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← Return to Getting off of Seroquel
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I've been on seroquel for many years to help with sleeping. I've been up to 400mgs and down to 50 mgs while trying to get off it. I am working with an acupuncturist now and have been successful in coming down to 75mgs with good sleep. When I went to 50mgs everything reversed itself and I could not sleep at all. I am now back up to 100mgs and sleeping ok. There is this thing called a rebound effect which is what I think happened. Is there any hope of getting off completely? My insomnia started with peri menopause. I am way past menopause now and my drug doctor believes i should be able to sleep ok without the medication. The thought of not getting off this drug is depressing
Replies to "I've been on seroquel for many years to help with sleeping. I've been up to 400mgs..."
@ireneb Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, a place to give and get support.
Weaning off a drug like Seroquel has to be extremely difficult. May I ask how long you have been weaning off the medication?
Hi ireneb, may I ask how you're doing on Seroquel at this time? What interested me was that you said you had a rebound effect after going down to 50 mg. I'm wondering if I'm having rebound insomnia, having gone down to 150 mg. The dose was giving me good sleep but after five weeks I'm not sleeping well, I either have nighttime awakenings or haven't fallen asleep for hours. Any insight you can offer from your experience would be appreciated.
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I can only share my experience with this drug. I was on it for 4 months for insomnia as I stopped sleeping due to stress which I feel like turned into mild depression. I compared it to a mid life crisis. I can tell you while on it I tried various doses and techniques and nothing helped. If I took it I slept if I didn't I didn't sleep. My Dr. also said the same thing that I should be able to just go off it and sleep. For me, this was not the case. Every time I tried just not taking it I just didn't sleep. This was also adding to my stress thinking I was still broken, or I had an underlying condition causing it. It wasn't until I found this forum a week ago that I understood that it was withdrawl that was causing me to not sleep. It seems common throughout this thread that you should prepare for some insomnia when coming off it. Its equally frustrating if your taking this for insomnia like some of us.
Anyway after I read every page for this thread I felt I had a better understanding of what was going on here. You can read my daily updates but the first 3 days was hard but got better after that. I had no sleep on day 1, had to take 12.5 mg on day 2 or I felt I want going to sleep and by day 3 I was sleeping a couple hours a night on my own.
Much like you, I wasn't happy about going on medication for sleeping to begin with and it only added to my frustration not being able to get off it.
I added as much insight as I could on my previous posts on what I thought helped or didn't help for me. I know everyone is different but even @rew4946 who was a long term user is having success coming off Seroquel by just stopping.
I hope this helps. Unless your hormones are still out of sync causing insomnia you can do this!