I have a medication horror story. I figured out last week that I’ve been taking twice my prescribed dose of my antidepressant, Cymbalta.
- Here’s how it happened:
- I was prescribed 60mg/day for depression. (I started taking Cymbalta because I was switching from Effexor, which had stopped working). I was taking 60mg Cymbalta capsules.
- My psychiatrist and I decided to increase the dose to 90mg/day, which is indicated for fibromyalgia pain. I have fibromyalgia and I haven’t found a good way to control the pain yet, even working with my rheumatologist. She also thought Cymbalta would be worth a try. So, I filled a new prescription for 30mg capsules, so that I could take three of these per day.
- At some point, probably about a month ago, I started taking three pills from my old 60mg Cymbalta bottle without realizing it. UH OH!
I realized my mistake when I went to the drugstore, refilled the 60mg capsules, and came home and thought, “Hey, didn’t I just fill my Cymbalta prescription?” I looked at my shelves of pills and realized that yes, I had refilled the 30mg capsules two days ago. Why did I just go refill my 60mg prescription? I used up a bottle of 60mg capsules?! Apparently I had been taking 3×60mg for some unspecified amount of time.
In horror, I started taking my prescribed dose. After a couple days I felt like complete, utter shit– bad migraines, plus the awful brain weirdness that goes along with significant dose change. Until I started to experience these symptoms, I wasn’t sure if I had really been taking 3×60mg for a while, or just done it a few times. Yeah, it was a while. I think I’d been doing it about a month, since my last refill.
Ow, my brain… I don’t feel like going into the symptoms of the dose change now– maybe later. They’re still happening, so I don’t feel like dwelling on them much. (For example, I can’t tell if this post is really confusing to read, or if it’s only me that would think it’s confusing, or if it’s just hard to describe a confusing situation, etc…)
The lesson I have learned is twofold, I think. First, I am taking a medication that can (and does) cause memory loss, clonazepam, and I think this might affect my normal ability to track and manage my medications, so it’s extra important that I’m careful. Secondly, it’s important to sequester or throw away the meds that you no longer use. I should’ve put that bottle of 60mg Cymbalta capsules out of sight, for emergency use. (You know, for when the end of the world comes and we’re all suddenly unable to obtain our pharmaceuticals. Now that’s a scary thought. A nation of rioting psychoactive drug addicts going through withdrawl symptoms!)
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