Tonight, I'm kicking Seroquel. Ask me anything!

[no name no slogan]

[Roon]

1. Why?

I would never be able to quit Seroquel. I sleep like a baby every night.

[seaker]

2. Is that all it takes?

Is it hard to come by?:shrug:

[Roon]

3. ask your doctor

and see if you can get some free samples. I take mine 20 minutes before bed and i better be ready to go to bed. Then I sleep with a lot of REM and wake up refreshed 8 hours later.When you first start on it, you get a little hungover in the morning. I just drank a cup of coffee. But the hangover goes away after being on it awhile.

[seaker]

4. Thanks

Why is sleeping so hard?

[Roon]

5. I hear you..

I had problems sleeping for years,now I sleep fine. You just got to allow yourself a window of 8 hours when taking seroquel.

[HopeHoops]

6. Sure, it makes you sleep fine - if you don't mind being a worthless zombie the next morning

[Droopy]

7. Those kind of meds sometimes affect people differently

There is a drug called Risperdal that they use to treat mental health problems. That drug turns me into a zombie. When I was using it I would sleep 12-15 hours a day. And when I was awake I was wishing I could be in bed.

But I know someone who takes the smae drug and she calls it the wonder drug. It treats here symptoms perfectly and she has no side effects.

[HopeHoops]

8. Yeah, Risperdal gave me a massive headache the next morning.

I found a muscle relaxer, Baclofin or something? That worked pretty well. I haven't used anything in a long time but there was a period where I just wouldn't sleep without something.

[Bertha Venation]

16. That's how I was on it, until

I started taking a quarter tab. I sleep very well and don't have a hard time waking up.

[hobbit709]

9. My wife was on that and some other crap.

some interesting information about seroquel
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jfRRf7WMQphBtRjeaenvN5u8KEBQD96K7AI81

At the time I went to the Astra-Zeneca website and in the info about it-which has now changed-they said the only recommended use for the drug was to treat severe psychiatric aberrations. I got into a row with her shrink about it because what I saw it doing to her. He told me I didn't know what I was talking about. My response was that he saw her for an hour once every three months to get her prescriptions refilled and I saw her all the rest of the time and I could see the difference in what it did to her. Every time she saw him, he wanted to up her dosage or add a new drug to the 6 things he had her on. when she wanted to get off some of the stuff, he told her "My way or the highway".

With the advice and help from her personal physician-a great doctor- she started weaning herself off the crap drugs that had her in a zombie like fog 24/7. She still sees her therapist-another great person- for her PTSD and depression. She no longer wakes up in the middle of the night from a terrifying nightmare, sweating and shaking with an anxiety attack and worse. The side effects of the drugs were making her original problems worse to the point where it was affecting her job performance and life.

She is much better now-not only in my eyes but in hers and her therapist agrees. At work she became their worst nightmare because she wouldn't let them get away with crap they were pulling by trying to sidestep USDA regulations-she worked at a shelter for homeless and abused kids. In fact they fired her. She now works at a charter school for at risk students and is much happier there in a less stressful workplace.

[lins the liberal]

10. If any of these psych drugs help you

without giving you worse problems than you started with, then you are lucky.

http://www.benzo.org.uk/
This is a link to info on addiction, tolerance and interdose withdrawal to benzodiazepines.

And googling "tapering off of antidepressants" will bring up a number of websites devoted to this issue.

I have been off benzos (Ativan, Valium etc) for almost 3 years and I am still suffering the consequences (protracted withdrawal syndrome). I was initially put on benzos for anxiety. But I only thought I had suffered anxiety back then. When I developed tolerance and interdose withdrawal and then started tapering off I found out that the anxiety I had inititially was NOTHING compared to what this drug induced. Today, I still have much more severe anxiety, plus panic attacks, bouts of nausea, muscle aches, and other symptoms that all developed when I reached tolerance and during the tapering off process.

[zanne]

11. Don't do it cold turkey! Please!

Ask a doctor to help you wean off of it.

[Droopy]

12. Very important point and I'm glad you thought about it

Withdrawal from psychiatric medication can be hellish.

[no name no slogan]

13. I've been going off it for the past year

I started on it in the fall of 2007 during a hospitalization for a manic-depressive episode. I started on 75mg, and I am down to 25mg now. Last night, I finally broke down and took 1/2 a 25mg tablet because my anxiety was getting to me.

I don't take it for sleep, like so many people do. I take it for bipolar disorder.

The reason I'm going off it is I don't like how it affects me. It has made me very lethargic and has made it difficult to live life. I am also taking a fairly high dose of lithium, which also has a blunting effect on me, but is also a better treatment for bipolar disorder.

The Seroquel has also made me gain close to 50 lbs in the past 1.5 years, and I am fairly certain I will become diabetic if I continue on it. Plus, my doc has been urging me to get off of it for six months. I am sick of how I feel when I'm on this drug, and I want off.

It worked for me when I needed it, but now it is more of a hindrance than anything. I am now in the midst of yet another drug withdrawal cycle (flu-like symptoms, splitting headache, rebound insomnia) and will hopefully be through with it by the end of the week, with any luck.

I'm currently taking seven medications to control this disorder-- taking one less may not make that big a difference, but it's a big step for me.

[zanne]

14. You obviously know what you're doing.

Best of luck. I'll be thinking of you.

[no name no slogan]

15. Thanks!

I tried it once before with no luck. But things are bit different now. I feel like crap today but hopefully this will pass within another week. :)

[Bertha Venation]

17. NNNS, I wish you the best.

I know where you're at, I really do. :hug:

If it's a big step to you, then it will make that big a difference, if not in your body then in your psyche. :thumbsup:

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Good luck. I think I took it for a few days but had trouble with it. (Like

most of the other head meds I have tried. *sigh*)