experiences with Seroquel / quetiapine?

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my mother gained 100 lbs on it.

i lost 90lbs over the last 3 years so weight gain is a huge concern for me.

Ann2011, that is very helpful, thank you. interesting how individual the side effects are.

I tried seroquel once with a girl to stop us killing each other. Was nice, made my head completely empty. I would never take any medication regularly because they just keep you sick. NTs can stand being detached from reality but I couldn't.

fraac, that is an interesting use of the medicine. does it help for anger management or was it a sort of anxiety you were suffering?

my shrink thinks i have been dissociating lately which is maybe like the detachment you speak of, but i don't know if that is accurate. perhaps it is more accurate to say that it is increasingly difficult to get me to 'snap out of it' when i am going off on a tangent and fixating on something. i am kind of losing myself in unrelated thoughts and tasks when i need to be focusing on work and such. a form of escapism i suppose.

I found it incredibly potent, it pretty much knocked me out (but without making me tired, so like my brain was offline - I welcomed the effect at the time because there was a lot of tension in the room). If you took it regularly you would be a zombie, I think. For moments of high anxiety it could be a useful tool.

I graduated high school but everyday I was like a zombie. I am finally off all psych meds and better then ever.

Jawbrodt was on it for a several months and he complained that it made him feel really foggy and unmotivated to anything. Plus, he gained about 60 lbs. so if weight is a concern for you give it serious thought. Might as well just smoke pot. He lost it once he quit, but he would never do it again. If there's something else you can try first, I'd give that a go.

sidebar: 90 lbs?? Amazing! Congratulations. I wouldn't be anxious to undo all that work, either. Go you.

I can think of very few examples where the illegal drug isn't a smarter choice. Seroquel I would only ever use in the manner of an illegal drug, i.e. as and when I needed it rather than a regular dose. It isn't irrational to suggest that big pharma is not on your side.

KittenWithAWhip, thank you for the encouragement!

foggy and unmotivated is a bad thing, ugh. i need to be relatively en pointe at work.

i have an appointment with my doctor after work again today and i'll ask more questions before i take any medicine.

My experience with Seroquel was a pure nightmare. See this thread of mine:

www.wrongplanet.net/postt144588.html

Also look at this thread:

www.wrongplanet.net/postt180622.html


I'm sure that if you don't care about permanent brain damage and memory loss (sometimes over long periods), Seroquel/quetiapine probably could be a good idea, at times. Also, maybe a good idea to use if you don't mind passing out while standing up and maybe knocking out teeth in the process (or worse), and, otherwise, also dramatically having your life shortened, due to the negative effects it has on one's physical health, as well. In my view, it should be illegal. It's sickening how my stupid country lets this Swedish-British company keep this horror at the market, while owning some cannabis, for instance, may land you in prison... purely sickening. The politicians that support this stance should be imprisoned. -_-

gak. . thanks very much for the information, Beauty_pact.

No problem - I'm glad I noticed your thread in time.

Medication is different for all.

I took a rather innocuous over the counter medication [that heaps take] in the past and broke out in a rash (one of the really bad side-effects that happens before the anaphylactic shock. It was listed in the pamphlet). Doctor wanted to see me instantly. If I take it again, it'll most likely happen.

That's a zillion times worst than Seroquel for me, yet you can buy it over the counter.

Be careful.

I've heard it can work wonders.

One of my friends was on it for bipolar. She slept every moment she wasn't at work and had to move in with me because she could not stay awake to drive 25 minutes to her apartment (I lived about 5 minutes away from her work and regularly had to pick her up because she couldn't see straight, couldn't find her keys in her purse, couldn't find her car in a small parking lot...)

Worse was that it turned her into a nonperson. The rest of the reason she was living with me is that she was paying her ex-husband's mortgage, buying his groceries, supporting his drug and alcohol habits, and allowing him to beat and rape her on a regular basis so that he might allow her to spend a few minutes with their son. On Seroquel, she didn't see anything at all wrong with this situation.

She was on a very high dose, though. About 1000 mg I think. Watch out for that.

I spent a few months on a moderate dose of Risperdal (according to the psych, significantly more mild than Seroquel). I slept most of the time, could not remember what I was supposed to be doing when awake, could not drive, could barely communicate, and was in so much pain that there were days when I would literally eat Motrin like candy just to be able to walk to the toilet.

I went from being expressive of high anxiety and fairly high-functioning to drowning in anxiety that I could not find the energy or coherence to express and being lower-functioning than I have ever been in my life.

Be careful. They affect everyone differently-- but it might or might not be a worthwhile trade-off. Personally, I'll never touch any drug along those lines again. I'd rather die.

good point. i had that reaction on melatonin, which i bought on the shelf at a drugstore.

BuyerBeware arrrrrggh that sounds horrible!! ! what a horror story. thank you for sharing that.



i saw my doctor yesterday and he was not impressed i didn't at least try the seroquel yet. i am going to try about a quarter dose tonight (he prescribed 50mg so i'll divide that) as i have tomorrow off work. we'll see how it goes. i am starting to get ill from lack of sleep.

If you haven't, you might also look into...

...ummm, come on, rote memory, don't fail me now...

...I think it's tricyclic antidepressants. Mirtazepine and related drugs. They are older and less commonly used, primarily because they're more likely to screw with your thyroid than SSRIs...

...and they worked like a charm for me. No more sleepless nights, no more laying there for hours, less medicine head than cold medicine (which I avoid unless absolutely necessary) and gone within 20 minutes of waking up.

Waking up rested, may I add. Ready to go. With less anxiety. All the time. Other than being paranoid about hypothyroidism, better than I've felt since, like, puberty.

I miss it. It's nice. Breastfeeding is really wonderful-- cheap, easy, convenient, nothing to prepare, refrigerate, or boil. And I'm still giving serious thought to formula as it means I'll get my happy pills back next June instead of, like, April of 2013.

Before I manage to totally put you off anything stronger-- I don't think my risperidone nightmare is representative. Common enough that it shouldn't have been dismissed (or that the psych who dismissed it should have been dismissed a little more promptly herself), but not by any means representative. Others here have taken it without anything like the "full patient information leaflet experience" I had.

In the end, I'm more to blame than anyone. I'm the one who said, "I'm broken. I have to take it because the experts said so." And persevered-- more like perseverated-- in following the idiot psych's instructions to the letter for the greater part of two months after the hideous side effects materialized and the promised help did not.

Hell I still think I should be taking it. Even knowing what I know. Because it's The Prescribed HFA Treatment and it minimizes my "horrible personality." Tells you what an idiot I can be once I get a bone in my teeth.

Upshot: I hope you find something that helps. Anxiety sucks. Moreover, though, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET YOURSELF START THINKING LIKE ME!! !! !!

General advice, free for all: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER invalidate yourself like that. There's a difference between listening to a point of view, taking someone's advice, checking out other options, and INVALIDATING YOUR OWN SELF.

I can't tell you what it is-- hey, you know, AS, shades of gray-- but I CAN tell you that it's there and that it's BLOODY important.

^^^^thanks for the info, BuyerBeware. i tried using some tricyclic antidepressants (mirtazapine or something) to boost my regular anti-depressant before. it didn't really help for some reason.

so, i tried the Seroquel. i took a half of the smallest dose (12.5 mg) every night for 4 nights in a row. it works very well. i am sleeping deeply, and i definitely need to block off 8 solid hours a night. i am not sure if it is supposed to have a cumulative effect, as i am getting progressively drowsier in the daytime though not unmanageably so. sort of slightly lightheaded and that is it. hopefully it won't get worse.

it makes my nose stuffed up, which is kind of weird, but not too bad.