My feelings on using anit-depressants for treament of Fibromyalgia!

Let me start by saying that I believe that anti-depressants have there place in treating FMS/CFISD. I can testify to the fact that they do get you up and moving. They did that for me for approximately 8 years. I started with Zoloft, went to Effexor XR and ended up on Cymbalta.
During that time I was able to function, not without pain though and I still would tire very easily, but was able to do much of what I needed to do to take care of my family. Something about the anti-depressants helped me to cope with what was going on in my body but I never intended to be on them permantly.

Some 3 or 4 years after beginning this course of treatment I started asking my doctor to take me off of them and I was always met with, "you really don't want to do that" and my response was "yes I do". I even went to my gynecologist for help and sought the help of a wholistic doctor who were all reluctant to take me off. I was at their mercy because I knew that you had to be weaned off of them and could not stop abruptly, I had found that out the hard way when I ran out of the perscription and didn't have it for 3 days because I didn't have the money to get it, so I was dependent on them to give me a perscription for a lessor dose to begin the weaning process.

Well, I am sure you would say if they were working why would I want to stop taking them which is what I recently did about 5 weeks ago to be exact. I always had an uncomfortable feeling about taking anti-depressants, maybe because of the social stigma attached or just my feelings about taking prescriptions drugs period. But the main reason was that I knew they were just a band-aid for what was really going on in my body. I wanted to get to the bottom of it and I didn't feel that taking anti-depressants was treating the problem. With the approval of Lyrica for treatment of Fibromyalgia I again approached my doctor with the idea of taking me off of Cymbalta and he was receptive, I guess because there was an alternative to give me. Little did I know what lie ahead.