r/cymbalta

I'm in my 4th hour of Duloxotine and I feel like I have every symptom possible.

Sweating, cold, shivering, very loose stools, headache, nausea, heart rate has risen, I feel more strange than I have ever felt on any tablet before. Head Is itchy, breathing is laboured, pure body tingles, dizzy, can bare concentrate on anything.. 60mg.

If this is what they say you have to put up with for weeks I am NOT going to last.

Is this normal! I want it out of my system I feel revolting.

Hey everyone, my girlfriend has been tapering off of duloxetine for months now. She had been taking it for at least 6 years maybe a little more. We’re ten days since she took her last 20mg dose. I’ve been keeping her in as much complete darkness as I can, she’s been getting very nauseous and dizzy like the rooms spinning, her stomach gets bothered easily, she has a hard time getting comfortable enough to sleep, and I just want to make everything more comfortable for her.

Right now I just have black out curtains up and she has a blanket over her face and I have a couple fans blowing on her because he says the cool air helps with the itchy feeling in her skin. I’ve been feeding her plain white rice and cold water.

We’re on day ten I guess I just want to know when she might start feeling like herself again, it’s been a really rough ten days she’s just been sleeping or trying to and I’ve been by her side. But is this how it’s supposed to be? She feels so fragile and she’s in so much discomfort.

Please let me know if there’s any way to help her beyond what I’ve already done, I’ll take any advice from anyone. Thank you

Since around the beginning of COVID (it started on my lady's birthday. Happy birthday, right?), I've been sitting. My back pain was so bad that I couldn't stand for much longer than 3 minutes. I walked slow with a limp and waddle. I went from being athletic enough to play a few years of competitive Semi-professional football, to having fused discs in my neck from sitting and sleeping in the same chair for years. Because of the back pain and limited range of motion in my neck, I only sleep in a bed if we are traveling and staying in a hotel (which didn't happen often because of said pain). I missed out on countless vacations, traveling opportunities, and just plenty of memories that I only know through pictures. I became depressed. I went from being a social butterfly to having anxiety. I started day drinking because "The world has shut down" and "I'm not going anywhere." Honestly, I thought it was helping because I was in less pain and not thinking about my mental ailments.

Fast forward 6+ years: I'm almost 400 lbs. My psoriasis has gotten out of control. And then my lady goes on a cruise for 9 days without me (it was paid for for both of us but I couldn't go because of my back pain). That broke me. I'm all alone, my brother just passed away, and I started having really bad thoughts.

Then without me asking, and without telling my Dr about my depression, he tells me he wants me to try Cymbalta for my back pain.

I had started a diet about two weeks before taking Cymbalta so I had lost weight strictly by cutting out beer and sweets and adding portion control. But now that I've been on it for about 3 weeks, I have about 95% less back pain. I'm so happy to wake up every morning. I've had an initial session, and then one regular session of physical therapy. The first one was before starting Cymbalta; then I went for my first real session yesterday. I think I might go to the next session just to tell them thank you and that I won't be coming back!

This medicine might not be for everyone. I read this thread and Googled about this medicine for DAYS, all day every day, before I started it. I was scared of the side effects. Fortunately I haven't had any whatsoever. Maybe a little sleep loss, but that could be because I'm not drinking like I used to.

I ran down my stairs to bring the garage out (both running and bringing the garbage out haven't happened in a really long time), then went grocery shopping at a Walmart Supercenter, walked the whole entire store, and even brought the grocery cart back to the front of the store instead of the cart corral. My lady had to ask me to walk slower so she could catch up with me in the store lol.

I know that this is a long post, but this is my experience and hopefully someone that reads this will realize that some of the success stories can be inspirational enough to try it and maybe change your life. I'm down about 35 lbs since starting (about 70 lbs in total). And tonight I'm going to surprise my daughter by walking through the airport and picking her up at her gate. She knows a little of my success, but it's gonna be a real surprise when she runs to me and I pick her up (she's 21 lol).

Thank you to everyone who posted both positive and negative experiences on this sub. They have both helped me so much. Hopefully this will help someone else.

I've been on brand name cymbalta, breckenridge duloxetine, ajanta duloxetine and now, teva duloxetine.The teva is causing me to severely sweat, if I exert myself whatsoever or go in the heat. I literally soak my clothes. It ruined my trip to Italy, as it was 95° there and I was just miserable the entire time. Drying my hair causes me to sweat. Working around the stove, causes me to sweat. Has anyone gone through a few of these generics and found one that doesn't cause the excessive sweating? I'm ready to wean off this Teva. I take it for nerve pain and would have to find an alternative. The brand name Cymbalta and Breckenridge generic didn't affect me like this.

Fuck this shit. 120mg made me have suicidal thoughts and reducing from 60mg to 30mg has triggered FUCKING URINE RETENTION. The hospital doesn’t think BLACKOUTS/DEPERSONALISATION (caused me to take a bunch of an opioid I don’t remember taking) is a problem, Chronic Vertigo and Insomnia aren’t enough of a problem to keep me until they find a reason or solution other than sending me home with a Catheter. I’ve spoken to Mental Health and they basically Rubber Stamped me.

I’m in a full blown Panic Attack and they don’t care. I stay overnight but I’m pretty sure they are going to try and send me home with one. So, I have a panic attack for 1-6 weeks (depending on how my bladder goes tonight). Don’t take this medication if you are at all HYPERMOBILE or have a History of Urinary Problems.

Fuck this and fuck my doctor for explicitly telling me “DON’T REPORT YOUR MANIA”.

I’ve been on Cymbalta for about 4 weeks for fibromyalgia and OCD. About two weeks ago I increased from 30mg to 60mg. I have ZERO appetite and I have nausea every morning. I take it before bed so I don’t have insomnia, but morning sickness is the price I pay, and no appetite. When I do eat, it’ll be some time between 4pm-8pm and like half a meal. I don’t know what to do— it’s frustrating and not helping my energy levels. I want to be able to enjoy food! I’m concerned because I’ve been losing weight since starting.

Hello everyone! I just got prescribed 60mg cymbalta in addition to my 15mg buspirone Ive been taking 3x a day.

I took it last night, and I slept so horrible, I woke up feeling like I took molly and my pupils were huge, and these weird constant rumination thoughts/ weird dreams but not fully asleep. Kinda freaked me out a bit but I’m feeling better a few hours later. I was thinking of skipping todays dose and taking it tomorrow in the morning instead of night time, curious what has worked best for you?

I’m 37 years old and male. Since childhood, around the age of 5, I had hypnagogic hallucinations and a fear of being alone. At 14, I developed persistent lethargy and fatigue.

In the fall of 2007, my condition became significantly worse. I developed derealization, my mood deteriorated, and my anxiety increased. Since then, these symptoms would regularly come back every autumn, while I would usually feel somewhat better during the summer.

In 2014, my health deteriorated even more severely. As far as I remember, I developed more than 10 different symptoms: a feeling of shortness of breath, heart problems, derealization, worsening hearing, sadness, low mood, irritability, intrusive thoughts, sleep problems, severe evening sleepiness, hypnagogic hallucinations, lack of motivation to do anything, chronic fatigue, worsening memory, migraines, and insomnia.

Since then, I had been treated with different courses of medication, but no one in my country could accurately determine the cause of my condition. I was prescribed different antidepressants that simply did not work well for me, usually for 2–3 months at a time. I was also given various IV infusions. Doctors were convinced that everything was related to some kind of brain defect or impaired blood circulation in the brain, but no one considered that the underlying problem could actually be depression.

Last year, I started talking to artificial intelligence. Different AI systems suggested that I might have recurrent depression and recommended discussing duloxetine with a doctor, especially because I was also experiencing pain.

Eventually, I found a good doctor in my region and, under his supervision, started taking duloxetine (Cymbalta), initially at 30 mg per day.

At first, I experienced constipation, a slight increase in blood pressure, and headaches. After about 40 days, the dose was increased to 60 mg as the headaches and constipation started to improve.

During the first 2–3 months, I noticed practically no improvement. In fact, my sleep became worse, and sometimes I even felt that my condition was getting worse. I started to doubt whether the medication was working at all.

But around the fourth month, I began to notice gradual improvement. The constipation almost completely disappeared, my mood started to improve, and then other symptoms gradually began to fade as well: anxiety, sadness, low mood, the feeling of shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, and insomnia.

I also used to have very unpleasant dreams in which I felt like I was getting stuck in narrow spaces. Over time, this went away too.

My memory also improved, I became much more active, the hypnagogic hallucinations disappeared, my irritability went away, and I no longer experienced the severe sleepiness I used to have in the evenings.

I have now been taking duloxetine for 7 months. There are two minor side effects that I still notice.

First, it takes longer to reach orgasm, and the sensation is not as intense as it used to be, although both sensitivity and the intensity of the sensation have gradually started to recover.

Second, I gained some weight. I used to be very thin, and now my weight is actually normal for me. Personally, I have not experienced significant weight gain, although some people say that they gain a lot of weight on this medication.

I understand that my experience is individual and that duloxetine does not work for everyone. But in my particular case, this medication has had a very significant positive impact on my quality of life.

Please no negative stories. I know that some people have experienced horrific side effects and I know how debilitating the withdrawals are. I need success stories only.

I'm a 39 year old mother to 5 kids. Am currently caring for them along with a sick husband and a buttload of animals.

I'm extremely fatigued. Have not had any energy for the last 6 months. Am dealing with debilitating headaches, nerve pain, insomnia, back pain and depression. I've come to realize I have no choice, but to try meds.

What side effects if any did you experience? How long did they last?

Will this medicine help with the chronic fatigue?

Should I take this med in the AM or PM?

How long until you felt positive effects?

My only desire is to go back to having fun with my kids and being able to manage my household without crying every night from all the pain I'm in. I haven't been able to cook an actual meal or deep clean my house in such a long time. I can't even remember the last time I laughed.

Dr has me on 10.5mg caplyta for
Last 3 weeks. I also been taking 5mg lexapro for 20 years and klonopin 1mg 20 years. The caplyta is giving me brain fog from hell at 3 weeks. The dr wants me to do a direct switch from lexapro to
Cymbalta . I have bad anxiety, depression. Is this a good idea ?

There is so much doom and gloom on this sub, and I understand that everyone responds differently. However I feel a lot of people give up fast, catastrophize, or panic-quit because of overthinking the bad posts. Fair warning that my post will be a bit lengthy to relate my experience as best as possible.

Male, 50
I was prescribed 30 mg of duloextine for "unexplained body pain" about one year ago. I've been experiencing this pain for about 10 years. It seems to be inflammation, pain, and migraines aggravated by allergic reactions to pollen, dust, and mold, but no allergist/immunologist or orthopedist has been able to help. They've sent me to physical therapy multiple times, have prescribed muscle relaxers, allergy shots, low dose naltrexone and gabapentin. Nothing has worked well. Gabapentin at least has helped calm things down enough at night than I could sleep just "ok."

The first week was difficult. The first day I took it in the mid-morning and by the afternoon I was sweating and having hot flashes. I could not sleep at all that night. The second day I tried to take it at night. This was even worse and could not sleep again. My anxiety was through the roof about this and was very concerned about continuing. Day three I skipped just in an attempt to get a night's sleep which worked. Day four I went back to morning in the hopes it wouldn't be as bad at night. A huge key here was night four was the first day I also took my gabapentin with it (900 mg). That really seemed to be the key to calming everything down for sleep. Honestly it was like how I felt the doctors had described what gabapentin was supposed to do from the beginning.

That was the beginning of this medicine really working well for me. Pain that I'd felt nearly every day for the last several years was nearly gone. I didn't even realize I had a baseline level of pain in my head every day. Now it was just gone. I couldn't believe it. I had been walking around with a constant pain in my head that had become so normal I didn't even realize it was there. My back pain, groin pain, and feet/hand pain was all gone. I know a lot of people say the medicine was "demotivating," but to me I was finally feeling satisfied for the first time in years. Yes a lot of my motivation to occupy myself with the next thing like working out, chores, dinner, browsing the web, watching tv wasn't there. The first month I was also pretty drowsy every afternoon, and it was hard to stay awake. These two things mostly resolved about one to two months in.

My wife said she noticed a huge difference in my mental state. I was more like I was 20 years ago, less angry, less irritable, less impatient. She was right. The smallest things that would bother me were now no big deal. One of the things I realized once everything started clicking well was that in the past several years I had probably never yawned as a sign of tiredness. Now I was yawning and feeling drowsy at appropriate times. Falling asleep, which had always been difficult even as a child, was a breeze.

The bad:

About five to six months in I started gaining weight. I was probably a little underweight prior to starting and I was riding a peloton six or seven days a week. After starting duloxeine and feeling "satisfied" I stopped working out as much, maybe 2-3 days a week at this point. Nothing else changed though, and I'm not sure what happened at the five to six month mark that kicked this off. Unfortunately this has continued to today where I've gained about 20 pounds since starting. I'm even working out more now, about four to five times a week, walking more at work, and eating less (intentionally). I've seen others say they have a "carb craving," but I've never had that. I have wondered if this is somehow counteracting testosterone. This by far has been the most upsetting side effect.

Constipation started fairly early. I've always been a very regular person. For the past 20 years it's pretty much been 10 AM every day I have a movement and I'm done for the day. This was difficult to work through and uncomfortable. I tried prunes and added fiber, but their efficacy was debatable. They certainly didn't hurt, but I expected them to work better. About eight months in I added a once daily probiotic (Nature Made 15 billion CFU), and returned to taking a magnesium oxide supplement at lunch. Things are not normal, but they are much improved since adding the probiotic.

I have been getting "hot flashes" and excessive sweating since starting. I don't know if there is much that can be done about this. Taking it in the morning has eliminated evening hot flashes, but it has made weekend afternoon naps difficult. I was already someone who sweats a lot, but now it's in overdrive. It's very difficult to wear "dri-fit" or synthetic type clothing now. They really cause the sweat to stink, and it sticks to the clothing. I've mostly taken to wearing cotton only over the summer. The cotton at least never smells bad.

About eight months in I had blood work done which showed elevated liver values. I should be getting a recheck of this in the next couple of months.

I was never a huge drinker, but I liked to have a healthy amount of drinks on vacation (2-4 in the evenings). Never to the point of getting drunk or out of control. On vacation seven months in I started the first day drinking what I normally would, and had a "blackout" event. Pretty much the first time that's ever happened. Even when younger and I would get drunk, I never blacked out. This was disturbing, and I've pretty much decided alcohol just isn't a good idea. This is not a big deal to me, as alcohol it not that important in my life, but I would be lying if I said I'm not going to miss that first drink on vacation.

More recently I started getting acid reflux which I've never had. I assume it's related only because my diet has not really changed (in terms of what I eat).

The neutral:

The duloxetine has brought down my libido which was incredibly, incredibly high. I still have no issues getting an erection or having sex. I have had a few instances of going "soft" during sex, but have been able to recover and finish. Finishing is a bit more difficult, but not in a bad way. I can go longer than previously which is a good thing. I'm no longer upset or stewing about not having sex (which was a marriage issue).

There are some days where the duloxetine just is not enough to overcome whatever environmental factors cause my pain. So I have had days where I feel like I used to before starting the medicine.

One year analysis:

I'm going to say 60% good, 35% bad, 5% neutral. I absolutely hate the weight gain and that nothing seems to help. I don't like that acid reflux has now popped up. I'm concerned about the liver values, and will see at the end of the month where that stands. I spoke with one of my doctors about moving to venlafaxine in the hope of mitigating the worst of the side effects (the recent beginning of acid reflux tipped the scale on this). He said it was possible, but reminded me that it works in much the same way so there's no telling (especially as far as the liver is concerned).

I've only missed either three or four days of taking the duloxetine. I had no "withdrawal" symptoms on these days.

One more note about sleep issues. The 900 mg of gabapentin was very helpful. The one other thing I added (about six months in) was 200 mg magnesium glycinate and 500 mg vitamin c towards the end of my dinner meal. This has worked really, really well.

Thanks for reading.

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. :/

I think my symptoms began 2 days after running out. You can call the pharmacy and if your bottle's instructions were wrong, and that's the reason you ran out, because the quantity was wrong; thats a doctor error and my friend the pharmacy tech said that'll waive the price of your early second bottle. To $0. So don't be me

I'm sure you all know this has side effects of spiralling and anxiety attack. I began experiencing pointless thoughts of like, dwelling on my distant past, ruminating, and it became pointless thoughts like "Everyone hates me." and "I'll never be lovable."

Then I realized I'm being ridiculous and tried to come out of it with distraction. Which is typical. But once I was doing distractions, the crying continued profusely, like a watering can. Even past the point of intrusive thoughts, I'd just be sitting there thinking of anything fun, even watching a show, and still sobbing and pouring tears.

So yeah its hard to breathe when you're crying as hard as possible. At that point it becomes neurological crying, crying for zero reason, like a neuropathy.

"Rigidity" is a sign of serotonin syndrome but I wasn't progressing further into seizures so that's good.

So yeah it became hard to catch my breath. I go to the hospital for an Ativan, a benzo, which is a huge time commitment. I get lowest triage (mildest health urgency) and wait 3 hours in the waiting room. My vitals must've been fine. I'm sobbing loudly and uncontrollably, couldn't use my phone, just mildly entertained by the thought of what the poor people in this lobby were thinking of me.

"Maybe she lost someone" or "She must be on drugs because WOW thats nonstop." And that'd be true lol

I finally get the FOUR ativan (2mg), get put in a bed, and wait for discharge since I'm 100% improved. Now the issue is picking up cymbalta, so.. obviously once I called and talked to the pharmacist at length about my situation, she put in the first paragraph's conclusion (doctor error) and I went and got my prescription after I left the hospital.

I'm pretty tough but wanted everyone to know the worst case or nearly

Olá, boa tarde! Tudo bem com vocês?

Iniciei o uso do Cymbalta já em 60mg por que estava trocando de Zoloft 50mg. Estou a 11 dias nisso. Desde que comecei não tenho mais ansiedade mas minha motivação foi toda embora, não tenho ânimo para fazer absolutamente nada a não ser ficar deitado. Antes disso eu estava muito depressivo, mas agora não sinto nada.

Alguém com experiência semelhante que possa dar uma ajuda? Alguém melhorou com o tempo? Ou com a troca da medicação?