A  Cymbalta seemed like a God sent miracle drug for me at this point in my life ! I had recently turned age forty-six, and was ecstatic at the prospect of after almost twenty years of suffering severe depression and chronic pain syndrome, I had finally found a medication that really worked; not only for my chronic unbearable pain I suffer from owing to my unfortunate, Degenerative Disk Disease compounded by several pinched nerves and sciatica, but also for my sometimes, suicidal depression which had kept me in Social Security , unable to work all my adult life.  Within several weeks of commencing taking Cymbalta, my depression was completely gone. No other drug in the twenty year period I had suffered from depression ever helped me at all. And now I had found the ultimate answer, Cymbalta. It worked so quickly too. only after taking it for a week or so I was feeling happy and elated! And what was more, about 50% of the pain I suffered that daily brought me to my knees in tears had completely vanished! I planned since then, never to be without this newly found drug named, Cymbalta!  One year had come and gone, then the next. What I lacked in foreknowledge the hodge-podge mryiad of illnesses, many serious, although unaware of just how serious then, I've had during the past two years, were being caused by serious side effects from, Cymbalta, was made up expotentially many times in my total infatuation with, Cymbalta. I had even increased the dosage recently in late 2011 from 30mg a day to 60 mg. I thought if 30mg made me feel good and took 50% of my pain away, 60mg would make me feel great! I wanted more of it! I even sought out a new psychiatrist who would give me the increased amount of Cymbalta I desired and found one.  All was great, or so I thought! UNTIL...I finally became cognizant that I was having too many health problems happening at once . I could not help but become alarmingly concerned. It was August 2001 and I was either calling my family physician and/or driving myself to the local Chilton Hospital Emergency Room once or twice a week for some new health problem. Separately, each of them never seemed very serious. I had a mixture of : urinary tract infections, having to urinate all the time, not being able to urinate when needing to, sore throats, swelling of my face and stomach (later turning out to be swelling of many of my internal organs, constipation (which I attributed to my taking opiate pain medication), heart burn, hemorroids that bled, hives,fever, blurred vision (in which I thought I merely needed new glasses and went to the local eye doctor to get some), dizziness (in which I would just lose my balance and suddenly fall into the walls or something similar), and another more sinister symptom (the one which finally brought me racing into the emergency room for the last time at lightening speed at the request of two of my many doctors); WHOLE BODY SEIZURES!   I noticed for several years now since beginning the Cymbalta, I was increasingly getting leg jerks and/or muscle twitches during the time I would try to fall asleep and/or nap during the day, and, when my muscles would be attempting to rest, I was getting them more and more along with whole body jerks! I would be attempting to fall asleep in that sttae when one is half awake and half asleep, when all of a sudden my entire body would JUMP off the bed my muscles would spasm to such an extent!! This would occur maybe 7 times a night before finally falling asleep. I could not take it anymore and I had become scared to lie down to sleep because I knew the whole body seizures would come if I did lie down! I also had been getting a much more sinister seizure at the worst possible muscle junction and place; my heart! Every day I'd get several heart palpitations strong enough to jerk my entire body forward! This is where I drew the line. I had to tell my doctors and ask what I should do! I was VERY FRIGHTENED !((to say the very very least))... Both doctors had told me to immediately get myself to the nearest hospital at once for a brain CAT scan! As you can see in the photo above of me in the hospital gown, the hospital ushered me into the CAT scan room to check fort brain cancer and other brain tumors. I felt a great sense of relief when none were found! I cried throughout the entire time.  After going over my health complaints and medications very thoroughly for hours with all of my doctors and the hospital physician, it was decided that it was the Cymbalta taking, in and of itself, only, causing every single one of these insidious health problems; worst of all of them were those what could have been possibly fatal seizures that could have killed me, given me a heart attack and/or a fatal stroke!!  Since I have completely stopped ALL Cymbalta taking "cold turkey" as they say, I have had not one of the aforementioned health problems; and not one seizure! Thanks Be To (+) God !! In conclusion, I want to say for those of you still taking t drug, Cymbalta, that everyone is a "statistic." Everyone thinks that "it will not happen to me..." well it can and it happened to me. So if you are on , Cymbalta, and you have also experienced similar health problems to those I listed in tnhis report, I recommend taking stock and strongly considering, is it the, CYMBALTA (with your doctor).  Miss Jill Louise Starr |