# Seroquel, ok this is getting ridiculous



## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

So I take 100mg of seroquel IR every night and it's becoming hell for me. I don't know whether anyone else finds this but I find that it really causes anxiety. Like literally causes anxiety. The problem is that it doesnt do this every night and i cant find a pattern as to help anticipate when this will happen. The sedation scares me and I will often get these scary experiences while trying to fall asleep. Sometimes I swear I can hear things that I think are just my mind. Like my name being called out or shuffling of feet across the floor. Hell it feels like there is a presense around me and no matter what I just can't shake the feeling or idea off until the anxiety passes. Like you know that the idea is absurd, but your so anxious that the absurdity doesnt matter anymore. Just last night I was up a few hours and I felt like I was going to die. Damn doctor only gives me 0.5mg twice a day of clonazepam and none at night. I just can't take this seroquel **** anymore. Yet if you ask me why I still do its because it just puts you to sleep. At least usually it will if the anxiety isn't to bad. And I tried coming off of it a couple weeks back but I couldn't sleep at all and the withdrawal was insane. So I was wondering if there are any other effective medications for sleep that I could switch to? But I don't want this anxiety. Is this anxiety happening just because it's the seroquel or would it happen regardless if I were to take a different sleeping medication.

Also is there anything I can do about the anxiety for the meantime. I see my doctor soon but it's going to be a month.


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

Seroquel really sucks. How long have you been taking it? There are many threads in regards to seroquel on this forum, a lot of which you will find useful.

I was on it for about a month and it did increase anxiety, Chances are your anxiety won't be as bad when you quit it. I think it tends to cause some symptoms like mild mania, psychosis, and delusions when people take it who aren't psychotic. I always say that anyone who is not psychotic shouldn't take antipsychotics because they'll end up making you psychotic.

Yhere are many many many other options to help you sleep, this by far probably the worst thing your doctor could have you on from what you've said. 

Call your doctor and tell him what's going on. This sounds like an emergency situation and your doctor needs to take care of you. My experience was that insomnia was far better than staying on Seroquel.

Good luck, sorry things are so crappy right now. It will pass.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

istayhome said:


> Seroquel really sucks. How long have you been taking it? There are many threads in regards to seroquel on this forum, a lot of which you will find useful.
> 
> I was on it for about a month and it did increase anxiety, Chances are your anxiety won't be as bad when you quit it. I think it tends to cause some symptoms like mild mania, psychosis, and delusions when people take it who aren't psychotic. I always say that anyone who is not psychotic shouldn't take antipsychotics because they'll end up making you psychotic.
> 
> ...


During the day I'm fine though. There's no experiences in relation to psychosis during the day. Honestly I don't really even think that psychosis is the right term. but that's another thing I'm worried about. I brought this up with my psychiatrist (who I stopped seeing, starting to regret though because I don't have one now) about a year ago and he wanted to just increase the seroquel. Said we need to get to 300mg and assess this from there. But I really just don't think that this is psychosis though because in theory if I were to take away the seroquel, I wouldn't get these experiences. I really just think its strictly the seroquel.


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

well, taper off of seroquel. Find a new psychiatrist asap to help you out and get you on some more effective meds.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

istayhome said:


> well, taper off of seroquel. Find a new psychiatrist asap to help you out and get you on some more effective meds.


Yeah working on it. I'm thinking about either taking 2mg of clonazepam with the seroquel or cutting the seroquel in half to avoid being low on it in the future for tonight. I think cutting it in half I'll do. Btw why do they make the seroquel a small round tablet that when attempting to cut in half, it turns into a dozen pieces? Lol.


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

Ben12 said:


> Yeah working on it. I'm thinking about either taking 2mg of clonazepam with the seroquel or cutting the seroquel in half to avoid being low on it in the future for tonight. I think cutting it in half I'll do. Btw why do they make the seroquel a small round tablet that when attempting to cut in half, it turns into a dozen pieces? Lol.


Yeah, it sucks seroquel is prescribed in high doses as a small pill. I got a cheap digital scale a weighed a whole pill then cut the pill up and weighed out how much I wanted to take. Cutting down on the seroquel and taking more clonazepam will hep you get off of seroquel much more quickly, good luck.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

istayhome said:


> Yeah, it sucks seroquel is prescribed in high doses as a small pill. I got a cheap digital scale a weighed a whole pill then cut the pill up and weighed out how much I wanted to take. Cutting down on the seroquel and taking more clonazepam will hep you get off of seroquel much more quickly, good luck.


Yeah problem is that if I take anymore clonazepam I'll run out before no time. Unless I am able to take 1mg of clonazepam at night and forget about taking it during the day. Might end up having to do that actually. Hopefully 1mg will work.


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## altghost (Jul 13, 2012)

I know this isn't much help, I don't know anything about hallucinations.. but maybe if you could see everything and every space in your room, like if you moved your furniture around and got rid of shadows, you could do something like surf the net or read until you fell asleep? And maybe put up photos of... beaches, or something calming.. Sorry I know it's 'advice' from someone who knows nothing of the subject ._.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

Thanks for the advice altghost.


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## Mirium (Sep 17, 2012)

I was on 300mg a day, it made me completely paranoid, even to the point where I thought that someone had put a tracking device on my car. I called the cops, they thought I was nuts - which I probably was due to the Seroquel. It made me hear things too, like voices at night. It also made me gain nearly 100 pounds over the course of 2 years (which I thankfully lost again after stopping it). It did absolutely no good for me at all. All those symptoms disappeared once I stopped taking it, within I'd say about a few weeks. Clonazepam did help me sleep at the beginning, but I was up to 6mg a day...problem is you just keep having to take more and more for it to work. If it were me, I'd get off that Seroquel slowly.


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## CailinGaelach (Aug 28, 2012)

It really makes me angry when these "drugs du jours" pop up (in my opinion usually as a result of the 'wonderful' & intricate relationship between the drug co.s, insurance co.s and doctors). Seroquel sounds like the most recent. My doc is all for it. But after years of experience, I've learned to trust my own body/mind and how it reacts. I only ever take it now if I'm desperate to get some sleep or stop suicidal ideation -- even at a small dose it gives me a sort of detached feeling. And it absolutely does depress me the next day. I've given up debating with doctors; I've learned just how human they are and easily influenced they can be by the drug co.s, and it only makes sense: they want to believe in what they do for a living. None are perfect, but some are leaps & bounds better than others, like my present one; sooooo, sadly, sometimes you just have to learn to play the game. Ideally, shouldn't be that way, but, hey, I love utopian sci-fi, and that's not gonna happen anytime soon, either!


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## A Sense of Purpose (May 8, 2011)

Ben12 said:


> Yeah working on it. I'm thinking about either *taking 2mg of clonazepam with the seroquel* or cutting the seroquel in half to avoid being low on it in the future for tonight. I think cutting it in half I'll do. Btw why do they make the seroquel a small round tablet that when attempting to cut in half, it turns into a dozen pieces? Lol.


You should be very careful with that. Combining pines with benzos can be quite problematic. Esp for respiration


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## Solomon's Tomb (Aug 14, 2012)

My Dad used to take Ambien, you could try that. But, it might result in you getting up in the middle of the night and going to the bathroom on your back porch without realizing it and waking up in the morning to find a 'present' there-- my Dad had that problem.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

A Sense of Purpose said:


> You should be very careful with that. Combining pines with benzos can be quite problematic. Esp for respiration


I've taken 2mg of the clonazepam in the past and I've been fine, with the seroquel. But I understand the concern.


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## whattothink (Jun 2, 2005)

I was having insomnia with my severe depression. I would fall asleep and instantly dream for what felt like forever, then wake up a few hours later and take forever to fall back asleep. My doctor prescribed 6.25mg of seroquel, taken as needed for depression and insomnia. 6.25 is an extremely small dose - 4 times smaller than the smallest available pill.

It helped with my insomnia immensely, but I was very wary about taking an antipsychotic when I am not psychotic, so I used it very sparingly. After a couple of weeks, my sleep improved and I threw the pills away. I've heard too many horror stories about antipsychotics causing psychosis in those who weren't previously. As an example, my mother suffered from borderline personality disorder, anxiety, and depression all through her twenties and thirties. As a result, she abused antipsychotics. The week she decided to stop using them she had a psychotic break and now she is required to take them for life.

If you are predisposed to mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, only take what you need. Don't mess around with antipsychotics unless you absolutely have to.


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

whattothink said:


> I was having insomnia with my severe depression. I would fall asleep and instantly dream for what felt like forever, then wake up a few hours later and take forever to fall back asleep. My doctor prescribed 6.25mg of seroquel, taken as needed for depression and insomnia. 6.25 is an extremely small dose - 4 times smaller than the smallest available pill.
> 
> It helped with my insomnia immensely, but I was very wary about taking an antipsychotic when I am not psychotic, so I used it very sparingly. After a couple of weeks, my sleep improved and I threw the pills away. I've heard too many horror stories about antipsychotics causing psychosis in those who weren't previously. As an example, my mother suffered from borderline personality disorder, anxiety, and depression all through her twenties and thirties. As a result, she abused antipsychotics. The week she decided to stop using them she had a psychotic break and now she is required to take them for life.
> 
> If you are predisposed to mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, only take what you need. Don't mess around with antipsychotics unless you absolutely have to.


Yeah, I kept a little seroquel around from years ago when I was on it. But it scares me so much that even when I've had terrible insomnia for days and I'm laying in bed miserable, too exhausted to do anything and wanting nothing more than to sleep, I still won't take even a tiny dose of it. It scares the crap out of me.


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

Yeah, Seroquel scares me too and what's strange is that my last psychiatrist told me about 2 years ago that it's the"valium of our generation". I used to find quite a few things that he said a bit of a worry and this was definitely one of those things! To me, seroquel acted nothing like Valium, although a lot of drs prescribe it in very low doses here in Australia now for anxiety. When I took it I didn't even have the pleasant feeling of calm that a benzo would give - it just put me to sleep - quickly. It was a bit like getting hit by a truck! Also, I'd spend the entire next day trying to get back to normal - the Seroquel would leave me feeling completely washed out and exhausted for a full day after taking it. I even tried chopping it into quarters and it still made me sleep - horrible stuff!


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

whattothink said:


> I was having insomnia with my severe depression. I would fall asleep and instantly dream for what felt like forever, then wake up a few hours later and take forever to fall back asleep. My doctor prescribed 6.25mg of seroquel, taken as needed for depression and insomnia. 6.25 is an extremely small dose - 4 times smaller than the smallest available pill.
> 
> It helped with my insomnia immensely, but I was very wary about taking an antipsychotic when I am not psychotic, so I used it very sparingly. After a couple of weeks, my sleep improved and I threw the pills away. I've heard too many horror stories about antipsychotics causing psychosis in those who weren't previously. As an example, my mother suffered from borderline personality disorder, anxiety, and depression all through her twenties and thirties. As a result, she abused antipsychotics. The week she decided to stop using them she had a psychotic break and now she is required to take them for life.
> 
> If you are predisposed to mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, only take what you need. Don't mess around with antipsychotics unless you absolutely have to.


Woah if you can cut a 25mg tab of seroquel into 4 equal pieces than that's something to admire.


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## jonjacob (Aug 28, 2012)

Doctors script Seroquel for 2 reasons 1) Kickbacks from big Pharma and 2) its been pushed as this "safe, non addictive" sort of panacea for all psychological related issues. BS. Seroquel is some scary stuff and I agree, it didn't help me in the least bit and I think it should strictly be used for very serious instances of psychosis. Its the "F it" pill, it will just make u sleepy, lazy, basically just say "Meh" to everything in life. If you are so sick you need that then take it but it doesnt like it...I really fckin hate how doctors prescribe people with SA these gnarly antipsychotics instead of actual anti anxiety meds like benzodiazepines out of some idiotic fear. What I mean is seroquel is no better or less addictive, SSRIS are no less addictive insofar as one will develop a dependence on them and either go through a withdrawal or must be weaned. Same with benzos. Stop the insanity everyone and stand up for yourselves to these lameass doctors


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## whattothink (Jun 2, 2005)

Ben12 said:


> Woah if you can cut a 25mg tab of seroquel into 4 equal pieces than that's something to admire.


The pharmacy handles that. She even smirked when I handed her the script. After showing me the size of a 25mg pill I could see why.


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

whattothink said:


> The pharmacy handles that. She even smirked when I handed her the script. After showing me the size of a 25mg pill I could see why.


You can actually do it with one of those pill cutter things, but it's tricky. They really aren't worth the trouble though.


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## whattothink (Jun 2, 2005)

don36 said:


> You can actually do it with one of those pill cutter things, but it's tricky. They really aren't worth the trouble though.


Yeah she showed it to me. Some of the pills ended up being bigger than others and there was quite a bit of dust in the bottom of the bottle. heh. But, man, even 6.25mg was enough to knock me out cold. I read that the sedative effect diminishes as you get into the doses of 100's of milligrams and that it can actually cause insomnia.


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

whattothink said:


> Yeah she showed it to me. Some of the pills ended up being bigger than others and there was quite a bit of dust in the bottom of the bottle. heh. But, man, even 6.25mg was enough to knock me out cold. I read that the sedative effect diminishes as you get into the doses of 100's of milligrams and that it can actually cause insomnia.


I can say from my own experience and the anecdotal experiences of many that this not true. 300, 600, 900 mg. It all knocks you out.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

whattothink said:


> The pharmacy handles that. She even smirked when I handed her the script. After showing me the size of a 25mg pill I could see why.


The original reason for going on seroquel a few years ago for me was for insomnia. If I knew that doctors could do that and pharmacies can cut the pills for you and that 6.25mg would be a better option, than wow I would have just done that.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

istayhome said:


> I can say from my own experience and the anecdotal experiences of many that this not true. 300, 600, 900 mg. It all knocks you out.


No it's actually true. I used to be on higher doses and there is a difference between 200mg (most sedative) and 300-400mg (less sedative over time) Now ofcourse the first dose moving up from 200mg to 300mg will be just as sedating if not more but over time you'll have wished you'd stayed on the 200mg because the sedation for some reason wears off at 300mg.


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

It all knocks you out. I escalated up to 600mg because of tolerance and never noticed a drop in effect. It's a crappy drug and I only used it to escape life by sleeping 20 hours a day. I cannot see a benefit to people with SA or Depression from it


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

I know I guy who was prescribed 900 mg for depression. He wasn't given any warnings about it's affects (he also never bothered to look them up either). He took it the next day and went driving. Passed out at the wheel and got into a terrible wreck. This drug was way over-prescribed a few tears ago.

What I hate most about atypical antipsychotics is how different the effects are depending on the dosage. It has to do with their binding affinities. But it's really weird that as you raise the dose of the drug, you will get all kinds of additional effects.


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## Ben12 (Jul 8, 2009)

Yeah I can't say from experience though regarding any higher than 400mg. But yeah it's weird 300mg wasn't as sedating as 200mg after continuous use. I was going through some **** back then though. Glad I'm better than in the past though.


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## KramersHalfSister (May 3, 2012)

Ditto to everyone that has said that antipsychotics should NOT be prescribed for depression and SA. I've read so many horror stories about what those can do to people that aren't psychotic to begin with. I'm always disturbed by how so many doctors/pill pushers will give no thought to their patient's well being just so they can get a kickback from pharmaceutical companies. As far as Seroquel goes, why in the hell is that even still around? I've not heard of one person benefiting from it, only how it screws people up even more. Antipsychotics scare the bejeebus out of me. My old doc tried to put me on Risperidone and I switched docs immediately. Be wary of anyone that would try to prescribe antipsychotics to you. In my opinion, that means that they don't know **** about SA or how to treat it.


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