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534105 tn?1226157177

Which med to taper first: benzo or AD?

Hi: My Dr. put me on clonazepam 0.5mg daily and Zoloft 25mg daily at night for anxiety, and depression. I have been on clonazepam for 20 days now and zoloft for 4 days now. He told me that after some time he wants me to slowly diminish the medicine. My question is: is it ok to diminish both at the same time? Do I have to diminish one before the other?  
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534105 tn?1226157177
I feel depressed mostly in the mornings when I recently awake. Is this common among depressed people?. After exercise, breakfast and a shower...I feel much much better and even depression dissapear.
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No depression experience is common to people because it is an individual thing.

Exercise is supposed to invigorate the body and helps with depression, and the shower and breakfast perhaps focus you from thinking about what depresses you. Just wild guesses though. Below is something more concrete.

The fact you an get any relief on your own enough to create a pattern is a very hopeful sign, so perhaps some therapy and/or reading about how to cope with depression will give you some methods to relieve it.
Avatar universal
I'd advise against diminishing both at the same time.  I'd also advise that, if you don't really need it, use benzos only as needed, not every day.  They're an addictive drug, and quitting them can be really really hard.  The real question here is, why are you on the meds?  If your problem is temporary and the doctor already knows you can quit taking them, are you sure you need them at all?  Usually, at least in the old days, people were sent to therapy before trying medication, because all medication can be difficult.  And if you needed medication for mental problems, you were sent by your general doc to a psychiatrist.  Nowadays, if this site is any guide, general docs are trying to work with drugs they really don't understand very well and don't know how to manage that well.  Not to say all general docs are inadequate and all psychiatrists are wonderful, quite the contrary, both are usually not that well educated on medication, but psychiatrists do specialize in using them and helping you stop using them.  On the other hand, the fact he has already said you would slowly diminish them shows he understands you have to taper off these drugs slowly so that shows some understanding of them.  Here's the rub -- when you start two drugs at the same time, you never learn whether just one would have done it, and of the two, the Zoloft, although no picnic to stop for some people, is by far the easier to stop taking and if it works it works all the time, not just for the relatively short period of time benzos work for.  
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Thanks so much for your useful input. In fact my depression started once I quit using Soma for back pain. I used it daily for one month and after quitting suddenly I started to feel horribly depressed and insomniac. Dunno if Zoloft will be the solution. I am almost sure this state is just temporary due to abuse on soma. In fact when I started to take the clonazepam I instantly felt much better.  
That doesn't make logical sense, you know.  Benzos are a downer, they're used for anxiety, not depression.  They can make depression worse.  It sounds like you're suffering unresolved withdrawal from abruptly stopping Soma, even though you were only on it for a month.  Insomnia is the most common long-term withdrawal effect for those who have long-term withdrawals. It might be the solution, depending on how long ago you quit the Soma, is to go back on that drug and taper off slowly as you obviously needed to do.  But it's your body and you know what's happening better than I do.  Benzos can help with sleep temporarily because they have the unwanted side effect of making people sleepy and because depression can cause anxiety and withdrawal can add to that because you dwell on things instead of relaxing to sleep.  But it's only temporary, you get used to them, and they interfere with REM sleep so eventually you can -- not will, might -- end up with rebound insomnia.  You might want to talk this out with a psychiatrist and see what he or she thinks is the root of the problem.
thanks a gain. I am now planning to reduce gradually my dose of clonazepam and I am taling niacinamide and 5HTP. Both suplements have reduced a lot my depression, but I am almost all day in a sleepy state. I think is due to clonazepam.
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