been off Cymbalta for a couple weeks

[Wile_E_Coyote]

Help, I have brain zaps whenever I move, im sore like I.spent a day at the gym instead of the reality I was on the couch all day. I got really really really low this last Sunday. Followed Monday and the days after by severe sleeplessness I mean i was/am not tired. I rearranged my living room at 4am.  This is not normal for me. Usually I'm a marathon sleeper, i went from 15 to 18 hours a DAY to 10 a week. I'm afraid to take anything over the counter to help me sleep. My poor boys(7&3) try to help but all they understand is mommy screams and cries alot. I wish my Dr had never mentioned Cymbalta!  I go to a county run mental health clinic,  it is hard to get an appointment. I missed one and could not get another till the beginning of this month. So I been without Cymbalta for a couple weeks before I finally got to see my Dr. Again, he actually asked if I wanted to get back.on it. Don't get me wrong, for the first week on Cymbalta I felt awesome!  I wasn't brain foggy, i didn't sleep too much and I got stuff done. Then a week and a half later I was back to "blech" I didn't get low enough to want to take my life, but I felt far from "good" my questions are these: if I was on 90ml a day and quit cold turkey how long does this hell last? And has anyone else felt like their chest was "heavy" and kept coughing but still feel like they can't breathe?

[jugglin]

Hi there and welcome! I have been off and on various AD's over the past many years.  I finally found one that worked for me. Going CT off of any AD that I have experienced brings with it the brain zaps, headaches, and fluish like symptoms. Usually for a few weeks at least.  The nice thing about getting off of Cymbalta for me was that you could open the capsules and take out "x" amount of balls each day so that you could slow taper.  However, it sounds like you are already in WD and do not plan on going back on, correct?  If so, just hang on. I want to say that after about a week it SLOWLY started to get better - taking about a month for me to get back to normal (so to speak).  All of your symptoms sound normal to me. I know how frustrating it is, but you can ride it out and get through it.
Wishing you the very best!
Keep posting!

[Amandag78]

Vitamin D is very important to get your brain functioning again and a Mega B supp is also fantastic for healing after anti-depressants.
Its very hard to get a strait answer on when you will feel better, but i found i was so much better at week 9, energy and head wise. I also tapered though.
I got a bit of a heavy chest as well and a cough that seemed to linger for weeks, i felt like i couldnt breath properly when i stopped too, it let up about week 9 as well.
I hope ive helped you some.
As we are all different, i hope yours gets better fast and its bearable for you.
Good luck, you should get more responses with people who detoxed Cymbalta soon.
     : )

[Amandag78]

Hi there, im sorry your feeling this way.
I havent had exp with Cymbalta, but many people have on this part of the forum.
I detoxed Effexor XR about 11 weeks ago almost and i got severe brain zaps and felt like i was in a twilight zone, mind you, this only happened on my taper at the beginning and when i jumped at 37.5mg, my brain zaps were on verge of coming, but never did.
Very important in an anti-depressant detox, is to take a Omega 3 supplement thats quite strong, like Red Krill Oil and Calamari. This is the only thing many people have found, that will stop the brain zaps. But like any supplement, it does take weeks to start working.
I take Red Krill Oil everyday since a few weeks before my taper and so when i jumped, i believe the Krill Oil helped my zaps to not come.
I hear you with the lack of sleep, on Effexor i was sleeping 10 hours a night and 2 hours during the day.
Now, i usually go to sleep at midnight and wake about 5.30am-6am, lately, ive been going to bed at 1am-2am and waking at 6am.
Seems the longer im off my a/d, the less i sleep.
Im getting my energy back a bit now, i started seeing results about week 9 off my meds.
It takes 6 weeks for an a/d to leave the body fully.
Im not depressed, mine was for anxiety, but  is long gone thankfully.
The