Posted by 49er on July 8, 2008, at 7:14:38
In reply to cymbalta withdrawal help, posted by ihatedrugs on July 7, 2008, at 23:57:57
Ihatedrugs,
By the way, I love your screen name. As one who is slowly tapering off of 4 meds (I am down to 2), I understand your wish to be off of the drug. But a very fast taper will usually lead to alot more problems than if you taper slowly.
So even if you think you're speeding up the tapering, if you add on how many months of problems you will have as the result vs. doing a slow taper and not having as many problem, the choice is quite clear.
When you have been on a med for over a month, the drug has made neurochemical changes in your brain and throughout the body. As a result, a cold turkey or a fast taper is like putting the car in reverse at 60 miles per hour.
I read in your post that you alternated doses on a weekly basis. Again, you're putting your body into withdrawal doing it that way.
To add to Jamal Spelling's excellent advice, I would purchase a digital scale from E-bay in .001g denomination. The recommended tapering advice on the Paxil Progress Boards is 10% of the current dose every 3 to 6 weeks.
However, since Cymbalta has just about one of the shortest half lives of all the drugs, you may need to go even more slowly.
Tapering slowly by the way doesn't guarantee you won't have problems. But your chances of having less of them greatly increase with a slow taper.
Good luck.
49er
poster:49er
thread:838765
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080706/msgs/838792.html