Hey everyone! My name is Chris! (Introduction/Cymbalta Question)

[obizues]

As it says in the title my name is Chris.  I'm 28 years old, a Navy veteran, and currently attending college at UW-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I've had anxiety on and off throughout my life, but somehow it always seems to return.  The last time I had anxiety and it went away was when I get out of the military.  I think I never fully "fixed" the problem, but more or less just was removed from a very high stress situation.  During that time I just took Xanax 0.5mg as needed.

Now I've been out of the military for about 3 1/2 years and I've lately gotten really bad with my anxiety again.  I started by being prescribed 0.5mg xanax again up to 3x a day.  Then it got worse and I started having major panic attacks.  My doctor bumped me up to 3 1.0mg pills (which I usually cut in half per doctor's orders) and had enough for 6 1/2 pills a day.  It still didn't solve the problem and now I'm been prescribed and taking Cymbalta 30mg.  It's a lower dose since I'm very sensitive to medicine despite being 6'0" 190 lbs and anxious about taking mind-altering mediciations.

I've been on Cymbalta now for 8 days.  I've been taking it at night, but I've also been staying up for up to 5 hours afterwards(night owl).  At first I felt like I had a problem falling asleep but that has started to fade.  Now I feel very tired hours after I've taken it and a little "off," "weird," or "out of it."  Is this normal and should this subside?  The logical part of my brain says it's only been 8 days, and sometimes I've heard it takes up to a month to get the full effect on this drug.  The other part of my brain (the anxious part) is a little nervous about feeling "out of control" and "different" like the drug causes with the side effects of being out of it.

I think part of it to is just NOT THINKING ABOUT taking the medication and looking inward at how I feel over and over again.  I assume most people with anxiety like myself are over-thinkers :)

Any words of wisdom and/or encouragement would be appreciated!!!  I really want this drug to work and I don't want to sabatoge myself by being silly and taking myself off a medication.  I'm really starting to get sick of this anxiety and I want this to help me get better!

Thanks everyone!
Chris

[Cuchculan]

Welcome to the forum. Good to have you as a member. Here you are with like minded people. People who understand. As we all suffer from something or other. So feel free to ask any questions. Our members are always willing to help others out. Good chatroom too. 3 posts to enter the room.

Find the correct section of the forum that suits your condition and create a new topic on it. This is just a welcome section. Never really get the same amount of help in this section as you would on the other sections of the forums. So whatever one suits the questions you are asking. Get much better answers.

The med section would be best for your question about medication.

All users of the chatroom must be 18 years old or over. The room is off limits to anybody under the age of 18.

[obizues]

Cuchculan,

Thanks a lot for the fast reply!  I will take your advice!

Chris