Yes, I went off Cymbalta. The withdrawal symptoms I described as "micro seizures" were horrible. It's like bursts of light and sound in your brain every time you shift your eyes. Completely throws off your equilibrium. They lasted more than two months before disappearing completely. Of course, I went "cold turkey" after I accidentally threw an entire bottle in the trash at school and wasn't about to pay 300 bucks to get it refilled. I felt like the Cymbalta added to my fibro fog that led to the trash incident. After my Lyrica mishap, I told my doctor NO MORE BRIAN ALTERING DRUGS!

They recommend you go off it very slowly because of the dangerous side effects of withdrawal.

Thanks so much for your input. I know I will go off of it gradually. I agree it does give you fibro fog.

I would really appreciate anyone who has gone off cymbalta to let me know how they felt afterward. Did you have a letdown? any side effects? Please help me to make this decision. I am in so much pain and I don't want to add anymore problems. I know we are all in a lot of pain and your input would be so helpful. Thank you and God bless.

I wasn't on cymbalta but was on zoloft and from my understanding the side effects are quite similar. I went off gradually (I was on 50 mg per day) over a 2 week period. It wasn't easy. I felt like I had these zaps or electrical shocks through-out my body, constantly. I had to cheat once and take one 25 mg just to stop the zaps for a short time or I was going to go crazy. I'll never go back on any of those mind altering drugs again because coming off of them is too hard. Good luck and just stay in touch with us when you go off of the meds. The support is really helpful.

Hugs,
Bobbi

I tried a couple times to get off my cymbalta, I only take 30mgs a day,for depression and it helps, I thought it wasn't but when I tried to go off of it I found out differently, it helps me with my depression alot, I still stuggle but I absolutely can't function without it, i totally feel down in about 2days and just feel like a zombie, I weened off of it to, you have to ween yourself off for sure, its very dangerous to go cold turkey, could be fatal.one thing is it does not give me more energy, I haven't found anything that does that, I wish I could. Good Luck to you!!!

Sometimes docs will put you on another antidepressant while you wean off of another. I did this with zoloft. Doc put me on cymbalta because ZOLOFT wasn't working and said Cymbalta is similar but will help with pain also. So far no change but it's only been a few weeks. I'm down to half dose of zoloft and will be off completly by next week. No side effects. Talk to your doc about concerns, he should be able to help.

Thank you all so much for your input. I really don't know if going off cymbalta will help me or not , but I am going to try it with my doctorsm help. I know sometimes you feel that a medicine isn't helping, but when you stop you find it helped some. I just have this fibro fog and think it might be the cymbalta. I will keep in touch and let you know what the results are. Thanks again.

I was on Cymbalta for about 4 months and trying to get off was horrible. I just didn't think it was helping enought to justify the high copay. I tried go off what I thought was slowly, but it required super slow titration

Ugh, sorry, didn't mean to end the post quite yet. Super slow weaning meant taking three quarters of a capsule daily for 2 weeks, a half of a capsule daily for 2 weeks, then a quarter of a capsule daily for 2 weeks, then a quarter every other day for 2 weeks. I did experience those brain jolts and flashes of light that are common with going off of this Rx. I would recommend going off VERY slowly.

Good luck!

Thank you all. God Bless.

I was only one it for one month. I didn't like the way it made me feel. I had these weird episodes of "brain shifts" where it felt like metal gears in my head grinding. But coming off of it was a nightmare. I went cold turkey and the first few days were o.k. But then I had these serious episodes of psychosis/suicidal tendencies, etc. I heard voices saying terrible things. This was soooo completely out of character for me. It terrified me and my husband. Fortunately, it only lasted about a day and a half. I never want to relive something like that again. I have told my Dr.s absolutely NO more antidepressants for me. I've taken about 4 or 5 different ones, and I hated the way each of them made me feel. I suppose for me, it's a case of the cure being worse than the disease.

Someone else had posted about Zoloft, I had a similar experience in terms of the electrical zaps.

But about 3 weeks after I was off Zoloft, I began having weird thoughts. Images of a gun, etc. Now, I NEVER made any plan to do anything with a gun, never had access to one, but the fact that I was having these thoughts and images pop into my head freaked me out. That was in addition to my depression coming back in full force. My guess is, that's the closest I came to being hospitalized for depression. I shouldn't care, but there's still stigma around depression, so I'm relieved I didn't need that level of care.

I was put on a different antidepressant, and pretty much resigned myself to being on them for life.

I found the weird sensations from tapering off Zoloft a little strange, but manageable. It was the effect of not being on anything that was the real nightmare for me.

They're not for everyone, for sure. But there are some folks (like me) that they're a life saver.

Just wanted to post a slightly different perspective.

Jenn

Oh, btw. That was about 3 years ago, so maybe Zoloft's changed since then. Hard to know...