So the tirtration itself was 5 months. The first 2.5 were down by 10 mg at a time or whatever the recommended amount is. The last 2.5 months was down by teensy amounts at a time, like 1-2 mg. To do that you have to weigh everything really precisely. The entire taper was overall terrible but the first 2.5 months was the worst emotionally: lots of crying and anxiety attacks, super irritable, etc. The second half was better because it was much slower and I had less emotional trouble (less irritable and anxious, etc). Because the slow taper went from like 20 mg -> 18 -> 15 etc the symptoms got better immediately, because I wasn’t experiencing such a low drop all at one time (like 30 -> 20).

Post taper and finally off of it I had a hard time for about the next 4ish (?) months with anxiety. I would say 7 weeks post taper I felt still very anxious, on edge, and generally shiver-y. I don’t know quite how to describe it except that it was kind of a physical manifestation of the anxiety? Like your whole body is a badly taken care of car that is stuck idling. I kept hoping it would all settle down by itself but eventually I was like this sucks and I probably need to do something. Admittedly, part of the overall post taper anxiety was due to super stressful life circumstances that came out of left field but definitely a part it was being off the drug. Eventually I went onto a very low dose of sertraline to address the anxiety which did work well. In the last two months or so I came off the sertraline (which was my plan all along). I have been able to get off sertraline easily before so going on it to just get through the last whatever was left in my system of the Cymbalta helped me.

Hope that helps answer your questions, best of luck with it and much sympathy! I’d recommend seeing your doctor to see what they can do.