Mental Health Seroquel XR experience?

[RichardMooner]

Today my P-Doc prescribed me Seroquel XR 50mg for help with insomnia, obsessive/semi psychotic thoughts, GAD, and depression. I've tried quite a few other medication, SSRIs, SNRIs, Tricyclic Anti-depressants, Antihypertensives, and even Adderall for ADHD, but in hopes that it would help with social anxiety (it did, a lot. Most of my social anxiety came from being fragmented), but other than the Adderall, nothing has worked. Even the Adderall only works for SA, and doesn't work that well anymore. So anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with it and whether or not you would be willing to tell me how your experience was? I haven't taken it yet, as I took a K-pin earlier today because I was sleep deprived and started hallucinating and I need something to help me sleep. My P-doc has suggested Benzos for sleep, but I'm wary of them and honestly don't like the idea of taking them on any form of a regular basis. I just don't want to take the Seroquel while the K-pin is still in my system (I often have weird reactions to psychotropic medication and would rather not risk mixing the two). Anyway, if you guys wouldn't mind sharing, that would great! Thanks.

-Update- Seroquel was lame and I have discontinued it. Made me extremely tired all day, feeling was almost identical to Elavil in the sense that It impaired my cognition in a big way. Gave me some very strange thoughts that I can't manage to explain. Thinking the couch was about to start levitating off of the ground, and there was no reason that it wouldn't. Haha.

 

[Vaya]

RichardMooner,

Great topic

Seroquel XR, for me personally, made me a zombie. I didn't like it, for to me, that experience wasn't "living," if you feel me...

Secondly, you're quite smart to avoid the benzos. My addiction to benzos as a result of psychiatric care spans fifteen years and the PAWS from them has been the most challenging experience of my life. If you'd like to know more, please ask. Anything.

If Adderall worked for you, I might thensuggest asking your doctor about Wellbutrin. Structurally related to amphetamine, Wellbutrin is the only anti-depressant that worked well against fragmentation, depression, amotivation and social anxiety. Perhaps ask about Wellbutrun XL if you're looking for a longer-acting medicine as well.
I share your experience that Adderall works; I'm prescribed 70mg of Vyvanse and honestly it makes me feel normal for the first time. That + Wellbutrin & Lithium has worked well in stabilizing me, personally.

Hopefully I could be of some help. Be well!

~ Vaya

 

[Mysterie]

@^ what dosage were you prescribed vaya? bcus there is a large difference between 50mg for insomnia and 300mg as a mood stabiliser

seroquel i dont mind too much.. i use to prefer taking 25mg IR an hour before bed, rather than 50 ER, it just felt better to me ..

it works for a week or so, and then becomes less effective, then if you stop taking it, its very very difficult to sleep (in my experience anyway)

i think its a useful tool to be used very occasionally (i take it if i am unable to sleep multiple days in a row and am at risk of becoming manic)

i share all of your mental health disorders except insomnia and psychotic thoughts, and i would be recommending mindfulness and an active and healthy lifestyle, but that is just my thoughts on it

 

[RichardMooner]

Thank you for your replies. They are greatly appreciated. I took one pill at about 6pm yesterday evening. About two hours later I was so tired that I had to go to sleep. Although, before I actually went to sleep I remember the feeling it gave me was almost identical to that of Amitriptyline, which I hated. However, it did not replicate the hallucinations that I get from Amitriptyline. I slept very restlessly and woke up about 5 or 6 times through out the night feeling very disoriented. Around 6am I woke up extremely hungry. I smoked a cigarette (which felt very weird in my throat. The sensation was very strange.), and then got something to eat which was normal. I haven't gone back to sleep yet because my legs feel so restless. I'm thinking about maybe doing some stretches and see if that doesn't help. All in all, I feel kind of weird, but it's nothing unbearable. Hopefully the restless legs and restless sleep will pass in the next couple of days.

Vaya, I have spoken to my Doctor about Wellbutrin. It was kind of strange really, we talked about it, both seemed to like the idea, and then at the end of session she prescribed me a completely different med. Haha. I believe I have another appointment in a week, so I will bring up the idea again and see what she says.

I'm hoping this all works out as I am tired of going through medications with no prevail. I've been in and out of the P-doc for almost a year and nothing has worked other than Adderall, which has it's down sides.

Mysterie, were you taking any medications other than seroquel? I think the point of the XR being that it is supposed to last me 24 hours, but judging from what I feel today, I'm not quite sure I want that. I have been really making an effort to change my eating habits, physical activity, and I plan on quitting tobacco as of Sunday. I've also been 'trying' to meditate recently but I haven't been completely successful, I assume that will come in time.

Once again, thanks for the replies!

 

[Vaya]

@^ what dosage were you prescribed vaya? bcus there is a large difference between 50mg for insomnia and 300mg as a mood stabiliser

Haha, indeed there is! I was on 200mg; I ought to have clarified. Additionally, I may be more sensitive than the average person. YMMV.

Vaya, I have spoken to my Doctor about Wellbutrin. It was kind of strange really, we talked about it, both seemed to like the idea, and then at the end of session she prescribed me a completely different med. Haha. I believe I have another appointment in a week, so I will bring up the idea again and see what she says.

There you go! Understand I'm not "recommending it," per se, but my experience has been that it has been helpful, and I have a similar response to amphetamine medications that you do.

i share all of your mental health disorders except insomnia and psychotic thoughts, and i would be recommending mindfulness and an active and healthy lifestyle, but that is just my thoughts on it

These are very good suggestions. Because of medications like Seroquel and Zyprexa I prefer the use of traditionalistic interventions such as these. Great suggestion! Have you tried any of these suggestions, Richard?

~ Vaya

 

[RichardMooner]

I have indeed. Before I even started treatment using medications I tried the natural route, other than the mindfullness. I fell out of it after a while as it was not working. Recently I've been trying to get back on track, but exercise is hard when you've been awake for three days. Haha. I have just recently started meditating, with mindfullness being my goal.

 

[pentouch]

try to meditate ,you are right it comes with time,same as learning how to ride a bike
i will too monitor your progress,tell us how it is working for you

 

[RichardMooner]

try to meditate ,you are right it comes with time,same as learning how to ride a bike
i will too monitor your progress,tell us how it is working for you

Alright, thank you. It's greatly appreciated

Seroquel wasn't working, so we're trying Mirtazapine. Isn't some sort of wonder drug, but no signs of strange side effects, so I'm giving it a couple of weeks.

 

[pentouch]

hwo you doin??? did you drop seroquel?

 

[phactor]

I take 25 milligrams at night for sleep (diagnosed insomniac and also recovering addict) and it seems to work well for that purpose. I personally couldn't imagine taking it during the day, but I know many do.

Not sure if it makes me groggy the next day or not for two reasons:

1. I am very much used to not sleeping, and if I did sleep it was because I had used and was likely feeling the effects the next day

2. I take Wellbutrin XL in the morning which gives me some energy

 

[RichardMooner]

hwo you doin??? did you drop seroquel?

I did. Made me way too tired during the day, and also made me think some very strange things. Weird thought loops, and an almost stoned feeling. I'm on 15mg of Mirtazapine now, but it doesn't help with sleep at all. Haven't noticed any mood lifting effects, or anti-anxiety effects, but I still have a couple of days before it's supposed to "kick in". Hopefully I'll find a sleeping med that works at my next appointment.

 

[pentouch]

Thought loops? Interesting...would you tell about them?
Im on seroquel for sleep now,not the xr version ,regular 100mg tho..and feel normally usually ,but yeah tired constantly at mornings ,like its hard to get up,very deep sleep unless its psychotic anxiety experience,happens sometimes. Why XR version,dude?
yeah antidepressants are likely to work after some time,like few weeks. How are you maintaining your sleep,like do you sleep atleast for few hours a day???

 

[RichardMooner]

Thought loops? Interesting...would you tell about them?
Im on seroquel for sleep now,not the xr version ,regular 100mg tho..and feel normally usually ,but yeah tired constantly at mornings ,like its hard to get up,very deep sleep unless its psychotic anxiety experience,happens sometimes. Why XR version,dude?
yeah antidepressants are likely to work after some time,like few weeks. How are you maintaining your sleep,like do you sleep atleast for few hours a day???

The only one I remember clearly was about my couch levitating off of the ground. I kept thinking that the couch was about to start levitating, and then I would think it already had and was back on the ground, and then the thought would repeat. It stopped after about ten minutes when I left the living room and went outside to smoke a cigarette.

I'm not sure why my psychiatrist put me on the XR. Maybe because she had samples for the XR and not the IR. I honestly have no idea. I sleep for about an hour or two a day, but sometimes I won't sleep for 2-3 days and I just get so exhausted my body just kind of shuts down. Like, I'll sit down, and the next thing I know, it's 12:00 pm. The mirtazapine seems to be giving me really bad headaches. It was fine at first, and it may be unrelated, but I skipped two days to see if the headaches stopped, and they did, but as soon as I started taking it again, the headaches started once more.

 

[pentouch]

Interesting,something isnt cooking right there for you with this Mirtazapine,useless for you+doesnt give you sleep..hmm do you consider going back to seroquel? Im on it for a year and its good for mood plus Ive slept on it for 10 hours(thats oversleeping for me) but now it is working less effective,doesnt give that tiredness to me,so Im learning to cope with my sleep issues by my self + seroquels antidepressant effect,so I dont flip out over a sleepless night

 

[granddeception2]

Seroquel is bad news. Should be illegal IME

 

[pentouch]

Seroquel is bad news. Should be illegal IME

how did it fuk YOU up?

 

[hunter1]

My 2 cents on serequel. I was on a low dose 50mg years ago in XR form and it turned me into a super brain eating zombie.
I dumped it after 3 months. Don't miss it at all.
The IR version at say 25mg non frequently, ie not prescribed it, is handy for when you just need a binge sleep to get your shit together again. The hangover I found with IR was substantially less, allot less than XR.

But I only take it occasionally.

I'm on mirtazapine. Have been for 3 years. Used to help me sleep. Now it's hard to tell. Get almost zero antidepressant effects from it

 

[Acanthus]

I would be far more functional slamming down 8-10 full strength beers rather than taking 100mg of quetiapine. It is absolutely beyond me how this can be called a medication (at least at this dose?), unless the primary aim is to cognitively and physically disable the patient so they're no longer capable of displaying any psychological pathology.

Example experience report (only need one as it was always the same story):

T0:00 Swallow 100mg Seroquel.
T0:20 Mouth as dry as the Arabian desert, every thing is moving slowwwwwww..... brain seems to be struggling to communicate with the limbs. Overall feeling is unpleasant and a bit disturbing.
T0:30 Smack down onto the bed like a brick. Shoes still on, but seems like far too much of an effort to remove them.
T12:30 Wake up groggy, edges around objects slightly blurry -- this is after 12 straight hours of deep dark sleep. Not a single dream. Felt like I was dead. Won't be doing that again in a hurry.

PS: The only thing I randomly found Seroquel was very good for was: nausea. I just take a small amount (<10mg?) and it conquers even the strongest nausea there is, but without the spastication described above. At this level it is acting as an antihistamine.

 

[RichardMooner]

Interesting,something isnt cooking right there for you with this Mirtazapine,useless for you+doesnt give you sleep..hmm do you consider going back to seroquel?

No, definitely not. After taking it a couple more times I decided that it's one of the worst drugs I've ever taken. I'd rather have a bad trip. haha. After only two days in a row, it turned me into a dead rose bush with an unsatisfiable hunger. I was irritable, lethargic, and pretty much emotionless, other than being slightly angry, all of the time. Mirtazapine started giving me migraine like headaches after about five days, and I stayed on it for twelve, but had to stop it because they were getting so bad I couldn't walk, or be exposed to light at all. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I haven't tried Ambien, but I don't really want to, and I don't like the idea of Benzos. Unfortunately, I missed my last psych appointment due to finally falling asleep after two days of being awake, and almost three days a few nights before that- before sleeping for a couple of hours, and when I set my alarm clock to wake me up around 7:00 A.M, it didn't go off. I'm not scheduled to see my psychiatrist until Sept 11th and until then, there won't be any changes of medication. Even though I have a strong distaste for Alcohol, due to having a long history of Alcoholism in my family, I've been drinking about a shot of Lucid every night, and typically it works pretty well to get me to sleep. Unfortunately, I hate the taste of absinthe, and the buzz, so I can't drink enough to do the job all the time because sometimes it takes more than a shot or two to get me sleepy, and more than two gets me buzzed. If I wanted to get drunk it would be a different story because I don't mind the feeling of being drunk, but I don't, and I hate the feeling of being buzzed. Obviously, this is not a good solution to my sleeping problems, but it's pretty much all I've got right now. Tried Melatonin again last week, didn't do anything even when taking a pretty hefty dose, and I've tried all of the OTC sleeping pills, but they don't work, and if I stay up on them they make me feel really strange.

 

[RichardMooner]

Example experience report (only need one as it was always the same story):

T0:00 Swallow 100mg Seroquel.
T0:20 Mouth as dry as the Arabian desert, every thing is moving slowwwwwww..... brain seems to be struggling to communicate with the limbs. Overall feeling is unpleasant and a bit disturbing.
T0:30 Smack down onto the bed like a brick. Shoes still on, but seems like far too much of an effort to remove them.
T12:30 Wake up groggy, edges around objects slightly blurry -- this is after 12 straight hours of deep dark sleep. Not a single dream. Felt like I was dead. Won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Sounds like Seroquel.