Getting off of Seroquel

Please be careful with the paxil. Do some research, talk to your doctor.

Yes, Sears, be careful with Paxil. It made me fall and my daughter is on it now and having bad effects.

Can be worse than a benzo when trying to taper.

lilypaws Hi pharris022. I was on Seroquel and had very bad side effects and had to get off of it right away. My daughter can tolerate it. I think you slowly going off of it is a good idea. Sounds like you have other problems too. I hope you get feeling better. Try smiling at yourself in the mirror everyday as fiesty76 suggested. Take care and they are bad drugs. I will talk to my daughter about getting off of Seroquel. She has trouble getting to sleep. She takes a lot of different meds to help her to get to sleep. I am on Lexapro and it's the best one I have ever taken. Of course I'm on Klonopin too. I have to take 2 mg of klonopin, a muscle relaxant, and Ambien to get to sleep. But it works and I wake up wide awake. But when I have my surgery the surgeon is putting me on Percocet, Tramadol, and Valium. Won't need those other meds then.

Why is he changing you to Valium? Klonopin has a very long half life also.

Hi I was on a small 2.5mg lexapro a day antidepressant for depression and Lamotrigine 200mg for mood swings and bipolar.That was perfect for years even with some alcohol.I told them I was a bit flat at night and looked to alcohol for an upper so they put me on Seroquel and I don’t like it ,I wake at 1am ? Or 4 am then if I ever have a few beers with this stuff I choke at night and keep waking.Then I tried to chuck it away but then gets worse I can’t sleep at all for days ,anyway I’m taping off gradually with my doctor now and it’s going good.

Hi everybody. I'm glad I've found this thread on the internet, have been reading the first half of it so far, will continue to catch up another time. I figured I'd provide my own experience and feedback on the med.

I've been on seroquel for 3 and a half years by now, mostly because of restlessness (supposedly triggered and fueled by anxiety and stress).
My initial dose was 100mg, to take after dinner. The doctor also prescribed me duloxetine to take once waking up, in order for me to feel less of a zombie.
For more than a year now I've only been on seroquel 25mg, although I still resort to 50mg when I'm particularly anxious and can't fall asleep with 25mg.
I haven't really consulted my psych in the last 2 years, can't afford it, so I've been doing this all on my own.
Every once in a while I try to sleep without taking any seroquel and it never works, like last night. It's completely shattering for me.
I really want to get off of it completely as it makes me feel sluggish and unproductive and I don't even like my body as my weight is 10-14 kilos more than what it used to be.
I'm currently cutting 100mg pills into four to get a 25mg dose. I've read in this thread's earliest pages that 25mg pills are also commercialized and it looks like it in my country too, so I guess I should buy those and start cutting them into two pieces to lower the dosage further.

When I switch from 25mg to 50mg, I suffer constipation (and hemorrhoids too sometimes) the first days after that.
When trying to get back to 25mg, I may also be unable to put myself asleep at first attempt, but it's never particularly complicated. This is probably due to the fact that I've been avoiding taking 50mg unless I'm being under particularly high levels of stress.
Conversely, when I lower the dosage, I may get fewer hours of sleep the first nights, than the average 9-10 hours I get on a steady prolongued regime of 25mg.

I still think 9-10 hours is too much, especially considering that once awoken I feel sluggish, hence why I wanna further lower the dosage.
My libido is obviously below average but on 25mg I can still manage.

Also, I don't quite understand this but it seems that I feel very cold during my sleep when I'm on seroquel. I used to think it was just me becoming unusually sensitive to cold in these last years but it's most probably not the case as last night (while skipping on the med) I tried sleeping with the same pajamas and blankets as regularly and I was just melting, like normal people would (for example my brother who sleeps in the same room). But the thing is that it's not just my impression, as if I don't cover myself that much, I get headache, throatache and earrache the day after. I also usually know this in advance as I get nightmares when I'm feeling cold during my sleep. Unfortunately, I'm generally unable to wake up in the midst of the night due to the effect of the med, even if I'm having vivid nightmares.
I'd need to spend more nights off of the med to really conclude that it's the med's fault with certainty but I can't deprive myself of sleep that often.

I will be following the thread from now on and post updates whenever there will be any

Hello there. I went through this too after 800 mg of seroquel for about 16 years. It took me about three weeks of just sticking with it before I could sleep again. The last 25 mgs is the hardest. My advice if you want to get off it is to set aside some time where you don't need to be so productive during the day if possible. Also, night sweat and temperature problems are normal with these antipsychotics.

Just curious that you were using alcohol as an upper. Alcohol is a depressant and Seroquel is a mood stabilizer. I have been on and off Seroquel for several years. I don't really like it either, but my doctor recently said I was "all over the place" lol. Do you take the quick release or the extended release? I have found that if I take 50mg of regular release Seroquel and a larger dose of extended release, currently 150mg, I am slowly but surely sleeping through the night and if I sleep well during the night (looking at CPAP stats) I'm not tired in the morning. I also take Lamictal and a zillion other meds though so my response to Seroquel may not be the same as yours. One more thought, have you asked the doc if you could be ADD. I am, in addition to all my other issues. I tried Adderal and several other symptoms, but they increased my anxiety. Now I take Vyvanse which is similar but gentler, not such a shock to my system. If I wake up a bit early, drink a cup of coffee and take my meds, I am generally fine during the day. Just a thought? Or maybe Sleep Apnea given the choking and waking. Seroquel and alcohol combo would definitely make Apnea worse. So yeah, I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV. Don't take my advice as gospel, but just some thoughts you might want to run by your doc. Is he a psychiatrist or a regular doctor?

I have a Psychiatrist that had me off drinking totally for 3 years and a lot of drugs at my request,a little chip of lexapro only in the morning ( as people with bi polar get bad effects with antidepressants) I have lamotrigine 200 mg daily and 2 x seroquel XR 50 ( slow release ) at night and 25 mg just before bed.Now I’m on one 50 mg XR 50 Early afternoon and feel better with non interrupt sleep 7 hrs 👍