When completing your topic please include the following:

-Outline of your story so far:

 

Given my first drug at 18 years - Cymbalta. Managed to get off that within 2 days. 
I was given Seroquel in 2011 for sleep. Cold Turkeyd off most of it and that lead me to my current state of using SSRI's and Benzodiazpines. 

 

Currently tapering off Diazepam roughly 2.6mg as of February 2026. 

 

-How you are doing at the moment:

I volunteer a couple days a week at soup kitchen to get some exercise and be around people socially again. I was unable to be around people for many years due to withdrawals and anxiety. 
I am at my lowest dose in years and am slowly learning to be around people again. 

 

-Link to your SA thread if you have one:

 

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/topic/14865-ryder-zoloft-to-clomipramine/
 

-Take a moment to update your signature to include a brief and clear outline of your drug history

Hi Ryder

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks for posting your intro topic and linking your SA thread for us. Great work!

 

I can see you have had a long journey with ADs and Benzos and are currently tapering Anafranil and Diazepam? Is that right?

 

It's good you are getting out and being social and helping at the soup kitchen a very noble endeavour! Im sure your help is very much appreciated by all. 🙂 

 

How are you at the moment with your taper and just in general?

 

You are most welcome here I hope you find the site supportive in your journey.

 

Chippy

Thank you for crossing over and for joining the forum, and filling out the information.

 

How have the last couple of months been, since your last post on SA?

 

I'm glad you feel as though you're improving as you carefully lower the dose, here's hoping that 2026 will bring more improvements of that nature.

Thanks for having me. 
 

On 2/4/2026 at 7:13 PM, Chippy said:

currently tapering Anafranil and Diazepam? Is that right?

 

That is correct. 

 

On 2/4/2026 at 7:13 PM, Chippy said:

How are you at the moment with your taper and just in general?

 

At the moment, i am at my lowest dose of Benzo within years and i feel ALOT better. I have lost a bit of hair on the top part of my head which does concern me, but I am hopeful that will all start growing back once I am off the Benzo. Been taking a Benzodiazepine for almost 12 years every day now so it had to take its effect somewhere. 

I am also just starting to exercise again with some light swimming. I find it a difficult to go more than a couple days in a row bc sore joints/muscles. Perhaps a goal to work towards will be to get back to playing social sports. I really miss doing that regularly. 

12 minutes ago, Ryder said:

At the moment, i am at my lowest dose of Benzo within years and i feel ALOT better. I have lost a bit of hair on the top part of my head which does concern me, but I am hopeful that will all start growing back once I am off the Benzo. Been taking a Benzodiazepine for almost 12 years every day now so it had to take its effect somewhere. 

This is great to hear 😀

 

Sorry about your hair. I hope this resolves once off.

 

13 minutes ago, Ryder said:

am also just starting to exercise again with some light swimming. I find it a difficult to go more than a couple days in a row bc sore joints/muscles. Perhaps a goal to work towards will be to get back to playing social sports. I really miss doing that regularly. 

Sounds good! In time I hope can get back to doing what you love. 

That's good to hear, thank you for providing us with that update.

 

I also hope that your hair loss reverses- this is something I have seen in other stories, in time.

 

Just a word of caution, many hair loss drug treatments risk somewhat similar syndromes to psychiatric medication withdrawal, and recovery seems to be quite patchy compared to PAWS. I wouldn't risk any of them personally, but I would at least urge you to look up things like "post finasteride syndrome" and consider that other hair loss drugs are also implicated in similar outcomes.

10 hours ago, Luke said:

Just a word of caution, many hair loss drug treatments risk somewhat similar syndromes to psychiatric medication withdrawal, and recovery seems to be quite patchy compared to PAWS. I wouldn't risk any of them personally, but I would at least urge you to look up things like "post finasteride syndrome" and consider that other hair loss drugs are also implicated in similar outcomes.

 

I did not know this. Thank you for sharing that. It is tempting to try fix things straight away but I will just leave it for now. 

I have also a little routine going in the day - which is nice. I wasn't able to establish routine before as i was completely drugged up. 

7 minutes ago, Ryder said:

I have also a little routine going in the day - which is nice. I wasn't able to establish routine before as i was completely drugged up. 

Routine I find is so helpful. Glad youve been able to find this rhythm now.

On 2/4/2026 at 6:49 PM, Ryder said:

When completing your topic please include the following:

-Outline of your story so far:

 

Given my first drug at 18 years - Cymbalta. Managed to get off that within 2 days. 
I was given Seroquel in 2011 for sleep. Cold Turkeyd off most of it and that lead me to my current state of using SSRI's and Benzodiazpines. 

 

Currently tapering off Diazepam roughly 2.6mg as of February 2026. 

 

-How you are doing at the moment:

I volunteer a couple days a week at soup kitchen to get some exercise and be around people socially again. I was unable to be around people for many years due to withdrawals and anxiety. 
I am at my lowest dose in years and am slowly learning to be around people again. 

 

-Link to your SA thread if you have one:

 

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/topic/14865-ryder-zoloft-to-clomipramine/
 

-Take a moment to update your signature to include a brief and clear outline of your drug history

Hi @Ryder you sound like you're in a relatively good place at the moment considering psychiatric drug withdrawal can be a very debilitating, physically, psychologically and mentally draining process and not to forget takes years and for some people decades. It's great you're down to 2.6mg diazepam.

 

I'm curious about the Clomipramine and if you're still on it. I'm planning to start tapering Amitriptyline soon and wondering if you'd have any experience with TCA tapering and what it is like.

 

I'm also on 2 GABA drugs — Baclofen and Diazepam — I've managed to decrease both a little but don't plan to take them much further until I'm ready to commit to a hyperbolic taper. These drugs are potentiated at the moment due to a keto diet. 

 

Glad you're getting out and about. I'm mostly at home due to the sedating effects of the sedating drugs, punctuated with symptoms associated with Escitalopram WD.

On 2/19/2026 at 8:30 PM, Catbird said:

Hi @Ryder you sound like you're in a relatively good place at the moment considering psychiatric drug withdrawal can be a very debilitating, physically, psychologically and mentally draining process and not to forget takes years and for some people decades. It's great you're down to 2.6mg diazepam.

 

I'm curious about the Clomipramine and if you're still on it. I'm planning to start tapering Amitriptyline soon and wondering if you'd have any experience with TCA tapering and what it is like.

 

Still on it and familiar with only Clomipromine. Well, the design Tricyclic was that it could be dosed for me in both morning and night. I assume this is the same case for you on Amitriptyline ?

 

In my own case, i too was sleeping in during the day because of the morning dose, and later the evening dose. I made Clomipromine a priority especiially bc even i was missing appointment with my doctor even though i was supposed to be getting "treatment". When i reduced morning dose, i lost a stack of weight which was a relief and also had the energy to go and meet my GP for all things non-medicine related. Also, had the energy to do many more things like exercise when most days I was too tired to do anything at all. 

 

Also, saw a tonne of people using Amitriptyline when i stayed in hospital. I used to stay up some nights and watch them come to the nurse station to see if anyone was making progress. They were not in a good place mostly, so made a decision to not use that drug if it were offered. Trying to be as positive as I can about it. 

 

Hopefully I was a little bit helpful to you as to what I have seen and experienced. Anything in particular you would like to know about tapering ? You will get your energy back once you hit the lower levels of that drug. 

Thanks for the response @Ryder. I only take it at night but I want to halve the dose from 20 to 10mg. 
So you halved the dose without and problems?

23 hours ago, Catbird said:

I only take it at night but I want to halve the dose from 20 to 10mg. 
So you halved the dose without and problems?

 

Yes. Starting from my original dose of 150mg i used to reduce at 25mg at a time until 100mg. Once i got to roughly 75mg i was reducing by 5mg at a time. So it looked like 75mg > 70mg > 65mg > 60mg. Then even smaller to my current dose. 

 

I have to admit though over the past year it has been difficult to get to 50mg. This is because i suffered bad anxiety and OCD coming off the APs i used to take, when i stopped taking them abruptly. I find that, when i reach an ammount of 50mg Clomipromine, my OCD tends to come back and i find it difficult to sleep. It has been much easier to come of the Valium knowing that the TCA gives me a little bit of sleep in the evening. 

Over the past 12 months i have been dosing at between 53mg & 50mg. This is so that my mind can sleep at night time. Hopefully though, you can fair better at it than me. 

2 hours ago, Ryder said:

Over the past 12 months i have been dosing at between 53mg & 50mg. This is so that my mind can sleep at night time. Hopefully though, you can fair better at it than me. 

Thanks @Ryder. It helps to have some idea of what to expect. I really appreciate you sharing your experience.

I am able to do a small bit of running up at my local park. Previously wasn't able to do this for years do to fatigue and sore muscles & joints to my legs. 

I have reached a target of 2mg valium. 

41 minutes ago, Ryder said:

I have reached a target of 2mg valium. 

Amazing @Ryder

7 hours ago, Ryder said:

I have reached a target of 2mg valium. 

Great to hear!

@Ryder , it sounds like you're making good progress, do take it easy and keep being cautious, but I'm glad to hear this.

Hi guys, I have a question for you all. I am currently tapering my SSRI together with my Benzodiazepine. I know the advice given is to taper one drug at a time. However, i feel that the SSRI is a little bit sedating during the day. In fact, i use the SSRI in order to sleep at night time (I don't really feel the Diazepam). When i make a reduction down to 50mg I get a tonne of energy for the next 1-2 weeks but very little sleep. And I don't want to be asleep my whole day.

Q: Should i just stick to tapering the Diazepam and reduce the SSRI later on, or is there a way to do both ?

Ryder.

1 hour ago, Ryder said:

I am currently tapering my SSRI together with my Benzodiazepine.

Anafranil is an TCA not an SSRI. You are likley finding it sedative as it has weak antihistamine properties.

When you reduce your dose I think WD symptoms you are feeling, are making you over activated and keeping you up at night, once these settle down after 1-2 weeks, things return to wd normal for you? It looks like your updosed out of it?

Normally the problem comes after dropping an AD, that the benzo can be too sedative. You note that the Benzo isn't effecting you? Perhaps it is more than you realise, combined with the antihistamine effect of the AD? As you get lower on Anafranil, you may find your feel more sedated. For this reason perhaps getting the benzo down lower first is best.

If you feel you want to, it is ok to taper two at once, if you do it carefully. It is also ok to taper one, then the folllowing month, taper the other, to keep yourself balanced.

You could try a Micro Taper of the Benzo, perhaps slower than 10%, go 5%, the take 1/30 of that 5% and make that reduction every day.

Once you feel it is going ok, and that you have reduced it enough to be ready to add in the AD, add in Anafranil on top at a low rate say 4/5%, again, micro taper 1/30 of that amount each day with the Benzo. Try to keep yourself in balance. Micro Tapering

Just take is slow and steady and hold if things get off. It may be that you need to reassess the rates you drop. General rule of thumb, half the rate of each if you are going to drop both at once. But listen to your body, is key.

@Ryder I have the same problem.

To add to what has been said, once a taper has been too fast and someone destabilises, salvaging some wellbeing in the short term can become difficult, especially when multiple drug changes are involved it is very difficult to unpick.

That is why most support groups advocate slowly, cautiously and one at a time.

@Chippy has provided some suggestions on doing two at once, and you can try it, but I'd really suggest going slowly and cautiously with it to keep it manageable. You already have symptoms from dose reductions.

On 4/22/2026 at 5:33 PM, Chippy said:

When you reduce your dose I think WD symptoms you are feeling, are making you over activated and keeping you up at night, once these settle down after 1-2 weeks, things return to wd normal for you? It looks like your updosed out of it?

Hi Chippy,

Mainly things do settle down after 1-2 weeks on the Anafranil but I get alot of energy. Also, i get pretty angry at people (not my usual calm self) and idk i start getting angry at my parents for no reason. Perhaps i need to move to an area where I can give time to myself and taper. Briefly, I am living at home with my parents atm, but was out of town last month for the first time in years. I realy liked it over there. I don't really want to leave the house where I am bc most of the people in my town pretty much know me, and can be judgemental or unhelpful. Honestly, I was going for walks for all of the days that I was away, and doing crap to knock the energy out at night time. Really enjoyed that little holiday I had as, I really have been on a Diazepam taper since 2019- at home. I went away 1 time else during that period.

What do ppl think ?

Edited May 2May 2 by Ryder
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