cymbalta...awful..

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my shrinkydoc has been very keen on putting me on an antidepressant from the beginning.. .i was going thru some bad times and tried Prozac for a number of months. ..it seemed to make things worse so i tapered off of it..had a friend express the opinion that maybe i was depressed enough to try an antidepressant again...so i talked to doc who was as ever willing to put me on one.. with method somewhat akin to pulling name of drug out of hat. I was given samples of cymbalta..i took one pill and suffered negative side effects for over 24 hours from one dose. She told me to let her know if i had negative side effects and i did. I decided that i did not want to be floored while waiting for the phase of extreme side effects to pass during time when i happened to also be on a sort of vacation...a sailboat race..My boyfriend seemed to think i ought to duke it out, and my bizz partner said i should avoid it. He was the most privy to my complaints of side effects..I am scared of having to become dependent on another pharmaceutical with another bunch of side effects..i am already on adderall and valium..for anxiety/ extreme executive dysfunction..while i occasionally struggle with frustration, depression and self esteem issues, partially because adderall alone does not help me handle the E.D. to any fantastic extent, but it helps me get by.. and the valium i only take when i really need it...The adderall, i take less than my prescribed dose....anyhow, blah blah..point is: Cymbalta bad side effects..do not want to wade thru crazy side effects of anxiety head tension digestive problems...crying..out of body sensations, racing heart, incessant yawning, insomnia and so on to see whether this additional medication might help me be a better person...i already have IBS, I dont want a med that might make it worse...i explained to docs that i did not want to be on too many meds...it is hard to fathom not being on adderall, because i have been on it for so long and whenever i go off of it, the going is very rough..whenever i go off of the two meds i take, i end up self medicating somehow because i take the two meds i take for a reason, but despite these two meds, i still am who i am..no quantity of anything will make me into some perfect normal person. I have avoidance problems..difficulty talking to people..like my roommate and landlady...etc.....i have a loopy brain that my boyfriend a more "classic" Aspie...might find somewhat insufferable..I am disorganized, i do not drive, i have rotten theory of mind..i am not able to perceive the true impact of my many shortcomings...or the ways in which my shortcomings cause the people i care about grief..so maybe i am not qualified to decide whether or not i function well enough without an antidepressant. That notion in mind, should i try and resume this experiment with cymbalta, or try a different antidepressant or trust my notion that there is no additonal phamaceutical that might improve my current state of being?

If it affected you that badly then you are well within your rights to decide not to take it. I had a similar bad experience with Paxil years ago, where I experienced all but one of the side effects the medication could cause after only a day and a half. I called my doctor and was told to continue it, but decided on my own that he was not listening to me and so I stopped it. I had to go to my parent's house for a few hours while I came down off of it because it was making my very suicidal.

As for you, you are already on two strong drugs that act on the brain. How adding a third will interact with them in an autistic brain no one can know for certain. Many people on the spectrum are very sensitive to medications and can experience negative effects on even a minimal dosage that would barely affect most NTs. Only you know your body and mind. The doctor only sees it in terms of theory but can never know fully the way you experience life or how a drug affects you.

I am so used to adderall that i notice it more when i stop taking it. I notified my doc, and she is giving em a different med to try..um..i forget the name of it....celexa