Misc Peoples experiences with Quetiapine (Seroquel)

[hh95]

Ever since I was prescribed Seroquel for sleep (upto 50mg per night) I noticed that some people were on ALOT more than that for psychosis and other psychiatric problems, so I decided to give a high dose a whirl. I tried 425mg and well Obviously it knocked me out but when I was falling asleep I got these flashes almost like the paparazzi were after me and it also made me feel as if im awake and dreaming at the same time but really im asleep?? (if that even makes any sense at all) I have this same feeling with 25 or 50mg just nowhere near as intense. Its just a very surreal feeling of like the second I fall asleep I start dreaming but I feel as if im awake during the dream? Has anyone else experienced that? I must admit this drug is an excellent alternative too sleep to benzos and I wake up with minimal if any hangover at all even when I abused it and took a big dose. I just want too know if anyone else has abused it before and what there outcomes were or even if some people get the same side effects as I experience in their prescribed doses.... quiet a peculiar drug I must say.

 

[ChipTrippyFox]

Tried it for depression and anxiety, didn't like how I started to feel even at really low doses (10mg)

450mg isn't very high eigther compared to what some paranoid schizophrenics are prescribed (upwards of 1g or more)
My partner is on I think 300 mg daily for bipolar and multi personality disorder among other things.

She admits to having tried using it recreationaly in the past and had some appearently good effects (mild euphoria and visuals) when used insulfated.. but I digress, I do not advise. She has strange reactions to drugs and most do not find seroquel worth trying g recreationaly. I've attempted insulation but got nothing out of it and it HURTS.

 

[rockrevival23]

Try trazadone

 

[QUARE]

Seroquel is a neuroleptic... which mean it help a bit your brain fontion better. Do use it as a crappy recreational drug.

 

[camjua]

You're lucky that didn't give you a mother of all hangovers. Seroquel is a very potent atypical antipsychotic. You need to titrate up if you want to increase your dose, usually in 25mg increments. It is great for sleep, I take 75mg when coming down off stims or if I can't sleep for whatever reason and it always does the trick even better than Trazodone imho. It has 0 recreational value. Don't try to abuse it because you can really hurt yourself.

I should add I tried abusing it once when I was first prescribed it. I took 125mg when I was supposed to be taking 25mg. It gave me tunnel vision, everything was blurry, I was disoriented, my face was twitching and I was so sedated and lethargic I couldn't hardly move. I couldn't speak and my mouth felt like the Sahara. Woke up the next day feeling so lethargic and groggy it was like a horrible alcohol hangover except without the nausea.

 

[Rybee]

Tried it after exhausting a range of Benzodiazepines, Z-Drugs, and other stuff like Tricyclics for sleep... first night I took it, 25mg knocked me the fuck out.

Makes me feel awful the next day but if I really do need to get sleep 50mg will have my lights out in an hour or so. I personally don't see any recreational value in it. Without a doubt the best sleeping medication I've ever tried. Makes Benzo's look like kids sweets in comparison.

 

[JackiePeyton]

I don't see where it has much abuse potential. However, what is one's cup of tea is not another's. I enjoy a Compazine once in a blue moon, so there's that. My doc says he prescribes Seroquel in prisons alot and a nurse I used to work with who works in one also says the same thing. Seroquel and Topomax. Prison drugs.

 

[ImagineBetter]

I was prescribed seroquel for schitzoaffective disorder, I took 400mg a day for many months. I was pretty much a high functioning zombie at that point. I wouldn't recommend going up in dose more than 50mg at a time and only in 2 week intervals. After around 6 months I developed an incredible tolerance to it. Imagine taking a 100mg dose and not having it make you tired at all. Shoot for the lowest effective dose possible nothing over 100mg for the first month. I also know what you mean by an awake sleep, I would always wake up and feel as if I hardly slept more than 30 minutes the entire night.

I would also recommend giving trazadone a try it seems to have less undesirable side effects,

 

[camjua]

I would also recommend giving trazadone a try it seems to have less undesirable side effects,

Weird.. trazodone seems to always give me more negative side effects then a low dose of quetiapine.

 

[Carl Landrover]

Try trazadone

The few times I tried trazadone it didn't help me sleep. It just made me feel like I couldn't get up and was drowsy, but still not sleeping. It then would leave me feeling drowsy in the morning. Some people it seems to work really well for, but I hardly ever touched the few I was prescribed.

 

[Cliffy78]

What a nightmare, restlessness, those flashes like someone said, dry mouth, twitching. Just about everything everyone else said. Made me really tired but restless limbs prevented any kind of sleep. The best sleeping med I've ever had was restoril(temazepam). 40 mg and game over in 1/2 hr, every single time. Tried taking rec. doses but got nothing out of them...
Be careful with seroquil though. If you've never tried it then start with very low therapeutic dose and see how you react before taking big recreational doses...

 

[Nom de Plume]

I tried Seroquel dozens of times, though strictly as a somnifacient, and not for any of its prescribed reasons (to wit, psychotic or mental disorders).

Each night that I had taken the 100mg beige, oblong tablet I'd feel as though an anaconda had coiled itself around my chest, and I'd find breathing laborious. Moreover, my nose felt as of it had been plugged up or pinched shut.

Instead of putting me to sleep, it served to prevent it, as my hypochondriasis had me up all night convinced that I'd surely be dead by asphyxiation come dawn.

But as I had said, I did try it dozens of times. Why? Because my insomnia and desperation for a good-night's-sleep had me convinced that my last nightmarish experience must have been idiosyncratic. It surely would be different the next time. And I surely was wrong again, when that next time came.

I'll never try that horrid drug again. Never.

 

[JackiePeyton]

We give this to elderly and it made u feel this bad? I will keep reading because I don't want my old peeps suffering. We give it to them for dementia related agitation. I no longer work geriatrics, but we use these drugs in hospice as well. Also these drugs are associated with cardiac events in elderly iirc. IMO Depakote works well for that. Never took it myself. Perhaps a new policy should be never to recommend something I haven't tried. One lady we sent to Geri psych was prescribed ambien - during the early evening not bedtime to combat sundowners. It made her a new woman.
All those on high dose seroquel do get that zombie look and pinned pupils. Did it pin your pupils, those who took it?

 

[rave_itsrealfun!!!]

Doctors are pushing this stuff like candy for anything and everything. After being prescribed massive doses of seroquel for insomnia and panic disorder brought on by withdrawal, I have forever lost trust in doctors. My opinion is that it is NOT a good long term option for serious anxiety issues in people who are not psychotic. In regards to insomnia issues, I think that you could find something safer. Hell, I'd take a benzo to get to bed before going anywhere near seroquel ever again. It felt threatening to my mental health, it's more than just a generic sedative. There was some freaky shit going on.

This stuff simply does not work for panic attacks. It turned me into a pharmacy hopping zombie who was working his way up to a gram a day of the stuff, with the doc letting me know that was perfectly fine. If I needed more then I could have as much as I wanted, not to worry there are no side effects. I should have known what was going on (I was becoming a pill popper and it wasn't even medicating me, it was making me worse) but I was too much of a zombie at the time and it took a while to snap out of it and seek the proper alternatives. And I was still getting the panic attacks, I turned to the bottle back then. So I was on seroquel and I was drinking again. I was out of my mind, it's supposed to be anti-psychotic (?) well it was making me fucking BONKERS. I had a pretty shitty withdrawal too, it's addictive - I basically didn't sleep for a week and had to taper off, and this was after less than 6 months of use. When I managed to get shuteye I had night terrors, sleep paralysis, lucid dreams, and extremely vivid, uncomfortable nightmares during the seroquel withdrawal.

I also heard that long term use can cause involuntary muscle movements. A big step forward was the realization that my doctor was not helping me, and that I should eschew this wrongly prescribed drug forever.

But then again this drug is meant for people with schizophrenia. I am not that. I'm just saying that it's overprescribed and it sure as hell is no wonder drug. It did help me for a couple of months with the anxiety and I was sleeping like a baby but then it completely stopped working and I turned into a pill popping maniac for a while. And it took me too long to realize that it was not helping me whatsoever anymore and something very dangerous was going on. It was my first experience with prescription drugs. Strange phase of my life.

 

[Cliffy78]

I agree, I guess it fucks a lot of people up huh, go figure. Didn't know so many others hated it as much as me. I wouldn't give this shit to my worst enemy. Save the old folks!! don't givem' this shit if there's any alternative. They're pretty much a passive bunch and wouldn't speak up if it was killing them probably. If it's that bad for us "youngsters" I can only imagine how bad it must be for old folks who are probably in some form of Demetria. Please savem' nurse!! I love the old folks

 

[rave_itsrealfun!!!]

Agreed. This shit fucked me up! And in less than 6 months!

I wouldn't give this shit to my worst enemy either. My experience with it was an absolute nightmare.

Perhaps it works in some cases, I can only speak for myself. But I personally seriously doubt that it is the best option for anything at all, and it is being carelessly overprescribed.

 

[JackiePeyton]

I agree, I guess it fucks a lot of people up huh, go figure. Didn't know so many others hated it as much as me. I wouldn't give this shit to my worst enemy. Save the old folks!! don't givem' this shit if there's any alternative. They're pretty much a passive bunch and wouldn't speak up if it was killing them probably. If it's that bad for us "youngsters" I can only imagine how bad it must be for old folks who are probably in some form of Demetria. Please savem' nurse!! I love the old folks

I will make this my new directive. It is also part of the new CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) directive to reduce antipyschotic use by 25% in this population. SO it is being heavily scrutinized anyway. The pushback comes from the staff who don't understand or know what to do with the problem behaviors which can be VERY difficult to manage, especially if you are understaffed. I feel for them. But we have to try other things. More training on how to handle behaviors in the first place would be a god send...more staffing...more caring..period. But budget cuts are happening and they want us to do more with less. We need volunteers. Who wants to help?

 

[Cliffy78]

That's awesome it's good they're trying to cut down on the ap, they're not all demented. My mom was in a skilled nursing home before and wow!! I've never seen more sad, forgotten people anywhere on earth(state funded n.h). Half are zombieized and the other half were bedridden. Just horribly sad that they were forgotten by the people they brought into this world. Shame on them!
It would be pretty cool working with the old folks, I think I would enjoy that. Because of my record and psych history(I think) they watch me like a hawk in the psych hospital my moms at so I don't think they'd let me work with them unfortunatly we eventually pay for all our sins I guess, even after were done sinning...

 

[tamarinds]

Snorting 50mg in jail to get high.
100mg to get really high or some good sleep.
Snorting 150mg to sleep for three days

 

[Cliffy78]

Did that shit really get you high?? Like what kinda high was it? Or was it a "fuck it I'm in the can" type high? Like would you take it to get high now that your home?