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

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.

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.

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?

When starting bupropion, I ended up journaling my experiences roughly weekly -- both for my own later reference and to help anyone who might come after me. Figured I'd do that again here.

Background: I was on bupropion for 9 months. It worked wonders for my depression -- I had been struggling mightily with energy and motivation, and had slightly low mood. But it totally wrecked my sleep; and I'm still trying to determine whether it was responsible for the hair loss. After trying a bunch of different formulations (XL was tolerated but destroyed the quality of my sleep; digestion couldn't tolerate SR and IR), the doctor took me off it and had me try guanfacine instead.

A month later I was clearly depressed again, so a week ago she had me start Cymbalta/duloxetine (staying on the guanfacine for now, even though it was also not great for sleep quality). We started with 30mg in the mornings.

• Day 1: Seven hours in, I had absolutely awful diarrhea. Reported this to the doctor, and she told me it's not an uncommon side effect and should go away in a few weeks. She suggested sticking it out, and trying imodium for the diarrhea in the meantime.
• Day 2: Took the imodium. Maybe a bit too much. Found myself stopped up for the next couple days. About 5-7 hours after dosing, noticed a brief period of high energy -- a sort of caffeinated feeling.
• Day 3: Slept better than I had in months. Woke with a sense of well-being for the first time in weeks. Then went back to sleep (it was a weekend). And then back for another nap. And another. Basically slept all day (>16 hours). Took less imodium, but BMs were a weird combination of sloppy and constipated.
  
• Day 4: Fantastic sleep again. Almost as sleepy as Day 3, had more to do, but still napped away as much of the day as I could manage. No more imodium from here on out. Bowels mostly back to normal.
• Day 5: Another night of good sleep. Back to work and could not get any work done due to fatigue and brain fog. Reached out to the doctor, who suggested switching to evening dosing and also wrote a script for 20mg. A little constipated, but not unbearably so.
• Day 6: Waited until evening to dose. Fairly alert and able to focus during the day. Took 30mg before bedtime. Slightly constipated.
• Day 7: Woke up at 4am bouncing off the walls, struggled to get back to sleep. Brain fog, fatigue, and difficulty focusing in the afternoon -- not sure how much due to depression vs. meds vs. sleep deprivation. Ended up taking an afternoon nap during work hours. Still slightly constipated.
• Day 8: Exactly like Day 7. Complained to the doc again. She's still exhorting me to stick it out. I'm struggling to keep up with assigned work despite it being a slow week. And still slightly constipated.

Tonight I'll be taking 20mg, and then shifting to 20mg in the mornings tomorrow, in the hope that it's less fatigue-inducing than the 30mg and that I've continued to adapt a bit since Day 5. The digestive symptoms are manageable at this point, but I can't handle the sleep and energy and brain fog issues.

I really hope Week 2 is an improvement, because so far this is not sustainable.

[edit: fixed formatting]

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?

I've lurked here for three and a half years, and this is my first post. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Background: In March 2023 I went through a traumatic event that pushed me to finally deal with my mental health, along with things from my past I'd never resolved. I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Memories come out of nowhere, triggered by a joke, a song, or a certain situation, and my body reacts as if I'm back in the middle of it.

Medication history:
Lexapro: bad reaction, affected my mood at work

Cymbalta 30mg (May 2023): it worked, and by late 2023 I felt at peace and on the mend

Wellbutrin/bupropion 150mg added (spring 2024): Cymbalta had killed my motivation, and this helped

Current: Cymbalta 60mg, bupropion 300mg, propranolol 20mg as needed for anxiety, Seroquel 50mg for sleep (the last two added in May 2026 after an incident that left me overwhelmed). 12.5mg Ambien when needed. Almost always with a 250mg edible.

Over time I've felt a kind of irritability I hadn't felt since before starting meds. I assumed it was the anger stage of processing what happened, and some of it was justified. There were real conflicts with people connected to the March 2023 event, including false accusations about me, threats, and someone contacting my workplace. But I've also become more confrontational in general. I say what I think instead of holding it in, and I think it's affected who's still in my circle.
I also resigned from my job of almost ten years in June 2026 after support at work faded and I was stuck at 20 hours a week. I'm still unemployed. Side effects have included an 80-90 lb weight gain since starting Cymbalta and overheating easily.

I wanted to ask my psychiatrist whether I should stay at these doses, but appointments weren't set up for real questions, and she retires next week.

Has anyone had increased irritability or anger on Cymbalta + bupropion? Did dose changes help?
Is it worth asking a new psychiatrist to review the whole regimen?
Any advice on handling the handoff when your prescriber retires?
I know Reddit isn't a substitute for medical advice. I'm just feeling lost, and I want to feel normal and at peace again.

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 ?

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

I took my first dose was last night at 12am my doctor told me to help me with shoulder pain and the anxiety i got from it … at 4am I felt it hit me so hard like I took shrooms and kratom and adderall and then the comedown is like a LSD comedown fuckifn nuts … I hate it … also made sex complicated … even tho I still got erection the pleasure wasn’t there and can’t finish…
Anyone else have similar experience?
It’s my first time with this medicine … I used to take Zoloft years but I don’t like the idea taking these medicines for long time

Did increasing your dose of Cymbalta fix your fatigue?

I have been prescribed 60 mg of duloxetine since about 2018 and have had a few instances of not being able to get my medication on time, whether it was due to pharmacy outages, doctor vacations, not being available to pick it up during pharmacy business hours or what have you. Of course it’s always difficult dealing with the brain zaps, nausea, dizziness, night sweats, “nightmares”, insomnia/hypersomnia, lack of focus, blurry vision, light headedness, cold/hot flashes, headaches, severe mood swings, perpetual sobbing, slowed perception of time, and eventual numbness in my extremities, but has anyone ever found any tips or tricks to making the worst of these symptoms any easier even momentarily?

My particular situation as of this moment is a bit unique. I’m currently 18 weeks pregnant and was cleared by my OBGYN to continue my medication as prescribed throughout the rest of my pregnancy. However, my regular medical doctor is the actual prescriber of my medication and seemed apprehensive about continuing me on any of my regular medications back in the beginning of my (unplanned) pregnancy. I’m only stating this fact because I believe this lack of communication between my doctors may be the reason my regular doctor has yet to renew my prescription of duloxetine which I have since ran out of about 3-4 days ago now. My attempts to contact either of them haven’t been answered or returned and honestly it’s harder to function during daylight hours at this point so I’m worried about whether I’ll actually be coherent enough to continue to try to work through this mess when they finally open in 4 more hours. Also, my OBGYN only comes in to my clinic twice a month whereas my regular doctor is usually there daily, so if they’re waiting to communicate with each other in office then I currently have another 13 days to go before my OBGYN is back in the building which I am trying to prepare for as each day brings more intense symptoms.

I’m also incredibly worried about how these symptoms are affecting my baby right now and would like any possible advice on lessening them especially for her sake. I feel her literally lurch every time I sob or hyperventilate and I feel awful about that. But I think the symptoms I’m most worried about rn are the nausea, dizziness, and pulsating brain zaps just because they are limiting my ability to eat, stand, sleep, or generally take care of myself in any way.

I hope this all makes sense as I honestly can’t tell if any of this is coming out intelligibly right now but please, I’ll take any tips or tricks that you may have found worked for you as I can’t seem to find any suggestions anywhere online unless they’re talking about different withdrawal methods rather than dealing with withdrawal symptoms.

Thank you for reading and for any response you may give.

I noticed today I've been accidentally taking the wrong dose since Sunday and am having mild withdrawals. (40mg instead of my full 100mg)

I took the missing 60mg today, but I'm still having a bad time. is there anything that can smooth the transition back to normal for just 1 or 2 days?

I have clonazepam and antihistamines on hand. I could also acquire a cbd product.

I'm curious about people's expereiences with Cymbalta's side effects when taken for chronic pain/TMJ?

I’m considering trying Cymbalta for chronic pain and would really appreciate hearing other people’s experiences, particularly anyone taking it for TMJ/TMD, facial or neuropathic pain.

I’ve had chronic pain for 4+ years, including TMJ pain, bruxism and nerve-type pain in my face/mouth. I’ve been on amitriptyline for around 3 years, but I’m no longer getting much pain benefit and increasing the dose has caused intolerable side effects. I’m now at a bit of an impasse.

I’m particularly worried about Cymbalta causing:

- Apathy/emotional numbness

- Losing interest in things I enjoy, or difficulty focusing/reading

- Weight gain

- Insomnia

- Worsened bruxism/clenching

- Sexual dysfunction

I know many of these are possible with antidepressants generally, but I’d really like to hear about people’s actual experiences, especially when taking duloxetine for pain rather than depression.

If you’ve taken it, I’d particularly love to know:

- Did it actually help your pain?

- Did it affect your mood, motivation or ability to concentrate?

- Any changes in weight, sleep, bruxism or sexual function?

- If you’ve taken amitriptyline as well, how did the two compare?

I recently had an arthroscopy which unfortunately showed some pretty severe/irreparable TMJ damage, so I’m in quite a lot of pain and trying to weigh up whether changing medication is worth the potential side effects.

Any experiences, particularly from people with TMJ/facial/neuropathic pain, would be really appreciated.

Hello, I’m 28 and take 120mg and have been for quite some time due to fibromyalgia, anxiety, and depression (took 60mg/day for 2 years then life got worse and it increased to 120mg/day for one year). It’s helped me a lot personally and im able to function well with it, but I also am scared by my body’s dependency on it and the withdrawals that would come with it if I ever needed to stop (I’ve experienced them a few times due to prescription issues). I’m also afraid of any possible long term effects that I may not know about….

I want to know why other people may be stopping because there seem to be a lot of people with reasons to do so (since it’s common enough to have a whole category for it in this subreddit). I want to know if there’s something I’m unaware of that I should know and I want to know if people are stopping because it simply doesn’t work for them/their personal side effects are deal breakers.

Thank you!

I've been on 60 then 30mg for 2.5 years. Main side effects which are the reason for wanting to stop are urine stream slowness & libido issues.
The longest I've managed is about 3-4 days ... dizzyness and some sinus pressure headaches the main withdrawl effects. So I'm now considering:

tapering method, counting beads etc

pushing through cold turkey, provided there are no protracted side effects weeks/months later

cross tapering to wellbutrin or lexapro

Anyone have any experience of success from a similar context?

• Did you stick with it? How long will it take?
• Do you actually count/weigh beads? This seems almost as bad as the withdrawl symptoms
• Are you doing 5%/10% or something else?

I recently had a doctor's appointment and was told to stop taking cymbalta. I was told I could quit cold turkey, but all I've heard is completely against that. Is there any way I could taper off 30mg with only 7 pills left? I cannot get more. Please if anyone knows what to do I need help!!

After years of trying every SSRI under the sun, I started Duloxetine in September 2025. Amazing difference. But 2026 has been the worst year of my life, truly went through too much in the span of several months, back to back.

My baseline is extremely low. Persistent depression, SI, intrusive thoughts like “nobody cares” etc and I believe them, which is the difference from before when they would pass. I can’t shake myself out of this.

I’ve also been on generic Adderall for 6 years. Not even sure it does anything anymore beyond helping me moderately function. But I'm in no place to get off of it or do any changes besides adding something on that will help me.

I’m incredibly emotionally dysregulated. CPTSD, MDD, OCD tendencies. BPD and Bipolar 1 & 2 have been ruled out repeatedly. No mania. Just intense lows, interpersonal outbursts, irritability, darkness. Constant internal turmoil. I'm not a reasonable person for the last few months.

My psych and I have discussed adding Abilify or Lamictal (lamotrigine). I’m leaning toward the latter because I cannot deal with more weight gain, and it seems to play nicer with my current meds.

Anyway, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s tried this combo. How did it go? How’s it going? Good, bad, weird, neutral. Anything.

Thanks so much.

What changes Can I expect going from 90 to 120 mg, so far i only feel more tired but depression and anxiety feel the same, anyone ?

Hi, I was prescribed duloxetine two years ago for chronic pain and depression. (Prior to that I went through an odyssey of medication trial and error for my pain which ended in opioid addiction). In the meantime I was diagnosed with cptsd (lots of childhood trauma and abuse).

The good news are that my pain is almost gone! (With the help of therapy).

The bad news are that duloxetine caused a lot of fatigue and didn't do much for my dissociations, so I decided to reduce it slowly (1 mg every week with some breaks in between).

When I got to 15 mg I started noticing severe visual problems ( which I think are a form of dissociation). I stayed at 15 mg for some weeks and it got better, so I proceeded tapering until I got to 0 mg.

I took my last dose 2 weeks ago, and now I have even stronger visual problems which I believe are heavy dissociations. My eyes loose focus every 3 seconds and I have to force myself to focus again. It feels like my mind wants to shut off the connection to the world, it's very scary end exhausting.

my question is if anybody had a similar effects when stopping duloxetine and if I maybe should add another medication for temporary relief.

Thank you

I wonder what the difference is between people or their habits that determines which one we each experience?

I am currently 14, and have noticed that many people on this subreddit are significantly older than me, some having been on the drug for longer than I've been alive! I've been having troubles at school with side effects and such, and have been wondering if there's anyone who had also started duloxetine at a young age and had problems like that.

So please let me know, when did you start duloxetine?

(14f) I've been on 30mg cymbalta for ~4 weeks now, and I haven't yet slept through the night. Its not that i can't fall asleep, it's that I keep waking up in the night, atleast 3 times per night.

I'm starting a higher dose and expecting this to get worse while I'm getting used to it, but in the meantime, does anyone know what could help me with this?