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Benzos how is seroquel for anxiety

Jt723

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 23, 2012
Messages
102
i want to get off benzos. i heard about serequel bien used for anxiety/ocd. any experiences on this? thanks
 
Serequel Is an "atypical" antipsychotic used mostly for bipolar and schizophrenia, but is sometimes prescribed off label for OCD and anxiety, due to its sedative effects (it's also an antihistamine).

Honestly, I don't think this will be good to replace benzo's with. Gabapentin is probably a better bet
 
You certainly would have anxiety free sleep. But I wouldn't even attempt to take it in order to function better with no anxiety. You would be looking for a spot to sleep in no time.
 
^ I agree with the above post. My mom is prescribed Seroquel and she only takes it at night before bed...I tried it once, even at dose of like 25 mgs....I ended up passed out on the floor and felt paralyzed! I had to pee it took me like an hour to get up to go to the bathroom!! lol Although frequent users may get used to the dosage and may not experience this all the time, this was just my own experience.
 
i had an ex who got a prescription of four 25mg seroquel pills a day cause he was schizo and he would try to trade them for weed and all the silly stoner kids would be excited about any new substance that could possibly get them high (inculding me) and all of us who tried it pretty much unanimously agreed that it was our absolute LEAST favorite drug. it doesnt do anything for anxiety unless like one of the people above me said, you hope to have a real sound sleep. the only reason i would ever want any seroquel is if i was heavily pumped up on speed or caffiene or something and needed to sleep. that shit will knock you the fuck out, i remember i took one at school one time and i slept through all of my classes, i barely made it from one class to the next, everyone said i acted like a zombie all day ha ha. physically it will make your body exhausted and mentally youll feel like a horribly out of shape kid forced to run 10 miles in the rain with every energy-requiring task you try to do. much more intense than being stoned
also if you take it at night before going to bed youll feel like absoulety nothing could possibly get you out of bed in the morning - seroquel is the one thing thats made me horribly late for work a couple times and im pretty discplined with getting up early.....
and one more thing, they are anti-psychotics, so if you do not have a disorder that they are prescribed for such as schizophrenia (anxiety doesnt count) then they are likely to make you feel uneasy, like youre going crazy, and it depends on the person like for me it wasnt that bad but i noticed the longer i tried to stay awake the more intense it got. this one time i was a really low point in my life i was fighting with my parents and i was desparate for an escape and seroquel was the only thing i had so i took 50mgs and locked myself in the bathroom and sliced up my arms with a scissors and the more the drug kicked it the more i became sort of blind to what i was doing and the more i enjoyed it in a real twisted way
so seroquel is like, not my thing, but if youre like me and curious about everything then feel free to try it just be careful and make sure youre at a place where u can pass out for hours
to sum it up benzos are much better as an anti-anxiety drug :\
 
I've heard kava kava is really good for anxiety it is not in a standardized form and is variable making it hit and miss and unreliable.
 
Valerian root, but if you're trying to get off Benzos Idk bout that. Im sure if you used it daily there'd be a withdrawal syndrome similar to Benzos possibly
 
Almost killed me once when I decided to mix alcohol with them. Thing is, all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Problem was, I couldn't, so I took more, long story short, I was in blackout by the first couple extra, and remained so until I finally fell over.
It's a very powerful drug that is abused as if it were "just like the rest of 'em."
Trouble is,
it isn't.
 
Seroquel is like beast tranquilizer, at least for me, just the recommended dose and I sleep like a baby, don't ever mix this with alcohol you might die in your sleep from respiratory depression, taper is your best friend.
 
I would not recommend a neuroleptic (anti-psychotic) such as Seroquel for long-term, daily treatment of anxiety. If you want to have a Seroquel script to be used spariningly and as needed for anxiety flare-ups, it could help, but I suggest a low dose to begin with. If you are in an acute-anxiety state which is aggravating you to an unbearable point, short-term (really short) daily use of Seroquel could be an option. But, neuroleptics (anti-psychotics) are not like benzos. They will really put you on your ass, you might not worry, but you might not be doing much of anything. They are extremely "tranquilizing", not like benzos, it bears repeating. They also are unhealthy and have a large side-effect profile, some side effects can be permanent even after discontinuation such as tardive dyskinisea. These aren't drugs to be taken lightly, and their effects aren't light either, believe me. If you are set on the idea, choose a low-dose, seriously.
 
I know a guy that is bipolar & is prescribed Seroquel & he says it always makes him tired. If you're looking to replace benzos, Seroquel isnt it.
 
Seroquel for anxiety is like Thorazine for a headache.

Not to contradict my above post, or the nature of my posts in general, but Thorazine can actually work really well for migraine headaches. That is one condition I feel neuroleptics have a warranted use.
 
yeah and the nausea and vomiting that accompanies many migraines/headaches.... thorazine is THE BEST, especially if agitation is involved. seroquel is the worst sleep i have ever had. restless legs! feeling trapped in my body. groggy the next day. it's just too heavy!!
 
and one more thing, they are anti-psychotics, so if you do not have a disorder that they are prescribed for such as schizophrenia (anxiety doesnt count) then they are likely to make you feel uneasy, like youre going crazy, and it depends on the person like for me it wasnt that bad but i noticed the longer i tried to stay awake the more intense it got. this one time i was a really low point in my life i was fighting with my parents and i was desparate for an escape and seroquel was the only thing i had so i took 50mgs and locked myself in the bathroom and sliced up my arms with a scissors and the more the drug kicked it the more i became sort of blind to what i was doing and the more i enjoyed it in a real twisted way

That's odd, because I was prescribed Seroquel both to help with my insomnia and to take in a dissociative episode (I have borderline personality disorder and sometimes go into dissociated states, and it's during those that I'm most likely to do something stupid and impulsive like self-harm or drink a ton). So the fact that you did that on Seroquel is a bit unsettling to me personally.

Also, it seems like I have a strangely high tolerance to the stuff despite being on them for only about a week. It takes at least 50 mg to knock me out, but usually 75 or 100 mg. And even then, I don't fall asleep quickly enough and sometimes get these unsettling auditory and visual hallucinations (like the delirious kind that you get on a lot of diphenhydramine) until I finally manage to pass out.

But yeah, I don't think it has terribly much value as an anxiety drug, except maybe as a mood stabilizer, but trust me, the stuff will leave you really fucking hazy if you take it during the day. I have a couple of times and it's pretty shitty.
 
A couple of years ago, I was given Seroquel by my pain mgmt doc for ... pain or sleep, cant remember (he treated both). The first night I took it, we happened to stay at a nice little cabin with windows all around - AND, all night I thought I heard 'knocking' sounds at each of those windows, as if someone were going around knocking to deliberately frighten. NO ONE ELSE heard this except me - including my grown children. This terrified me, and seemed like it was really happening. It wasn't.
The next morning I got up at 5:30am (unusual for me) to tag along with my husband & kids who went walking distance to fish that morning. I wasn't about to stay there alone. It scared me that badly, and I NEVER took another one!!
 
Hmm.. My experience seems substantially different from much of what's been said already, so ymmv, but I was at one point addicted to alprazolam (low dose, 1mg/day minimum 2mg max, but if I missed a day it would be guaranteed insomnia and very likely panic attack), and I began taking quetiapine (seroquel), and after a month or so I was able to taper my dose and eventually stop taking alprazolam all together. My anxiety was drastically lower, though part of that can be explained simply by quitting the benzo. Additionally, I found quetiapine to be an extraordinarily effective antidepressant. After the first three days of taking it, at some point in the morning I suddenly realized that I felt good in a way that I hadn't felt for a couple years. That was many years ago, and I continue to take quetiapine, and whenever I feel a depressive episode coming on I double my dose and stop it in its tracks, and then go back to my lower dose for sleep.

Note -- it can be really difficult to stop taking quetiapine after you've been taking it for a long time at doses around 200 mg or more. Lower doses don't seem to have this problem. This isn't the same as how it is difficult to stop taking benzos, however-- its more of a discontinuation syndrome than a withdrawal -- but either way it is something to take note of b/c no warning of this kind is included in the labeling and my doctor seemed skeptical when I told him my experience.

Anyway, like I said, ymmv, but my experience has been generally very positive, especially for the kind of situation you describe. It is not very useful recreationally and may mix poorly with downers until you become somewhat tolerant to the sedating effects. I'm glad it is no longer on patent b/c I'd feel reticent about writing such a glowing report about a monopoly protected substance, but now I can say guilt free that on balance it has been an extremely positive addition to my life.
 
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