King-Anubis
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2012
- Messages
- 175
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with quetiapine withdrawal? I've been on the drug for 18 months now, and have really had enough of it. I'm no longer experiencing side effects - and my last major psychotic 'relapse' was six months ago - but I've been free of psychotic symptoms generally for around 15 months. I'm just fed up with the negative mental effects. I'm only a fraction as creative as I once was before the drugs, I can't hold my attention for more then a few seconds, and now have an extremely poor memory span - which has wrecked havoc with my education. I can barely remember a lecture even a few hours after, and by the next day I can even forget simple things like who I was sitting next to. So I've made the decision to take myself off of the drug. I'm aware that I need to taper down from my current dosage (200mg at night - meant to be 100mg twice daily but I changed it around 3 months ago to better effect) but I'm not sure over how long, in what increments (and whether it'd be worth going cold turkey), and what withdrawal effects I can expect...
Also, I have talked to doctors, and they all refuse to help - claiming that I need to be on them for life, which contradicts what my psychiatrist stated. I'm no longer seeing a psychiatrist because I was discharged 10 months ago, with my monitoring handed over to my GP who was given orders to taper me off within five years - although this seemingly won't happen now. Furthermore I'm also refusing my doctors offers to be referred for a single appointment with a psychiatrist to change my medication - as I have no wish to go through all the side effects again with a new antipsychotic drug.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with quetiapine withdrawal? I've been on the drug for 18 months now, and have really had enough of it. I'm no longer experiencing side effects - and my last major psychotic 'relapse' was six months ago - but I've been free of psychotic symptoms generally for around 15 months. I'm just fed up with the negative mental effects. I'm only a fraction as creative as I once was before the drugs, I can't hold my attention for more then a few seconds, and now have an extremely poor memory span - which has wrecked havoc with my education. I can barely remember a lecture even a few hours after, and by the next day I can even forget simple things like who I was sitting next to. So I've made the decision to take myself off of the drug. I'm aware that I need to taper down from my current dosage (200mg at night - meant to be 100mg twice daily but I changed it around 3 months ago to better effect) but I'm not sure over how long, in what increments (and whether it'd be worth going cold turkey), and what withdrawal effects I can expect...
Also, I have talked to doctors, and they all refuse to help - claiming that I need to be on them for life, which contradicts what my psychiatrist stated. I'm no longer seeing a psychiatrist because I was discharged 10 months ago, with my monitoring handed over to my GP who was given orders to taper me off within five years - although this seemingly won't happen now. Furthermore I'm also refusing my doctors offers to be referred for a single appointment with a psychiatrist to change my medication - as I have no wish to go through all the side effects again with a new antipsychotic drug.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!