My best friend and choosen sister life has terminal colon cancer?

for the past 3 years she has been fighting for her life. This is genetic because her 34 year old brother lost his life to it 2 years before she was diagnosed with it leaving 3 small boys. It's hard enough thinking that someday she will possibly be gone from life and I can't imagine my world without her in it. I am a very strong person but I am having a very hard time with this. 2 weeks before her surgery my real sister died from a massive herat attack without any warning and now 2 days ago my youngest brother was also diagnosed with colon cancer and will know the extent of what he is dealing with this coming week when he goes into surgery. I quit smoking cigaretts 5 months ago and now I bought a pack and started smoking again. What the hell is wrong with me I know better. My doctor had me on cymbalta an antidepressant and now he has cut it in half to start taking me off of this drug. Do you think I need to ask my doctor to put me back on the higher dose again?

Finding the right dosage of an antidepressant is sometimes tedious, but in the end is a godsend. Cutting your dose of Cymbalta in half will likely give you little or no therapeutic value.

Take care. I am truly sorry for your troubles and losses.

I'm sorry about all the stress and loss in your life. Yes, I'd definitely talk to your doctor and tell him everything, including about the smoking. My mother-in-law took several tries to stop smoking and stress hindered her a couple of times. Antidepressants can help you get back on track. If I were in your place, I'd also seek some counseling to help get my head around all the things happening in my life and how to deal with it. Good luck.

Let your doctor know what is going on and how you are feeling. Your doctor will probably increase the dose again. During difficult times, it's essential to have depression under control. Don't blame yourself for picking up the cigarettes again. You're going through enough right now. Beating yourself up isn't going to help at all. Consider a therapist just so you have someone to vent to once in a while.

My prayers are with you. I've recently been going through a similar hard time when it seems like everything is going bad at once. If my mental health weren't under control, I wouldn't have survived this time. Hang in there and don't forget to take of you too.

You have to make sure that your doctor knows what's really going on in your life and I have a feeling that you haven't told him every thing. It seems like if he knew what you were dealing with he wouldn't want to lower your dosage at this point. You need to really tell him EVERYTHING that you're dealing with no matter how small. Everything that you're dealing with has an effect on you and how you deal with medication. Therapist and doctors are not mind readers and if you don't tell them everything that you're dealing with they can't truly help you.

If it was helping you feel better, yes, you need to get back on cymbalta. He's probably thinking to switch you to a different med, but he's got to take into consideration what a difficult time you're going through. You NEED an antidepressant right now. Ask your doctor what his intentions are. Stress that you need help, and fire his butt if he doesn't give it to you. You CAN take more than one antidepressants at one time.

I wouldn't worry about the smoking. It's a pacifier. You need something that feels good to help you cope. When everything is calm again, you can quit again. But right now you don't need that stress in your life. You need to pamper yourself in any way you can so that you can deal with everyone else's situation.

Never in my life have I heard of such carnage. Between hearts (have you had yours checked?) and colons (have you had yours checked?) I am utterly speechless. If you had a complete nervous breakdown, I wouldn't be surprised.

Talk to me anytime, sweetie. Take care of yourself, my friend. You've got to be the strong one here.

Debbie