Just thought some of you might be interested...

I started taking Cymbalta when it was first approved. I had been anxiously awaiting it's approval to see if it would help with my fibro. A lady on the Braintalk board several years back was one of the people who was in a testing group for Cymbalta and she had great success with relief from her fibro woes.

So, I've been taking it for quite awhile. I decided to go off of it for several reasons. Getting off has been very difficult for me. And I weaned very slowly from it. I'm still haveing those awful brain zaps, but they are diminishing.

But...the one thing that is the most interesting to me...I wasn't absolultely certain it was helping, though I knew I wasn't having any major fibro flares in the fall and spring as I used to. However, I do now know that it WAS helping with the generalized daily woes that fibro can bring.

The general all over pain, stiffness especially in the morning, a lot more fatigue than before (though I usually have trouble with that anyway).

Anyway, just thought you might be interested that I now know that it was helping me with the fibro. Cymbalta was not so great helping with the depression and in fact, I had long bouts of suicidal ideation while on it.

I agree with you, Doody. Except that Cymbalta didn't really help my pain and discomfort too much. It did cause me to have extremely vivid and disturbing dreams, and to have more violent thoughts as well. I stopped taking it after only five weeks, and even then the "brain zaps" you mentioned were pretty bad, and very disconcerting. I went cold-turkey for three days, then took one more pill, and since then I've not taken any. But even though it's been a couple of weeks now, I still get that feeling of something like static electricity shooting through my brain sometimes if I turn my head too quickly or move my eyes back and forth. Thanks for bringing this up. Now I know for sure that it wasn't just me.

Idealist

Hi Idealist, thanks for your reply!

Nope, not just you! And I had been taking it since it came onto the market, however long that's been. I'm still getting brain zaps but they are getting better. I hate those things! Very uncomfortable for sure.

My son-in-law took it for a short while and he started having brain zaps immediately upon taking it. He had never taken ADs so he stopped in just a few weeks and the zaps continued for awhile.

Heavy duty antidepressant! Effexor did the same thing to me except that when I went off that I became violently ill.

I'm glad it's getting better for you.