Hello,

I am hoping to get some advice here on the difference between withdrawal symptoms and recurrence of the problems that landed me on this drug in the first place.

I was on 300-250 of Seroquel for several years. This was prescribed for psychotic depression and intrusive thoughts OCD. I have had no signs of OCD or psychotic depression for many years and my Psychiatrist has encouraged me to lower my dose of seroquel (I am remaining on Wellbutrin despite the depression not being around for a long while too). Lowering it makes me feel much more awake and I've been told I'm 'glowing' and 'present' by friends and family since decreasing. In the last year I have decreased from 200 to 100. My challenges are coming now that I have decreased to 75. This is obviously a larger decrease percentage-wise so I was expecting some difficulty but this seems to be intense. I am finding that I am forgetting everything, I am very agitated and have had several arguments since lowering (something that I almost never do). I also feel like I have to talk a lot, like I can't shut up and have 'faster/racing' thoughts. I decreased my dose almost 2 weeks ago.

I've read (somewhere- I truly can't remember so not sure how reliable the source) that the increase in the number of dopamine receptors that comes with taking seroquel can take months to stabilize after a decrease (the same as with drug addicts). Does anyone have experience with tapering and remember how they felt? I always feel really weird at first but overall it's better and I haven't felt quite this badly for this long.

I am confused as to weather this is a withdrawal issue or not because these signs are not like my OCD in many ways but they do have similar 'loud' thoughts (as in rather than letting something go in a conversation I become a bit more sassy) and I feel a lot less chill than normal.

Anything you may have to share on your experience of decreasing your dosage is much appreciated.