Puddelchen: Does withdrawal get worse?

[Puddelchen]

I'm in the early stages of withdrawal from Clomipramine. I have cut back the first ten percent and am having withdrawal symptoms which I can cope with. What I would like to know is, do withdrawal symptoms get worse as you withdraw further from the drug? Thanks for any info.

[Gridley]

Hello, Puddelchen, and welcome to SA.

 

First, in order to give members the best information, we ask them to summarize their medication history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly.

 

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

Please include the dates of your taper, the rate at which you tapered, and whether you did every-other-day dosing.  Please keep your signature as simple and easy to read as possible.

Also, are you on any other psychiatric drugs in addition to the Clomipramine?

 

To address your question, the is no absolute answer to your question.  Everyone is different.   However, if you listen to your body, slow down if necessary, build in holds to your taper to let your system catch up, don't try to hurry the process, eat a healthy diet, do mild exercise, employ non-drug coping skills Non-drug techniques to cope with emotional symptoms, avoid caffeine and alcohol, stay with the 10% taper or less Why taper by 10% of my dosage?, then the chances are good that your WD symptoms will remain within the tolerable range throughout your taper.  

 

Please be aware that as you get to the lower doses, you may have to slow your taper.

 

Also, there will be good times and bad.  The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

Over the past year and a half, I've tapered Lexapro from 20mg to 5.5.  Symptoms have been tolerable throughout even as I got lower.  On the other hand, before I found SA, I was tapering Imipramine (like Clomipramine, a tricyclic) and I found that as I got lower, WD symptoms increased.  I was doing 10% every three weeks (too fast) and didn't have a scale, so my doses were inexact.  I learned from SA that I should have been tapering Lexapro first (an accelerator or activating drug) instead of Imipramine (a brake or sedating drug).  This is why I ask if you are on any other psychiatric drugs.
 

Taking multiple psych drugs? Which drug to taper first?

 

I stopped my Imipramine taper and, once I had stabilized, started the Lexapro taper.  

 

Had I not been on any other drugs and knew then what I know now, once I started getting intolerable WD symptoms from the Imipramine taper, I would have stopped the taper and held until I stabilized then would have continued with a slower taper.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Gridley