Posted by sallgood on May 11, 2008, at 22:52:58
In reply to Re: Cymbalta withdrawal, posted by tennisplayer on May 1, 2008, at 8:24:37
118 days off of Cymbalta. My old doctor told me I did not have to wean (a psychiatrist) and just stop taking it. So I did, from 30 mg to nothing. I have lived through this, but I did have to take a detour. After 45 days cold turkey I had improvement of about 50% so I found a new psychiatrist, because my old one kept telling me that what I felt did not exist.
Two things helped me: I was put on a low dose of Celexa (I know it is old but I am self employed with no prescription coverage) and I went to acupuncture. I weaned off of the Celexa in 5 weeks, after I did my first dose drop, I could feel my brain chemistry reactivate. This was about five days after I had started acupuncture. I will continue with the acupuncture and have treatments about every 6 weeks (the first month was once a week).
31 days off of antidepressants as of today, the "return" of the previous condition my former doctor told me I was having does not exist, I was on for situational depression and had worked through those issues.
Some of the valuable information on this site helped me immensely. Sorry I did not post while I was in the soup, so to say, but my post would have been pretty incoherent as I was in a mental blender.
I thought I was permanently damaged as well, but after coming through this, I am intact emotionally and physically. I do think that when it is time to discontinue your antidepressant, the best way is not to replace with another one, but for me, it was essential.
Weaning would be best, but as I said, my old psychiatrist told me it was not necessary when I asked him about it and foolishly I believed him.
I hope this helps some of you, you can get through and be yourself without drugs again. No disrespect meant to any individual who uses antidepressants at all, I know that they are essential to many people, there is nothing wrong with that!
Looking back (which is always easy to say, right?) I believe that I would have been fine had I done more talk therapy and given myself time to heal (situational depression due to bereavement from several friends and a family member, 5 in one year was the reason for the depression).
My best to all of you!
poster:sallgood
thread:466069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20080220/msgs/828610.html