently the opposite of yours. When I went off of it I became insomniac, hyperactive, ragingly angry and irrtable, hypoglycemic (with symptoms of that magnified about 10 times), ragingly hungry and stuffing myself with carbohydrates (that is really all I want) every 3 hours or so. I am gaining weight now, barely able to settle down enough to accomplish anything--can't stay focused on any one thing, pace the floor, etc. have terrible night sweats and hot and cold flashes, etc. the first week I had horrible nausea, headache, fatigue, weakness and disturbing LSD like nightmares. I tried Ambien a night or two but then read up on all the horrible things that can happen on it, and i am trying to go off everything except my pain pills. I know a tranquilizer would probably help, but I don;t want to get on them either. It is getting better--I am starting to sleep more solidly thru the night, and while I'm not bouncing off the walls during the day, I do have a good amount of energy and don't have to take two 3 hour naps during the day like I did when I was on it. I am retired, but do babysit my 15 month old granddaughter two days a week for 10 hour days by myself so I have to stay alert, and that is hard sometimes. I play a lot of competitive amateur tennis doubles, so I am very active physically even though I am 67 years old, married etc. What I wanted to ask you is why you started Cymbalta. What kind of sleep problem did you have originally? I asked my doctor about trying to get some "uppers" of some kind to help keep me awake when I was on Cymbalta especially to keep alert when babysitting, but he said that would be a bad idea, and I really agreed. It probably would add another nervous system impairing drug to my body and cause an addiction also.
Don't give up hope about the orgasm. I didn't have any either the whole time I was on Cymbalta and a small amount of Amitriptyline (12.5 mg) at nite for the pain. But only recently I did have a couple of orgasms again, and it was wonderful to feel alive and like a human being again. Even tho orgasm is important, the other awakenings I have had since stopping that mind-numbing, personality obliterating drug are even better. I love music again, feel feelings again, enjoy beauty and scents and a hundred other things I had been living without for so long. I don't know what could be done to get you started on the orgasm thing,but sometimes people are so reserved and control themselves so rigidly they can't let go enough to have an orgasm. But if you are on any kind of psychoactive drug at all (and some blood pressre medications etc.) you won't be able to see if you can have an orgasm or not. Most of them wipe out the intense nerve connection synapses etc. that you need to have to feel an orgasm. Usually you don't even feel any sexual feelings or impulses of any kind, let alone a full blown orgasm. With that increased ability fo feel pleasure also comes increased ability to feel pain, so you have to watch it, but it is worth it. I wondered if you ever have any pleasant physical sensations in that part of your pelvic region at all. As children even I can remember feeling a pleasant sensation from climbing a rope in the gym or similar type things. So the equipment is there to feel the pleasure, but some of our society's twisted ideas about sex being nasty and pleasure being a sin etc. sometimes mess people up. Other times a physiological or physical problem may be blocking the pleasure mechanisms from working. I hope you are doing better. It does get better. hang in there.
poster:Tennisplayer
thread:784007
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20070419/msgs/785284.html