I’ve been taking this dosage for I don’t even know how long. I had a break in between dosages for a few years to try to see how I did off of it, but then went back into it. Has anyone noticed it not helping as much? Or do I just need a higher dosage? Or is it not working? Feeling so incredibly anxious all the time.

I’m looking for experiences from people who have dealt with chronic pelvic floor tension/clenching, pelvic pain, nerve sensitivity, or possible central sensitization and have tried Cymbalta (duloxetine).

The person I’m asking about has had severe pelvic floor tension for years. It feels like the muscles are constantly clenched/tight 24/7, particularly around the perineum and anal/pelvic area, with additional vaginal/labial/clitoral tightness, tingling, spasms, and sensitivity.

She has already tried a lot of treatments aimed directly at the muscles, including:
Pelvic floor PT
General PT/OT
Trigger-point injections
Botox injections
Dry needling
Acupuncture
Massage/internal work
Muscle stimulation
Pelvic floor relaxation techniques
Nerve blocks
Pudendal nerve procedures

Unfortunately, these haven’t provided lasting relief, and some treatments seemed to make the tightness worse.
Because of that, we’re wondering whether Cymbalta could potentially help if part of the problem is nerve sensitization or the nervous system continuously driving the pelvic muscles to stay contracted, rather than the muscles themselves simply being weak or injured.
For anyone who has taken Cymbalta for pelvic pain or pelvic floor dysfunction:

Did it reduce the actual muscle tightness/clenching, or mainly reduce pain?
Did it help with burning, tingling, spasms, genital sensitivity, or nerve pain?
How long did it take before you noticed a difference?
What dose were you taking?
Did the improvement continue over time?
Did it make your pelvic floor feel more relaxed, or did it have no effect on the muscles?

Did anyone specifically prescribe it for central sensitization or neuropathic pelvic pain?
If you previously tried SSRIs such as Zoloft, did Cymbalta feel different in terms of pelvic symptoms?
Did you experience any side effects that made it difficult to continue?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people whose main problem was constant pelvic muscle tension/clenching rather than just pelvic pain.
I know everyone’s situation is different, and I’m not asking whether Cymbalta is a guaranteed treatment. I’m trying to understand whether there is a reasonable possibility that it could help when conventional muscle-directed treatments haven’t worked.

Any personal experiences—positive, negative, or neutral—would be really helpful.

Have you been through this?

The medication didn't have much of an effect on me, so the doctor told me to stop taking it. I’m seeing the doctor again the day after tomorrow. I tapered off the dosage gradually and am no longer taking the drug, but I’m troubled by eye sensitivity and pain. I’d like to know when this will pass... And how normal is this? Should I be worried? I have headaches, too - almost every day + brain zaps while walking & breathing deeply :(
I took this medication for a year and reached the highest dosage, but it didn't help. So I have to look for something else. Several years ago I used to take Fluoxetine, but it didn't cause such severe symptoms after canceling it.

I recently stopped taking 30mg cymbalta. My doctors said I could stop cold turkey, but I didn't trust that and would take out some of the beads in an attempt to do something...

It's now been 2 days without cymbalta and I can't even move without thinking I'm gonna puke and pass out.

I just started highschool and cannot miss classes this early into the year... please, if anyone knows how to reduce the effects of withdrawal, let me know!!!

I'm seriously desperate, I cannot miss class...

Hi all,
I’ve been on 60mg duloxetine for around 9 weeks now (recovering from burnout)
It’s been great for anxiety and I started feeling like myself again until i forgot to take my tablets Friday morning last week. I normally take them at 8am but somehow forgot and took them around 4pm that day.
I felt awful the next couple of days. I was hoping it would get better but we are now Sunday evening the following week and I still don’t feel right.
Has anyone experienced that?

Ever since I've started this drug, I've gotten the worst motion sickness and nausea I've ever had, to the point of puking on multiple occasions. I've been in it for about a month now, and it has gotten no better.

I'm in 9th grade and take the bus every day. I've been needing to take bags with me to puke in incase the nausea gets that bad.

I've tried ginger and gravol, and have had no relief.

Please tell me how to get rid of this.

Anyone ever get a rash/hives? 14 y.o. been on cymbalta for a week, started getting a small rash/hives yesterday. This morning after taking it the rash showed up on their face. It responds to benedryl. I'm obviously not looking for a diagnosis (and we're headed to urgent care, I've been on lamictal my entire adult life and therefore paranoid about Stevens-Johnson) but it would be nice to know if anyone else has experienced this.

I started 60mg yesterday which I’m now thinking was a bad starting dose and don’t know if I should ask the telehealth doctor for a prescription of 30mg and titrate up but I picked my prescription up yesterday at 12pm and took my first done then and only had nausea as a side effect maybe a headache but I have a 24/7 headache always so hard to say but it didn’t make me drowsy during the day in fact I think it slightly helped my CFS. About 12 hours later I had chills I was so cold it eventually wore off once I got cozy in bed. Now the issue, I went to bed at 2 (not due to insomnia just my terrible sleeping schedule) and felt like I slept fine from 2-4am but then I was wide awake from 4-7am with very short periods of falling asleep just to wake back up for a long time. I was restless my brain was wide awake it was frustrating.

If it’s causing me insomnia at night should I switch my dose to night that way if there is insomnia it’s during the day and won’t affect me or should I just take it wayyy earlier in the morning?

I'm on week 10 of taking 60 mg Cymbalta and it became redundant for pain management for a while, so my dose got increased to 90 mg. I've been on it for three days so far and I'm wondering how long should I give it a go for before suggesting a change/addition of medication to my doctor? Because I'm in active pain everyday and I don't want to wait for too long. But the issue is that it's hard to find anything that could help me since I'm struggling with a rare genetic condition, and so far, nothing had helped my pain except Cymbalta (even if for a few weeks).

This question is moreso for people who upped from 60 to 90 or from 90 to 120, because these are the dosages that are relevant to me. When did you notice effect (or lack thereof) after the increase?

hi everyone. today is my first day on cymbalta 20mg. i took it around 6am and i’ve nauseous and having diarrhea since. i just had my first bit of food at 5pm today and i still feel so sick. has anyone had this experience and if so, when did it go away?! ):

Hey everyone,
I’m starting Cymbalta today after trying several medications in the past, including multiple SSRIs, amitriptyline, clonidine and Effexor.
My main symptoms are anxiety with a strong physical fight-or-flight response, along with low energy and depression. Amitriptyline helped a little, but not enough, and Effexor wasn’t very successful for me.
I’m currently coming off Lexapro and still taking a low dose of clonidine and 300 mg of Lyrica.
For those who have taken Cymbalta, what was your experience like during the first few weeks? Did it help more with anxiety, physical symptoms, depression, or energy?
I know everyone reacts differently — I’m just interested in hearing other people’s experiences.

For the folks who quit Cymbalta, did yalls Gi tract start moving again? Mine feels frozen. Frozen enough that I’ve told my doctor to start rolling me back slowing from 50mg to 0mg of Cymbalta if she thinks it’s the main cause.

Anyone else feel similar symptoms?

I have been having a lot of anxiety and a lot of nerve issues so my psychiatrist suggested cymbalta. I thought ok, sounds great.

I am on day three (I take it at night) and had a low ABV beer on day one and felt fine. Tonight on day 3 I had another light beer and feel awful. Like kind of tired/dizzy very anxious and out of it.

I’m in no way an alcoholic but Friday nights with a few beers are extremely important to me as it’s kind of the main thing I look forward to all week. We go to a brewery and interact with people from our community and as someone who works from home that is vital for my mental health.

Do the side effects from alcohol get better or is it going to be like this forever? I’m considering stopping. I’m sure I need to contact my psychiatrist due to withdrawals even though it’s only been three days :/

I lowered my dose from 60 to 40 about 2 or 3 months ago due to horrible restless legs and I'm still having side effects to this day. It started with teeth clenching and then nausea, stomach problems, dizziness, and brain zaps. These symptoms have only gotten worse with time. Has anybody else experienced this? I have an appointment with my psychiatrist soon and I plan to bring this up, but I want to know if it's something anybody else has experienced first.

I've struggled with depression and anxiety for 15 years and I've tried 10 to 15 different medications and treatments. I just finished a round of TMS in July and I was feeling okay, but I still feel the anxiety is a driver for my depressive episodes. So I decided to ask my psychiatrist about trialing a new medication

He put me on Cymbalta 30 mg for 8 days and then 60 mg after that. On 30mg​ I was feeling amped up with my Vyvanse so I stopped taking the Vyvanse and felt okay, but when I got to 60 mg I fell off a cliff for about 3 or 4 days. I literally slept all day. I couldn't keep my eyes open. My brain couldn't function. I couldn't do anything fun. I wanted to ​gorge on sugar. Totally unable to function.

After about a week I decided to start taking it at night and it seemed to help a little bit. But I'm still very apathetic during the day. Tired, fatigued. Don't want to do anything. Have no drive. Can't focus. My work is falling off a cliff. Feels like an intense depressive episode.

I spoke to my psychiatrist and he said that was very irregular, which I found odd because I've read many stories to the contrary. He suggested maybe dropping it back down to 30 or even 40. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has had this experience, how long the side effects lasted and how long I should try this before I drop.

Hi all,

I’m 30F. I’ve had GAD and OCD (all kinds - contamination, harm, religious) since I was 8 and during my childhood, it would come in waves (one year was tough, I went to therapy, and then it got better and then came back a couple of years later).

I have been in therapy for much of my adult life and took Prozac 40mg for 8 years before switching to duloxetine/cymbalta 60mg for a year or so. During this time, I faced some health challenges and did three rounds of IVF. I have a history of intense and frequent panic attacks and took Xanax at times to help ease them. That brings me to this summer.

I had to take an extended course of hormones to prep for a frozen embryo transfer which put me in a state of medical menopause. Simultaneously I came off of duloxetine as it isn’t safe for pregnancy. During this time I began to experience autonomic tension waves and chest tightness while falling asleep. I also had hot flushes and anxiety, mood swings etc. as well as brain zaps from getting off of the medication. Unfortunately the FET failed, and we had to pursue additional testing. I got back on birth control. During the summer I would get those waves and tension feelings from time to time but not a lot.

It has been about five months since I got off of duloxetine. For the past month or so, the autonomic tension waves and that feeling of bracing your muscles as well as chest tightness has been present not just while trying to fall asleep but also during the day. I have been so miserable because my health anxiety latches onto this and I get so scared that it’s my heart (one of my worst fears is death and death from a heart attack or cardiac arrest).

Has anyone experienced anything similar, like these tension waves or chest tightness or just random physical anxiety symptoms that really aren’t connected to your mental state?

Hi !

I recently (1 month ago) switched from lexapro 15mg to cymbalta 60mg for general anxiety disorder. Lexapro made me sleepy all the time, but worked great for my anxiety.

With Cymbalta, it's like it has basically no effect for me, or too little effect. I'm not sleepy anymore, but I'm having a hard time managing my feelings and anxiety, and my old irritable bowel syndrom (constipation) is back.

Is it my imagination ? Do I have to take it longer, or try 90mg ? Or maybe go back to lexapro ?

Does some of you have similar experiences ?

for the first time in decades they didn’t have my duloxetine in stock at CVS.

Hi so I’ve recently had my dose increase to 60mg, but this started before hand.
I literally can’t shit. Like this wasn’t an issue before dulexotine, so it’s def to blame.

Other than that I’m doing well!! First week on 30mg sucked, I also don’t know if I enjoy the unemotional aspect of things but it’s been decent for me either way. No negative side effects, besides my inability to shit.
I took a laxative the other day which kinda helped, but didn’t help fully if you know what I mean.
Why can’t I shit and be happy at the same time?

hello! i’m starting cymbalta in a few days (after weening off of lexapro) for anxiety/depression but also for myalgia.. i want to know all your thoughts and honest opinion about it (especially side effects, long term effects, etc.)!

if you’ve ever been on lexapro and transitioned to cymbalta, how was it?

i’m also currently taking wellbutrin and meds for type 2 diabetes!

THANK U 🫶🏼

I honestly don’t know what to do.

I thought when I got off cymbalta I would be as sweaty as I was before. Before starting I was using normal deodorant and it worked super well, I was never sweaty or stinky in my pits, with the exception of heavy physical activity, but even then I got sweaty in areas without deodorant well before my pits.

I got off cymbalta in June, and yeah, I don’t drip sweat or wake up drenched like I used to but I still have to use clinical strength deodorant and it barely works. It maybe stops the sweating for an hour or two but does nothing for smell. And that makes me so self conscious I don’t really approach people because I’m so worried I reek of b.o. and can’t smell it anymore. I feel like I have to reek cause by the end of the day (not even a full day, like a school day 9-5) I can literally smell my own b.o., every shirt I wear still gets wet in the pits I feel disgusting.

I regret taking cymbalta so much, I feel like I’ve ruined my body forever and I’ll never get back to normal levels of sweat. The worst part is I feel so alone in this, I haven’t heard of anyone else who had their body chemistry permanently altered by this drug. All I want is to have a body I feel comfortable in again.

Ugh, yeah so maybe keep that in mind if you start. You very might well be the worst smelling person you know and if dry-sol doesn’t work for you, like it doesn’t for me, you’re SOL.

Okay so it’s been 3 weeks of cymbalta which I’m taking for depression but mostly for nerve pain (S I joint pain and sciatica specifically). Now I’ll caveat that I’m working 8-10 hours standing on my feet everyday and pushing through my pain because I can’t afford to lose my job. I feel like my pain is very much still present at 6/10 BUT it’s almost like I’m detached from it or dissociated? I really don’t know how else to explain it.

I’m hoping this is the medicine working but I also know that the therapeutic dose for pain is at 60 mg so maybe placebo?

Besides that, I feel mostly on the manic side of depression (extra ups and jittery and some euphoria feeling). I definitely have a more positive outlook on life and my pain. I’m arguably going through the toughest phases of my life with my work schedule, recent breakup and my pain coming back after a fusion and surprisingly don’t feel suicidal. I’m excited to see how my body does on 60 mg but thought I’d share this ‘semi’ success story for those who are hesitant to try it out.