possible fibro, prescribed cymbalta
hi all. so i’ve had horrible pain since i was a very small child (https://www.reddit.com/r/ChronicPain/s/LqLjwgkeUw). i used to wake up screaming in the middle of the night as early as probably 3 or 4 because my legs were burning in pain. i have back, leg, back of rib, and arm pain almost every single day in some regard or another. i’ve ignored it for years but now at 21 i decided 2026 was the year for trying to fix my pain. nerve problems sorta run in my family, my dad has arthritis, sciatica, and degenerative disc disease and lots of other family members suffer from sciatica for one reason or another. i figured maybe i had arthritis or something as well, but kaiser did an “unremarkable” mri on me in 2025 and said they found nothing. i was in no pain at the time of the mri. my current doctor says she sees a small amount of fluid in my L4 (?) region of the spine but she doesn’t know if that’s exactly what’s causing the pain. after lots of discussion, she’s saying it’s possibly fibro, but i don’t have a lot of tender points on the body for diagnosis. she prescribed me 20mg cymbalta/duloxetine and i was very excited to try it at first but i’ve become extremely scared and anxious about it.
i know they say don’t read up on your medication, but i couldn’t help it really. it seems everybody has complaints about this med and calls it absolutely horrible, especially withdrawals. i have pretty bad ocd, so i was thinking this could possibly be a good two birds one stone scenario, but ive grown increasingly scared since. i know meds are different for everybody, but i cant shake the feeling of anxiety. especially people saying suicidal thoughts get worse or start out of nowhere. additionally, i have two concerts planned for the 11th and 20th of this month and im so scared that this medicine could make me sick and not allow me to go to them.
i’m about to start a one month medical leave off of work to try out meds and also get some other things figured out, but i am really scared and don’t know where to go from here. today is thursday, and i told myself i would start on monday.
any and all words are welcome and appreciated, i hope to hear from a lot of you. :/