I went to the doc today, and after some testing he put me on this. He says it's suppose to help with Depression, Anxiety, and ADD all at the same time. Little or no sides, and suppose to have a real high success rate.

Anybody else tried this stuff yet ?

I went to the doc today, and after some testing he put me on this. He says it's suppose to help with Depression, Anxiety, and ADD all at the same time. Little or no sides, and suppose to have a real high success rate.

Anybody else tried this stuff yet ?

Hi There, I was put on this medication the same day as you! I was going to post the same question as you but decided to scroll down through with hopes of finding some info on this stuff. I really hope it works, and fast!!!! Keep me posted on your progress with it and i will do the same. Thanks, ValleyGurl

Hey Vallygurl ! That is neat !

I will definately keep everyone posted. My doc had great things to say about it.

Good luck to you as well !


josh

Hi Josh, My Doc had some great things to say about it too! He talked at great length about the studies done on this med as well as his experiences with it with his patients. He told me he has a pt similar to me, in the aspect that i have depression as well as chronic pain. The pt was on a depression med that wasnt working well for her and also taking fair size doses of neurontin for pain ( same as myself ), he says since taking Cymbalta her depression has greatly improved and the med has also helped her pain so much that she has been able to d/c using the neurontin. It's weird how depression meds seem to help with pain, but it does seeing how docs are prescribing it everyday for chronic pain sufferers even without depression. Did your doc say from his experiences with his pts how long this med seems to be taking to start working? ValleyGurl

Vallygurl, yes he did say it's take "2-4 weeks" to start working. However i've done some research and found some people saying it works within the first week! I am hopefull that is true. I am on my second day, so far so good. Can't really tell yet, but I am sure 24 hrs is too soon anyway.

My doc also told me this helps with severe anxiety, and ADD. Which I have both so we'll see how it works out.

Hows yours coming along ?

:D Hey, i cant complain! So far so good for me too!!! I am thoroughly excited that i have not yet experienced any side effects! But of course it is very early in the game. I am just going to keep very positive thoughts about this med and hopefully that too will help me feel better. I am also glad that i found somebody else (you) who is taking this med to compare notes with. By the way, do you take anything else over the counter to supplement with? Talk to ya soon, Wendy

Josh, How are you????? Are you doing ok on the Cymbalta? Hey i am 4 pills in and still hanging in there. No side effects as of yet, hurray!!! But i am also waiting for it to really kick in. Boy i really hope it hurrys, dont know how much further or lower i can go. Talk to ya soon, ValleyGurl

I think Cymbalta is a good med. I've been on it since August. SO far it's working great for me. I feel MUCH BETTER these days.

I've been on Cymbalta for a week now & so far, so good. I had some nausea at first & a lingering headache for about 3 days, but I feel good now. I'm on 30mg for another week & then I go to 60mg. Not sure how that will do. I've noticed since taking Cymbalta that I get tired real easy. And when I di go to sleep I am OUT!! But...I feel like I actually rest when I sleep now. Good luck to you all!

Hi everyone. I am into my 4th week with Cymbalta at 30 mg. Doc wanted to put me up to 60 but I am fighting it after having dizzy spells with Effexor. I had some naseua and headaches at first, but that seems better. I haven't noticed the benefits of anti-anxiety part of the medicine so I'm backing it up with 1 mg. Ativan each day. My doctor may just treat me with that after the holidays, as that is my bigger problem - anxiety and not so much depression. Doesn't want me coming down off the Cymbalta during the holidays, as I had such a rough time with the Effexor. I have suffered from tinnitus in one ear for a few years (related to a health problem) but it seems worse with the Cymbalta. Also, have been experiencing some "rumbling" in my head, which seems worse since I've been on the antidepressants. Anyone else experience this problem? I go a few days with the rumbling, then a few days off. The "on" days, I am so irritable, I can hardly stand it. Knock on wood, it's day 3 now with no rumbling! Thanks for any insight and good luck to the rest of you. :)

I had a few minor side effects when I started the Cymbalta. Over time they have gone away. I know some people do get sleepy from the Cymbalta, so they take it later in the day. One even takes it at night time now. It works for them. The ringing in the ears, I had that for a bit also. I can't say for sure I got it from the Cymbalta though. I am on many meds for my liver illness as well. But that did also go away. Good luck to all of you. I really hope the Cymbalta works good for you like it does me. TIna

Hey Vallygurl, sorry for taking so long !

I am doing great. However, i'm probably on a higher dose than you. I'm on 60mg/day for now, but I feel VERY good these days. I can especially tell in the morning, I wake up happy now. It's great..

How bout you ?

Hey Vallygurl, sorry for taking so long !

I am doing great. However, i'm probably on a higher dose than you. I'm on 60mg/day for now, but I feel VERY good these days. I can especially tell in the morning, I wake up happy now. It's great..

How bout you ?
Josh, Great to hear from you!! I am sooooo glad that you are doing so well on this med! I am doing better myself. I know that i still have a ways to go but i definately feel better. No side effects either! I too was started on the 60mg. My Doc didnt want to start me out on 30mg because he said with his experience with this med so far that the pts. he started out on 30mg it hasnt done a thing for them. I cant say that i am waking up happy, but i can say that i am not having the doom and gloom feeling as soon as i open my eyes in the morning. It was great hearing from you, keep me posted!
Wendy

Josh, Great to hear from you!! I am sooooo glad that you are doing so well on this med! I am doing better myself. I know that i still have a ways to go but i definately feel better. No side effects either! I too was started on the 60mg. My Doc didnt want to start me out on 30mg because he said with his experience with this med so far that the pts. he started out on 30mg it hasnt done a thing for them. I cant say that i am waking up happy, but i can say that i am not having the doom and gloom feeling as soon as i open my eyes in the morning. It was great hearing from you, keep me posted!
Wendy
valley gurl and josh; how did you transition from your previous med if you were on anything? i have been on paxil for years and am changing to cymbalta. the doc wants me to lower the dose of the paxil gradually over a week then have 3 days with nothing ~THEN start the cymbalta! i am anxiuos to get started with it as i've heard such good things about it and the paxil has basically been doing nothing for a long time. any info you could share with me would be helpful. Thanks! :angel:

Sadies mom, Hi There! I think that once you start the Cymbalta you will be pleasantly surprised. I had tried other antidepressants and I just never really felt a whole lot different. Well with this med i started feeling the effects from it in like 4 days. I hope that i just keep feeling better and better. I had been on Lexapro for over a year, i took my last Lexapro last Thursday night and then took my first Cymbalta Friday night. So no break in between. As bad as i was feeling, i was already afraid of myself so i cant even imagine if the Doc would have wanted me to wean down on the Lexapro and then go a few days with nothing!!!! I most definately would have majorly went off the deep end!!! Good Luck! ValleyGurl

In reply to Sadies Mom in changing from old anti-depressant med to Cymbalta, the standard correct procedure is to "cross-taper." That is, go down slow on old med but start immediately at a low dose with the new med, going up on the new slowly as you go down on the old. That way you avoid the scary "trough," the low valley in between meds. Your doctor is correct to go down slowly, but those few days with NO meds is not necessary.

How is everybody doing?!

I've been following this thread with great interest, and have started 30 mg today. So far, headache, and no appetite, tired - but that isn't neccesarily the cymbalta since I'm also taking neurontin, ambien, 5HTP {giving that one up} and an occasional valium}. No terrible side effects yet.

Being mentally off-track sucks especially around the holidays! Best wishes to you all!

When first starting the Cymbalta, you may have some side effects. They should disappear within a couple of weeks. I've been on Cymbalta since August and it is working great for me. I hope it works well for all of you also.

Hi everyone...

I'm starting Cymbalta tomorrow (December 20, 2004) and was looking for a place to ask questions. This is my first time taking any type of anxiety/depression medication (that is to say, it's my first time taking something that has been legitamately prescribed for such disorders ;)), so I hope it's a good experience. Also, if anyone here who is taking Cymbalta has had a drug problem in the past, I'd like to know how it affected you. I've been fighting a hydrocodone ("Vicodin") addiction for a while now, and I quit (AGAIN) so that I could try some legitamate medications that might help me feel better on a more consistent basis. My doctor told me to take 30mg for the first week, and then 60mg after that. He did not recommend that I see him again for another 3 weeks, is this normal? He did not schedule an appointment for me before the dosage increase, he just told me to go to 60mg after one week. Obviously, if side effects are unbearable, or my depression/anxiety worsens, I won't up the dose until I talk with him, but I found this odd. Any feedback would be great, thanks.

My doctor kind of did this also. I see my doctor every week for my liver illnes anyways. But after being on 30mg for about 2 weeks he told me to up it to 60mg. It is good that he started you on 30mg and then to up it to 60mg. If you have any problems , give him a call. Also some people do have some minor side effects in the beginning. THey should go away after a bit. I personally didn't really have any. Goood luck to you.

vamp...

thank you for the advice...today is only day one for me at 30mg but i feel extremely exhausted and i'm about to take a long nap although it's only 3:30pm. last night i did not get much sleep so that may have something to do with it, but it would not normally make me this tired (i already fell asleep, but had to wake up to drive to therapy, which was not fun)...

anything else i should expect? when did you start to feel less depressed? any side effects that do NOT fade with time?

let me know, thanks again.

--opiates

opiateskill, this is my fourth day on 30 mg cymbalta. The first day I took too many sleeping pills to get even a small amount of sleep, and couldn't keep my eyes open te next day. I am noticing a slight improvement in mood. Side effects are a decrease in appetite, occasional minor nausau, a spacy feeling, feeling a bit wound, and frequent wakening. The insomnia is the most troubling, but as long as I get enough sleep, I'm not fatigued. Zoloft, lexapro and remeron all had way more side effects for me.

I sure hope that the sleep problem goes away. Right now, I'm awake half the nighht, then take sleeping pills and sleep until noon.

I think we need to give our bodies time to adjust to new meds. Let's keep each other posted.

opiateskill, this is my fourth day on 30 mg cymbalta. The first day I took too many sleeping pills to get even a small amount of sleep, and couldn't keep my eyes open te next day. I am noticing a slight improvement in mood. Side effects are a decrease in appetite, occasional minor nausau, a spacy feeling, feeling a bit wound, and frequent wakening. The insomnia is the most troubling, but as long as I get enough sleep, I'm not fatigued. Zoloft, lexapro and remeron all had way more side effects for me.

I sure hope that the sleep problem goes away. Right now, I'm awake half the nighht, then take sleeping pills and sleep until noon.

I think we need to give our bodies time to adjust to new meds. Let's keep each other posted.

Guineapig, definately. I like your screen name, I feel like i can relate lol. i was so tired and had a weird feeling and was constantly yawning before, but i just feel sort of wired and out of it...my therapist told me the usual adjustment period is about 1 week, so you're right, we should give it time. can i ask how severe your depression is? i'm not the type of guy who can't get up in the morning, and i want to know with whom i'm comparing my notes. i most likely suffer from dysthamia (a long-lasting, low-level depression) which has been going on for years. sometimes i cry randomly (or because a song sounds a certain way), but mostly i just feel out of touch with myself and spacey (even once i got off drugs!) any way, just let me know how you're feeling and i'll do the same. i'm glad i found someone in a similar boat as me, come to the boards often and i will too.

-opiates

I like your screen name too! I think that our depression is a little different, as when I'm not in a depressive episode I'm a generally happy person. Depression for me always begins with anxiety overload, and accompanies the depression, making it harder to treat. In the past, I've been able to pull myself out of it within a few weeks or months without meds, but this latest bout has been like nothing I've experienced before. I'd say my depression is serious, though through great effort, I'm not incapacitated by it. I just keep forcing myself to get out and do things. I can certainly relate to the out-of-touch, spacy, sad feeling you describe. Things that used to bring me pleasure just don't any more; they're at best a distraction. This latest year or so has been very difficult, with several disappointing antidepressant trials. I was never into drugs, big time, but sometimes I miss the high of a joint or two!

Yes, let's keep in touch!

Cymbalta works for me good. I had some side effects in Aug when I first started it. Insomnia is a lot worse but no more nausea or headaches. Also a tip for you...please PLEASE PLEASE don't let your prescriptions run out but for getting them refilled. I had to wait for the pharmacy to get it, then I didn't have time to get it one day. It was about 5 days without meds, and I know it was a short time. This sounds crazy but I felt so bad for those days not on meds. That of course made me feel worse, because it made me feel like I was weak and addicted to drugs. Not good for that whole depression thing. Do you think it can clear out of your body that fast? Or was it in my head? I was asking myself questions over and over. Any ways, it does work great if you remember to take it.
Love Amy

Cymbalta works for me good. I had some side effects in Aug when I first started it. Insomnia is a lot worse but no more nausea or headaches. Also a tip for you...please PLEASE PLEASE don't let your prescriptions run out but for getting them refilled. I had to wait for the pharmacy to get it, then I didn't have time to get it one day. It was about 5 days without meds, and I know it was a short time. This sounds crazy but I felt so bad for those days not on meds. That of course made me feel worse, because it made me feel like I was weak and addicted to drugs. Not good for that whole depression thing. Do you think it can clear out of your body that fast? Or was it in my head? I was asking myself questions over and over. Any ways, it does work great if you remember to take it.
Love Amy

I don't know what the half-life of Cymbalta is, but I've read about people taking other anti-depressants who feel sick if they miss their dose by an hour, so I think 5 days is a substantial amount of time for it to leave your system enough to the point where you're hurting! I have a question...my prescription bottle says specifically, "no refills". is this a mistake, or does my doctor want to see me again before refilling my prescription? the FIRST day i saw the bottle (weeks before i actually started taking them) i noticed this, and i've read horrible reports about the "cessation symptoms" or whatever for anti-depressants.

Guineapig: I can relate. Especially what you said about activities that used to be fun now just serving as a distraction at best. I try to keep myself busy all the time, but I'm more tired than I should be, and what really keeps me pent up is my social anxiety, which is relentless and difficult to deal with. I hope Cymbalta has good cross-over effects for social anxiety, I've read a few reports saying it does. Keep in touch

My doctor only gives me two refills at a time. Then I have to see him for the next set.

has anyone here come off efexor and gone onto cymbalta. i understand they are similar in that they both block seretonin and non-adrenalin. I am interested in hearing if it has made the coming off efexor easier by cross tapering - due to the short half life of effexor it is apparently a bugger to come off. anyone know the half life of cymbalta. im so annoyed that it is not available in the UK yet as I hear good things about it. Ive been on efexor for 10 weeks and it is working but has not made me depression free - you know the point you get to when you realise you are not thinking of feeling crap all of the time. im up to 225mg effexor going up to 300mg soon, hopefully that will do the trick. i used to be on Cipralex and it made me 100% for 5 years until i took recreational drugs :nono: in june and brought the depression back with almighty force.

imatestwentbad, how do you deal with the insomnia? I hate it!

One thing that made me nervous initially about starting this drug was the half-life. Five days is a long time to be off any psyc. drug, but especially cymbalta or effexor - must have been hell!

opiateskill, your doctor certainly wasn't very clear with you! I would call him ASP and ask for specifics. It's a real challenge to find a knowledgable, communicative, caring doctor these days. Often, patients are rushed through, and when you're talking about experimenting with the mind, this is a big mistake IMO! My pysc. nurse is just o.k. When I asked her about cymbalta/effexor withdrawal, she said there was none - yeh, right!

I was told that zoloft is great for social anxiety, so if this med doesn't do the trick, that might be one to consider, opiateskill. My son developed pretty bad social anxiety in junior high along with ocd, and a short course of zoloft pulled him right out of it.

In reply to Sadies Mom in changing from old anti-depressant med to Cymbalta, the standard correct procedure is to "cross-taper." That is, go down slow on old med but start immediately at a low dose with the new med, going up on the new slowly as you go down on the old. That way you avoid the scary "trough," the low valley in between meds. Your doctor is correct to go down slowly, but those few days with NO meds is not necessary.
hello everyone; I have now been on the Cymbalta for a almost a week. what i did was call the manufacturers info line and spoke with a rep there. they told me there was no worry about the cross tapering. so i finished the tapering i was doing on the paxil and started the cymbalta the next day. so far~no problems and dare i say i feel a bit better?! there is a bit of nausea but i can deal with that. i am so positive about this change and truly hope it helps me with the depression and chronic pain. thanks for all the replies to this thread~this has been great. good luck to all. :angel:

Guineapig...

I do feel as though I was rushed through this process, in fact the psychiatrist really only asked questions that would determine whether or not I was depressed, and we never went into my social anxiety issues (having social anxiety, I was too worried during the session to remember half of the stuff I knew I wanted to tell him). But the good news is that I feel less strange on day two. I was actually hesitant to take it today, but I went through with it. Insomnia (aside from the first few hours where I felt tired but this may have other causes) is a problem for me too. Last night I hardly slept, literally. The strange thing is that I don't even really feel tired today. We'll see how it goes. I doubt that my psychiatrist would prescribe a sleeping medicine for me because most are addictive (although I guess some might not be) and he knows that I've had problems with addiction in the past. Oh well.

opiateskill, the factory-line menality of rushing patients through is why so many of us feel the need to do our own research! Sad state of affairs, isn't it?

Day five for me. A bit rough. Depressed, spacy and edgy. I was able to sleep with pills, but hate to take them. Have you tried benedral? I don't like it, but others swear by it for sleep. I'm encouraged to know that the insomnia side effect goes away - for some!

opiateskill, the factory-line menality of rushing patients through is why so many of us feel the need to do our own research! Sad state of affairs, isn't it?

Day five for me. A bit rough. Depressed, spacy and edgy. I was able to sleep with pills, but hate to take them. Have you tried benedral? I don't like it, but others swear by it for sleep. I'm encouraged to know that the insomnia side effect goes away - for some!

No, I haven't tried Benadryl. In fact is 8:20pm here and i just awoke from a two hour nap. I woke up, looked at my clock, and rushed to take a shower before I realized that it's 8:20 PM and not 8:20 AM! (I have to be somewhere tomorrow morning). I feel...in a word...drugged. Slight metal taste in my mouth, spacey head feeling, going from moderate hyperness to sleepiness. This is not how I wanted to feel as I approached Christmas. If, by the end of the first week of use, my side effects don't start to dissipate, I am not going to increase the dosage. However, I don't know if I should continue to take the 30mg or not, since I definately won't be able to see my psychiatrist for a while (I've concluded that I don't like this man very much).

Any pointers from anyone on how to get a restful night's sleep with something that can be bought over-the-counter? I'm going to increase my melatonin intake and see if that helps. After I get up from a night of non-sleep, I don't feel quite tired, just wired and spaced out. Then in the late afternoon it hits me and I'm out for a while. Repeat: I feel drugged.

Yup, I feel your pain! I know that spacy, drugged feeling well. I'm sticking to 30 for two or three weeks , then may try to increase to 40 mg, rather than 60. I do know that initial side effects can be quite rough, with no guarantees that any one med will work in the long-run. But if it does, wouldn't it all be worth it?

Besides benedral, HTP worked well for me after a few days {when not taking antidepressants} for sleep. It's not advised, however, that this supplement be taken with antidepressants, because of potential for serotonin syndrome. You might want to ask your doc about remeron or neurontin for sleep, as these aren't considered addictive, and he might be more apt to prescribe them. Remeron {actually an antidepresant in higher doses}, in particular, knocks me on my butt!

Hi All, First of all, JOSH..... Where have you gone, AGAIN???? I want to know how you are doing on the Cymbalta seeing how we both started on the same day!!!!!

OPIATESKILL, I read your posts on the other board, as i am an addict with my drug of choice being Vicodin. I am now on day 12 of the Cymbalta. When i started taking it i was still going through a bit of the wd's from the vic. I had been on Lexapro for my depression for quite sometime, it never really lifted the dark gloomy cloud but i managed. My life became overly stressed and the depression became sooooo bad that i hated everyone and myself. When i would first wake up in the morning, i was so depressed that i wished that i didnt wake up. I would be sick and nauseated before even getting out of bed. So i went to the doc and explained it all to him and that is when he put me on the Cymbalta. No cross taper, just stopped the lexapro CT and started on 60 MG CYMBALTA the next day. The doc just wanted to see me back in 2 weeks. I go back and see him tomorrow. I feel in my experience that the cymbalta is a miracle drug. Even though i started out on the 60 mg ( the doc said with his prescribing experience with the pts he started out on 30mg he nor the pts noticed any effects, he feels that the 30mgs is worthless) i have had no side effects what so ever!!!!! I noticed the med working pretty good by the 4th day. Thank God, i dont know what would have happened to me if it hadnt worked so quickly. So anyway, that is my experience. I really hope you stick it out and i hope that the side effects you are feeling do go away very soon. Oh yeah, everybody is different, but just to let you know, i have been on 1800 mgs of neurontin a day and it doesnt do anything as far as making me sleep better. My sleep pattern has been screwed up for awhile so the cymbalta has nothing to do with it. My addiction is what started the sleep problem. Hope i helped some. I will be reading your posts here and there! lol ValleyGurl (Wendy)

P.S. Guineapig: I hope for the best for you too! Give the cymbalta a chance and i think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Opiteskillooo- When I first started the meds, my doc wanted me to come back the first and second two weeks. So that was three times visiting the doc before she gave me 12 refills. I had already planned those appointments while I was still there. I suppose the no refills thing is because they want to see if it is the right dose for you first. Plus, she gave me free samples of it because it was so new the pharms didn't have it yet. Call the doc and make appt if you didn't already. See if they have some samples lying around if your next appt is far away. Being on and off of these meds so quickly is VERY annoying. I don't want that to happen to you too!!

Guineapig5- My doc said I still looked annoyed when I last visited her and I told her I have worse insomnia since being on these meds. She said lack of good sleep is from many things and it makes depression worse. It makes an achey body too. She gave me Sonata from sleep. It is a sleeping pill. I was scared to take sleeping pills, but I don't have to take them everyday. And I don't take them unless I know I need a good night sleep like for a test at school. They can only give 2 refills at a time since they are a C4 or C5 drug. She said they are short lived and work just 4 hours, If I wake up in the middle of the night with 4 hours till I have to get up then I can still take one. That is good because that is common for people not to go and STAY asleep with insomnia.

love Amy

Hi All, First of all, JOSH..... Where have you gone, AGAIN???? I want to know how you are doing on the Cymbalta seeing how we both started on the same day!!!!!

OPIATESKILL, I read your posts on the other board, as i am an addict with my drug of choice being Vicodin. I am now on day 12 of the Cymbalta. When i started taking it i was still going through a bit of the wd's from the vic. I had been on Lexapro for my depression for quite sometime, it never really lifted the dark gloomy cloud but i managed. My life became overly stressed and the depression became sooooo bad that i hated everyone and myself. When i would first wake up in the morning, i was so depressed that i wished that i didnt wake up. I would be sick and nauseated before even getting out of bed. So i went to the doc and explained it all to him and that is when he put me on the Cymbalta. No cross taper, just stopped the lexapro CT and started on 60 MG CYMBALTA the next day. The doc just wanted to see me back in 2 weeks. I go back and see him tomorrow. I feel in my experience that the cymbalta is a miracle drug. Even though i started out on the 60 mg ( the doc said with his prescribing experience with the pts he started out on 30mg he nor the pts noticed any effects, he feels that the 30mgs is worthless) i have had no side effects what so ever!!!!! I noticed the med working pretty good by the 4th day. Thank God, i dont know what would have happened to me if it hadnt worked so quickly. So anyway, that is my experience. I really hope you stick it out and i hope that the side effects you are feeling do go away very soon. Oh yeah, everybody is different, but just to let you know, i have been on 1800 mgs of neurontin a day and it doesnt do anything as far as making me sleep better. My sleep pattern has been screwed up for awhile so the cymbalta has nothing to do with it. My addiction is what started the sleep problem. Hope i helped some. I will be reading your posts here and there! lol ValleyGurl (Wendy)

P.S. Guineapig: I hope for the best for you too! Give the cymbalta a chance and i think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Valleygurl...

Someone on the addiction board told me to contact you but I didn't know how, I'm glad you found me. Here's what happened to me in an over-simplified nutshell: I quit a year-long addiction to vicodin for 3 months, relapsed for about 3 weeks, then got off of them again. On day 4 of my new sobriety I started taking Cymbalta. Although this time around I didn't experience any severe physical withdrawel, I'm sure the mental stuff was still in the process of restoration. I think maybe I should take the Cymbalta very very early in the morning instead of the early afternoon, but I don't know. I'm on my third day (haven't yet taken the pill, I'm hesitant to do it each day, ESPECIALLY because I don't want to feel drugged on Christmas, well I do, but not this type of drugged feeling) and I don't see any real noticeable results. Maybe if the side effects weren't so crappy I'd have a better mood, who knows? Anyway, keep posting, I'll be around.

Cymbalta (Duloxetine) has an elimination half-life of about 12 hours (range 8 to 17 hours).

Valleygurl, your encouragement means a lot - thanks!

Amy, I take 5 mg ambien before I got to bed and fall asleep for three or four hours, but then invariably wake up feeling tired and can't get back to sleep, even with another 5 mg. I have to take so many meds to get adaquate sleep, I'm drugged the next day - or take no meds other than ambien, and spend the next day exhausted. Either way, it stinks.

opiateskill, you are so right - sleep is essential. Let's hope our bodies adjust - and soon!

I'll be starting on Cym. & am wondering if there are any sexual side-affects. My psychiatrist said that it's such a new drug that they're not positive what they are, which also makes me scared because if they don't even know what those side-affects may be what if there are permanent side affects to this new drug that haven't been discovered? Just like how they just figured out Alleve may cause heart attack susseptability. How long has Cym. been around? Has it been in Europe longer? Most of them start off there and then we approve them in the US later. All I know is that Effexor gave me major sexual side-affects. I had been on it for so long that I hadn't realized til I got off of it that it was messing me up in that area. This is prob. an overshare but I went from getting satisfied once every few weeks to a few times a day. It totally changed a couple of days after I got off of effex. I know that w/ the effex. the sex. disfunction snuck up so subtly that I didn't know it was there or I just thought it was from something else. Has Cym. screwed up- no pun intended- anyone's sex drive?

I'm responding to the quote ..."[QUOTE=opiateskill000]

I've been fighting a hydrocodone ("Vicodin") addiction for a while now, and I quit (AGAIN) so that I could try some legitamate medications that might help me feel better on a more consistent basis. My doctor told me to take 30mg for the first week, and then 60mg after that. "
You might want to try AA or NA (narcotics anon.) to break your addiction. Even though AA deals with alcohol just substitute vicodin for that word and it's the same recovery program. I'm sure there are meeting scedules for your area on the net if you're interested.

Cymbalta (Duloxetine) has an elimination half-life of about 12 hours (range 8 to 17 hours).

What does that mean?

The Cymbalta started to really work for me a couple of weeks after starting the 60mg. Now I feel fine these days. I haven't had no sexual side effects from it either. Yes, it has been used for quite awhile over in Europe. I personnally am glad they brought it here for us.

What does that mean?

I think he was answering me when I asked how long does Cymbalta stay in your system. I had stopped taking it for a week because I couldn't get to the phamacy to get it. When he said it had a half-life of about 12 hours, 8-17hrs, that just means how long it will take to digest the med and leave your system. Too quickly if you ask me!!
Love Amy