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Misc Tapering seroquel

3dmusic

3dmusic

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
930
Location
earth
Hi

I take seroquel for anxiety and it doesn't work.
In fact, it makes me worse, so I would like to taper down from it.
Has anyone tapered off seroquel before?
I take 150mg and want to get down to 100mg or 75mg but I don't want to do it too quickly.
I get on with my doctor but like other docs, she does not know much about this medication.

thanks
 
:(

For how long have you been taking this dosage? I took it back in 2010 and it was really harsh (100 mg) One time I woke up unable to speak and I guess it was a bad reaction after using it for a few months. Like my tongue was messed up and nobody could understand what I was trying to say. After that, I threw them away and never took seroquel again. I didn't use any antidepressants after that until June 2012 when I got prozac. With seroquel, I felt so lethargic the day after like a hangover. My muscles felt tired to even stretch. Maybe see if your doctor can give you something else to help you sleep through the night. There are better meds!
 
T. Calderone said:
For how long have you been taking this dosage? I took it back in 2010 and it was really harsh (100 mg) One time I woke up unable to speak and I guess it was a bad reaction after using it for a few months. Like my tongue was messed up and nobody could understand what I was trying to say. After that, I threw them away and never took seroquel again. I didn't use any antidepressants after that until June 2012 when I got prozac. With seroquel, I felt so lethargic the day after like a hangover. My muscles felt tired to even stretch. Maybe see if your doctor can give you something else to help you sleep through the night. There are better meds!
Click to expand...

Hi, and thanks for your post :)

I have been taking it for three years.
Sorry you had a bad experience on it.

I am coming off valium and was doing well but the seroquel is complicating things as it is making me feel worse.
I went onto 200mg in March, but came back down to 150mg in July and felt better.


Has anyone on here taken it for over a year and tapered off, or come off and if so, how did you feel?

Thanks
 
Makes me quite angry to hear seroquel used as a monotherapy for anxiety issues. Only rational use of quetiapine for anxiety issues is with an antidepressant and quetiapine as an add-on treatment doses below 100mg. But this was OT.
 
you don't need to taper off anti psychotics (seroquel) the only thing that may happen but i doubt at such a low dose is that you will have trouble sleeping for a week or two
 
cook said:
Makes me quite angry to hear seroquel used as a monotherapy for anxiety issues. Only rational use of quetiapine for anxiety issues is with an antidepressant and quetiapine as an add-on treatment doses below 100mg. But this was OT.
Click to expand...

I'm on trazodone also and valium.
 
Thanks, but I've seen online quite a few people's experience of withdrawing seroquel suddenly and it wasn't pretty.
 
Def not meant for anxiety, the only use besides the obvious is sleep and stim comedowns.
 
yeah seroquel didnt do ANYTHING for my anxiety, my stupid fucking retard of a psychiatrist put me on THREE HUNDRED milligrams, and it knocked me out so hard that my dad was SHAKING me and I wouldn't wake up he was scared to death thinking I was dying or something and when I told the stupid bitch she just said 'oh well only take 200 mgs' and says I have to take it for 4-6 weeks before it will work, WELL when you have panic attacks almost every day why would she make me suffer for 4-6 extra weeks? so basically finally when I called her tellking her the problem she wasnt there and another doctor was covering and FINALLY gave me some clonazepam and LIKE MAGIC I DON"T HAVE PANIC ATTACKS. hoenstly, these psychiatrists who are too fucking scared to script benzos when people need them are just stupid and causing undue suffering, YES they are addictive but you know what as long as you're safe with them youll be fine.


HONESTLY, seroquel SUCKS, it just makes me feel dirty and drowsy and like I wanna die. ask for something else ANYTHING else
 
It's just not that benzo's are addictive, the thing is also that they will turn against you in the long run. It's just basic brain chemistry and tolerance, no rocket science. This is why doctors hesitate with them. If they would ONLY be addictive who would care if they could guarantee you panic free life, but that is not the case.
 
Yeah, I get the addictive part of benzos. But why prescribe a karate-kick to the head drug like seroquel when there are other meds out there?
 
Yes, benzos may instantly mask the anxiety but they come at a price.

I am trying to come off valium and am stuck around just over 3mg a day.
Foolishly when the anxiety was really bad and the depression suicidal I went on trazodone and seroqual and now these two drugs are making it harder for me to taper valium.

I was going to come down from 150mg to 100mg but before I made such a move, I wanted to hear of other people's experiences when reducing or coming off seroquel.
 
They prescribed it to try and mask some of the extreme anxiety from the benzo withdrawals.
 
I tapered off by 15mg to 135mg a day two weeks ago. Feeling ok.
The sweats went away when I changed from twice a day dosing to three times a day, but they came back a few days later, and have been gone again this last few days.
I am terrible for not taking my meds on time and also getting them muddled, so this could have caused the sweats.
Been advised by survivingantidepressants.org to wait a month in case of lag time where withdrawals are concerned, but I'm going to cut another 15mg off at the weekend so I am at 120mg.
Will keep you all posted.
 
I've done two Seroquel tapers.

First one: I was on 37.5 mg, then switched to 25 mg, stayed on that for a while, then 12.5 mg for two weeks, then jumped off. The withdrawl gave me four days of hypomania, then a week or two of depression (I'm BP-II), and a lot of insomnia.

Second one: I was on 600 mg (yes, that much), then went down by 20 mg / day until I hit 300 mg, stayed on that for about a month, then tapered down at about the same rate to 200 mg, stayed on that for 2 weeks, then steadily tapered all the way off at 10 mg / day. The rebound insomnia was nowhere near as bad as the first time, nor did I get any mood swings.

I never got any PAWS. I'd say you're going at a reasonable rate.
 
Thanks The.Ghost, I have a question please?

The.Ghost said:
I've done two Seroquel tapers.

First one: I was on 37.5 mg, then switched to 25 mg, stayed on that for a while, then 12.5 mg for two weeks, then jumped off. The withdrawl gave me four days of hypomania, then a week or two of depression (I'm BP-II), and a lot of insomnia.

Second one: I was on 600 mg (yes, that much), then went down by 20 mg / day until I hit 300 mg, stayed on that for about a month, then tapered down at about the same rate to 200 mg, stayed on that for 2 weeks, then steadily tapered all the way off at 10 mg / day. The rebound insomnia was nowhere near as bad as the first time, nor did I get any mood swings.

I never got any PAWS. I'd say you're going at a reasonable rate.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing your experience.
It's encouraging to hear that you had no PAWS second time round.
Sorry to hear you had a week or two of depression in your first taper.

Please can you tell me, when you went on it the second time around, how long were you on it before you started tapering?
I've been on over three years.

Thanks
 
Interesting, my understanding was that Seroquel should not result in dependance or withdrawals?
I have heard that the issues it was treating may return and cause issues though?
 
I didn't get any PAWS either time, just a few weeks of w/d the first time.

The second time around, it went roughly like this (time in months):

  • 1 - 3 -- 25mg
  • 4 -- 37.5 mg
  • 5 -- 50 mg
  • 6 -- 50 - 60 mg
  • 7 -- 75 mg
  • 8 - 8.5 -- 50 mg
  • 8.5 - 9 -- 75 mg
  • 10 - 14 -- 100 - 150 mg
  • 15 -- 200 mg
  • 16 -- 150 mg
  • 17, 18 -- 300 - 400 mg
  • 19 -- 225 mg
  • 20 -- 300 - 400 mg
  • 21 - 32 -- 400 - 600 mg
  • 33 -- 200 - 400 mg
  • 34 - 35.5 -- 600 - 800 mg
  • 35.5 - 36 -- 400 --> 300 mg (taper)
  • 37 -- 300 mg
  • 38 - 38.5 -- 300 --> 200 mg (roughly a taper)
  • 38.5 -- 39.5 -- 200 mg --> 0 (steady taper)

Note that my dose varied by night (depending on how bad my insomnia was) so those dosages are a little rough. Also I rounded a few days here and there. And yes, I did keep a daily chart.

Hope that helps.
 
The.Ghost said:
I didn't get any PAWS either time, just a few weeks of w/d the first time.

The second time around, it went roughly like this (time in months):

  • 1 - 3 -- 25mg
  • 4 -- 37.5 mg
  • 5 -- 50 mg
  • 6 -- 50 - 60 mg
  • 7 -- 75 mg
  • 8 - 8.5 -- 50 mg
  • 8.5 - 9 -- 75 mg
  • 10 - 14 -- 100 - 150 mg
  • 15 -- 200 mg
  • 16 -- 150 mg
  • 17, 18 -- 300 - 400 mg
  • 19 -- 225 mg
  • 20 -- 300 - 400 mg
  • 21 - 32 -- 400 - 600 mg
  • 33 -- 200 - 400 mg
  • 34 - 35.5 -- 600 - 800 mg
  • 35.5 - 36 -- 400 --> 300 mg (taper)
  • 37 -- 300 mg
  • 38 - 38.5 -- 300 --> 200 mg (roughly a taper)
  • 38.5 -- 39.5 -- 200 mg --> 0 (steady taper)

Note that my dose varied by night (depending on how bad my insomnia was) so those dosages are a little rough. Also I rounded a few days here and there. And yes, I did keep a daily chart.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Thanks, so you were on it for a total of 39 months?
 
More like 37, actually. I rounded a few days in here and there.

On that note, if you see a discrepancy between my first and second posts in this thread, trust the first one.
 
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