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Showing posts from April, 2015

Depression and Chronic Pain- ‘the most important thing to remember is that it will pass’

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I wasn’t planning on writing this blog entry however I felt I should.   My depression levels have been pretty high the last 3 days, due to my soaring pain levels. It’s been awhile since my last bout of depression came over me so I’m grateful for this.   I know for a fact that if I didn’t have pain I wouldn’t have depression. Anyone living in 24/7 pain would have depression. Depression is like a dark shadow that slowly takes over your soul. Seeps in slowly, overtakes everything however then passes.   That’s the most important thing to remember is that it will pass. It took me awhile to learn this however I repeated this to myself mentally constantly. It’s important to be patient and to believe. I’ve only had chronic pain for 5 years however I’ve only begun accepting recently.   Now that I’ve accepted this other things are starting to fall into place. I understand that when I start to have constant negative thoughts to check in and think about my pain levels. It may not make sense

Cymbalta withdrawals part two ' The Aftermath'

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My next 2 days (7-8) of my Cymbalta withdrawals were really rough. On day 7 I was not keeping any food down, extremely nauseas and literally staring into abyss, not caring the least bit that I was doing nothing. My body switched between hot and cold spells within seconds of either trying to warm myself up or cool myself down. I was sensitive to noise and light and could barely keep my eyes open. The bags under my eyes felt as though they were being dragged down along with my knees by weights to the ground. We called a GP who came to the house and provided me with an injection to stop my nausea and throwing up. It worked for the nausea however I spent 2 days in bed, not doing anything and it didn’t bother me. I saw my GP on day 9 of my lower dosage of Cymbalta. (90mg currently down from 120mg) I was still very tired and nauseas however a huge improvement from the last 2 days. He made it clear all of my symptoms that I explained to him days 7-9 were withdrawal symptoms.   My GP m

Medication elimination.....the up's and downs and all the in betweens. Days 1-3

For the last month I've been feeling as though I have my depression under control and that I’ve finally reached the point where I don’t need to be on my antidepressants anymore. My depression is not gone and I still see a psychologist who is all I feel I need now. She’s amazing and provides with the most beneficial cognitive therapy. Being the research queen I am I’ve researched and researched the withdrawal symptoms, of Cymbalta, which are pretty scary and intense. You have to remember when researching to be realistic and most importantly to not gather all of your information from the internet. My chronic pain specialist has provided me with a plan to eventually get me off of this med. It'll take about 5-6 months. He also went through a list of withdrawal symptoms that I may go through. Through my research I discovered that my possible symptoms would include: ·         Brain zaps - electric shock-like sensations in head ·         Body zaps - electronic shock-like sens