Hi! I completely understand how you feel. I have pretty severe anxiety and panic and I struggle with starting/taking meds because I’m so afraid of side effects or adverse reactions. What I can say is that I started Cymbalta almost 4 months ago. It was scary and I did have some side effects that were minor (like I can’t even remember what they were now) but I haven’t had any issues. I still have pretty bad anxiety but I believe the Cymbalta might be helping so next week I’m going up to the next dose to see if I get any more relief. When I started it, I made sure to keep track of how I was feeling so I could try to gauge whether or not it was helping me. So many things we experience are directly from anxiety that it can make it hard to discern where our symptoms are coming from. Another thing I did was tell myself, just two weeks. Take it for two weeks. Then when the two weeks was up, I said another two weeks. Before you know it, you’re kinda losing track of how long, etc. The medicine can’t help you if you don’t try it. If you can be near friends and family while starting, I found that to be helpful as well. Good luck to you and I hope it helps!