Life Update

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Hey Guys,

So the memory issues haven't gone away unfortunately. It might be that I'm on too many meds - so I'm going to talk to my psychiatrist and see if I can get a med change in that regard.

Right now, I'm on:

60mg Latuda
60mg Cymbalta
5mg Buspar (2x a day)

And I currently am struggling with having a drugged feeling; like I feel out of it when I am out and about. Kind of obsessing over it because I hate how I feel and a just want to feel normal again. Luckily my appointment is this Tuesday so I'm going to raise my concerns with my psychiatrist and hopefully he can lower my dosages and see if that makes a difference in my cognitive issues.

Bladder health has been touch and go - sometimes I can go hours with holding and other times it feels like i go every 10-15 minutes during the day.

This sucks -__-

Sincerely,
Honeeecombs

 

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I'm sorry, your feeling so horrible. Definitely, see if they can adjust your meds,I hope it helps.

I quit taking my IC meds cause they made me feel horrible, would rather manage the leaking than feel "muddled" all day. Now that I'm off the meds some times I don't leak at all, while other times I loose control and flood whatever I'm wearing. Remember your never alone.

Feel better, and stay positive!
Bryce

 

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Hey HC,
Sorry you are going through this, but you are not alone. All of these medications are designed to reduce paranoia & anxiety by blocking seratonin and dopamine. Often resulting in that foggy, no energy state. I’ve heard it explained as living with a wall of wax paper between you & the rest of the world, yet you don’t have the energy to tear it down.
Often they give a loading dose just to bring your anxiety level down, essentially giving your body & mind a rest. I highly suggest taking careful notes as to what you are thinking and how you are feeling at what time of day. Energy level, hours of sleep, how well you sleep. How & what you eat, what if any exercise. Simple walking can dramatically change the body’s uptake or absorption of this type of medication. Each of the 3 medications are ALMOST interchangeable, but not quite. They each are designed to reduce your anxiety, but also have other individual components designed to deal with a specific imbalance of chemicals in the brain. The more specific information you provide, the better the Doc can treat you.
Wishing you best of luck, this can be a long term care program as these meds are designed amplify and reduce different brain chemicals, and this has to be done slowly & very carefully, but there are new medications all the time.
I am obviously not a Doctor, just someone who cares about you,annd have some experience with some of complications you face!

 

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It's possible you are over medicated. The doctor doesn't know this unless you inform them

 

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@Honeeecombs Hello. I'm a psychiatric provider, and I often work with the medications you listed. It is not unheard of patients to respond to antidepressants like Cymbalta in the way you described. Is your Cymbalta dose broken up into two or three times a day? Or do you take 60 mg all at once? The dosing schedule can impact how one responds to medication. For example, Cymbalta and Buspar are known to be sedating. If you are taking them in the morning or the middle of the day, they can cause sluggishness. If this is the case, try taking them in the evening or at bedtime, and see if you feel less lethargic during the day. Another factor can be the length of time you have been taking the medications. Sometimes the body needs an adjustment period before it rights itself. Although your Buspar dose is fairly low, I have seen more patients have side effects from it than from the other two medications you listed, including the side effects you described. It's also been my experience that it is the least efficacious of the three medications in your treatment plan. You might try doing without it for a couple of days to see if the side effects dissipate. It should also go without say that these medications are not interacting adversely with other medications you might be taking. Finally, be careful about advice that says the three medications are interchangeable. They are not. They are each in different drug classes, and they work on different neurotransmitters, which can cause different reactions.

Each patient is different, so it is possible that you are over-medicated with your current treatment plan. But, honestly, it is a pretty standard plan with dosing that is well-within the normal range. That doesn't mean you are not having an adverse reaction to one or more of the medications. Sometimes patients are "slow metabolizers" of a particular medication, which would then cause them to hold on to the medication in their system for longer than normal, leading to side effects.

It's good you will soon meet with your psychiatrist. Psychiatrists have a tendency to be dismissive of patient concerns/complaints, so make sure your psychiatrist hears you, has implemented a change in your treatment plan that you approve of, and has scheduled a follow up in no more than a month for the two of you to discuss improvements and/or further adjustments.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

 

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@Honeeecombs, I do sympathize with you and understand, as it seems mine also make me foggy too, but tried others they told me too, but haven't found the right one yet. Are they recommending other procedures?

 

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@Honeeecombs Sorry to hear you’re still struggling with your memory.

I’ve been on Cymbalta for 7.5 years for ADHD, depression, motivation, and back pain relief. I started at 60mg then went up to 120 for my back’s sake (that was right after I fell down the cliff), then I stayed at 60mg for six years. Eventually, I noticed that Cymbalta made me kind of just stare at the wall and accomplish nothing. It absolutely gave me brain fog and memory problems. So now I only take 20 mg. I’ve tried to go all the way off of it but it but I really do need it for the pain back pain relief. I still feel it gives me that stare-at-the-wall zombie brain fog feeling.

Stopping Cymbalta is such a hard-core serious thing to withdraw from that there is actually a condition called Cymbalta Withdrawal Syndrome. Be sure to Google it because your psychiatrist might not even be aware of it, though if he’s not aware of it, he has no business prescribing that medication. Cymbalta Withdrawal Syndrome gave me a seizure that landed me in the hospital. You have to do a teeny tiny little bit of tapered withdrawal very, very slowly. I would spend six months getting off of 60 mg if I were you. It’s a capsule that has little balls inside of it and you have to figure out how to count those balls and gradually remove like two of them every week. If you don’t, you’ll have the worst headaches you’ve ever had in your life - wayyyyyyy worse than migraine headaches - and you’ll feel like there’s lightning going off inside of your brain for weeks if you try to stop suddenly. You’ll literally see in your mom’s eye shocking amounts of brain sparks that actually hurt. It’s horrible! It’s part of why I haven’t finished going off the final 20mg. But that is a goal of mine in 2024.

Instead of Cymbalta, I used to take Strattera and found it *much* more useful and pleasant as a motivator. Strattera gave me zero side effects unless I took it after 10:00 a.m., in which case it could give me a bit of insomnia. But Cymbalta also causes insomnia. Strattera really helped me get up and get going early in the morning. Strattera has most of the same mental health benefits that Cymbalta has, except better. It just doesn’t help with back pain. Strattera is also very easy to stop cold turkey.

I know you and I have different mental health diagnoses, but perhaps you can ask your doctor about getting off of Cymbalta and onto Strattera instead. I had no brain fog nor memory problems on Strattera.

Here are 10 possible side effects of Cymbalta withdrawal. Every if you’re slowly tapering off Cymbalta, you will still likely have some extent of these symptoms. I had all of them:
Severe Headaches
Brain Zaps
Dizziness or vertigo
Sweating
Nausea
Fidgeting
Muscle cramps
Heart palpitations
Insomnia
Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
Irritability

Yep, it’s hell. Nobody ever tells you how horrible it’s going to be getting off of it when you first start taking that medication, right? Nobody told me! I’ve tried to go off of it multiple times. I initially tried to stop it cold turkey and waited for three weeks for the symptoms to subside but they didn’t subside at all. So I went back on it and then did a gradual taper from 120 down to 60 and then eventually six years, back down again from 60 to 20. Now that I’ve been on it for so many years, even getting off the final 20mg is going to be pure hell. I know my back pain will in tease but I have spine/pain doctor now who can take care of that without stupid Cymbalta.

So yes, do talk to your psychiatrist about all of this and please don’t make any changes until you’ve spoken with him/her first

 

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I'm suspicious about too many medications. I spent 7 months in a spinal injury hospital where I was prescribed 32 tablets per day. Now I take 5 occasionally 6 or 7.

 

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@BarrySimpson94, do you have any idea what all of them were? I'm sure several for pain. How did you get off of them?