Wondering if I can make clomipramine work with my lifestyle
TLDR- recently put on clomipramine but wondering if I can have any amount of alcohol on it/worried about the long list of interactions. But otherwise med is working GREAT for me.
I’ll try and keep this as concise as possible- 40 YO female with a history of depression, anxiety, and OCD. Have been on and off a range of SSRIs over the years, most recently Effexor, which caused vivid nightmares and teeth grinding. I switched providers, and my current one was able to wean me off Effexor and put me on buspirone and Prozac. I found the Prozac was also making me grind my teeth and made me feel flat so she switched me to Luvox and buspirone. I had a really bad reaction to this (sudden depression including suicidal thoughts which I’ve never experienced), so a week ago she switched me to clomipramine and buspirone. It has been night and day in terms of my depression- I feel like it has been lifted and I’m actually happy for the first time in a while.
The issue is I am worried about is potential serious side effects with alcohol and the long range of interactions in general the med seems to have (and the fact that it’s no longer widely prescribed). I do drink socially 2-3 times per month (enough to get buzzed but not wasted), and would like to continue since that’s part of my social life. I saw online there were some pretty serious side effects for drinking on it, but I’ve honestly always drank on SSRIs/SNRIs and been ok. But others don’t seem to have as serious warnings as this one.
I guess my question is, does anyone have experience or insight for if there is ANY amount to safely drink on this, or if it’s best to go back to exploring more SSRIs? I do hope I can make this med work because it really has lifted my depression, but I do not plan to go completely sober for the rest of my life (please no judgement on that decision). Wondering if anyone with a similar lifestyle has been able to make it work for them.
Posted Mar 19, 2026, 11:15 PM UTC