Quiting Seroquel cold turkey.

I just weened off seroquel from 150mg to 15mg in about a month Ive been taking about 15 mg for the last week and slept just fine and the first night that I stopped all together I did not sleep one minute. Ive been on the drug for about a year because it worked so well for my insomnia at first but I think this is being over prescribed to insomniacs with out bi polar disorder like me. Im going to try a low dose of lunesta perhaps along with restoril as this has worked in the past. I would like to get by with the natural stuff but I fear It would be weeks before I slept at all. Good luck to all of you and I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

Hi, I was diagnosed with Bipoler and depression. After a trip to the Physc ward after two suicide attempts, I am on 100mg of Seroquel at night time and 500mg of Epilim morning and night. I have found that I am numb, my partne is complaining because I am not affectionet. I tried to explain that I just feel numb, she is not happy about it.

I am going to be slowly getting my self of the rubbish and finding other ways to cope, will keep posting progess info. I have found many posts here very helpful. thanks to all that have posted.

Sun 14 Feb - missed seroqual last night, was awake (very awake) all night, hence the 5:15am post. LOL
I have been slowly comming down from my Eplilim missing two night, having i for two nights. then I will go to night on, night off.
After doing this for a week, I want to go to having it one night, missing two. after a week, having it one night missing three.

?? I am unsure about my stomache and cutting the seroqual in half, can any one let me know if the have done this?

I have also found that Serequol and or Epilim block channels, I had good communication with my spirt quides and am finding it very hard since beening of this rubbish, has anyone else experianced the same?

Meditation still helps me with keeping positive and having faith I can do it alone. Also you MUST keep a healthy diet.
I am eating heaps of healthy food, especially breakfast, and keeping sugar to a very low, I had a few nights with craving that I did give in to and found I had very vivid dreams, causing me to have panic attacks.

Im using Seroquel as well, maybe for 6 months, well, the moment I go take my 100MG, by the way, I buy it online cheap.
I hate that feeling, hard to wake up in the morning, lots of night escapes to the fridge and eat junk food untill I fall asleep again, once I did not take that c**p for 1 week, I vomited for 3 days.....man....this is the crapiest medicine ever made.

Good luck too all, we are lab rats to those doctors.

Husband has quit 300mg/day cold turkey. He has been sick for a couple weeks now. Says he feels like lead in his veins in the mornings... nausea all the time - throwing up a fair bit, sometimes all day it seems, and lots of insomnia. Oh, and about the worst of it, is that his heart will race like crazy for a few hours most mornings and sometimes at night. Has had maybe two good days out of just over two weeks. How long is this going to last? My heart is breaking for him, he feels so bad all the time. He immigrated, so obviously no longer has the same doctor and is nervous to find a new one. He was planning to come off this stuff anyway, but knew it would have been better to do it in stages instead of cold turkey. Again, can anyone tell me (us) how long this is going to last? Also, I found a website that claims they can help - has anyone followed this before? Thanks everyone for the support - it has helped to read many of your posts and my husband knows this is not unique to him now...


***edited by moderator*** web addresses not allowed

Has anyone tried the program with the Omega-3, Vit E and Body Calm products to get over the agony of quitting cold turkey?

I was on 300 mg for five years. I quite cold turkey before but could not sleep so went back on it. When I quit my vision immediately improved, I was mentally sharper, my memory got better etc. I am now off it again and began cold turkey. After two nights of essentially no sleep I tried melatonin which is like using a flyswatter to try to kill an elephant (melatonin is not the equivalent of 300 mg of seroquel). Anyway, I have been getting all the benefits of quitting but sore muscles chest, difficulty sleeping etc. So I decided to take 50 mg at night and this has helped me to sleep restfully. This is not the advised way to do things but I am tired of walking around in a fog, impotence, sedated all the time, 10 lbs. I cannot lose, impaired and not being able to remember anything. So far I am glad I am off this. I quit drinking to stop being in a fog constantly so what is the point in doing that if I am going to allow another drug to put me into a fog all day. No enough is enough and I am sticking with this. This is the way I am doing it but of course everyone has different body chemistry and difficult conditions and are on different meds so this is probably only a solution that works for me.

Just to let you guys know, I really appreciate all the valuable information you have shared as regards coming off of Seroquel.  It saps the spirit to think you might be suffering alone.  As for myself, I took Seroquel in varying doses, sometimes fairly high (up to 400mg per day at some points) over the last 5 years.  Obviously, this is a long time to take a drug like this, and from everything I have read, it is extremely difficult to get off of though the manufacturers claim that it has a low potential for abuse and dependence. 

At any rate, I tried tapering with very little luck.  I got it down to about 150mg or less per day depending, then I quit cold turkey probably on or around 13 June 2011, so it has been about two weeks, and what a long two weeks it has been, but I feel that if I stay the course, it will be well worth it.  The first week was full of vomiting and sleep deprivation and generally feeling like hell.

Just a disclaimer:  I am not dispensing medical advice here or saying anyone should do as I have done, but here go some things I found helpful. Follow the example of the person who hiked the Camino de Santiago.  Get as much exercise as you can.  Insofar as drug withdrawal is a cellular process, it will be helped along by anything that increases your basal metabolic rate, which increase is bound to speed up the adjustment process, and there are many things about exercise that can help make one feel and function better besides.  Do it!

Also, if you can tolerate it, take fish oil and a multivitamin supplement every single day for as long as possible.  Do not expect immediate results. I do believe these supplements, particularly the fish oil along with regular, proper exercise, have helped to bring me to the point that I can seriously consider getting off of all psychiatric drugs. 

I just cannot tolerate them anymore; they are dangerous to one's health, and they rob one of one's abilities and in their way, screw up your relationships.  If you are a musician as I am, you are well-acquainted with how such drugs not only blunt your intelligence and emotions, but also how they destroy your fine motor control and make it impossible to play or sing at your accustomed level.  Psychiatrists and drug companies simply do not care about these life-destroying effects.  They cannot.  They have pills to sell, and their well-being and security come ahead of yours!

As regards exercise, I have an elliptical trainer I use for about an hour a day 5-6 days per week or more. 

Sleep has been problematic and touch and go, but I have managed to get at least a good night's sleep every two days or so, and I hope that the trend will improve with continued abstinence from this God awful drug. 

The other problem I have had that has played a role in the sleep deprivation is extreme allergic rhinitis.  Seroquel is, like most antipsychotics, highly antihistaminic, so when you withdraw from it after 5 years, you are probably going to have problems with allergies for a while if you have had them in the past. I take loratadine and diphenhydramine and use fluticasone nasal spray for this.  I imagine this problem will also settle down in time, and I won't have to take so many antihistamines.

I am setting myself the limit of 6 months off of all psych drugs to see how I am really doing.  There is no other way to find out, and just a few weeks is not long enough to know if one has been taking them for years.

Wish me luck!

Here's wishing all of you the very best of good fortune!

Andrew B.

Dear Guest- I know it has been some months since you posted information about your attempts to get off of Seroquel. Have you had continued luck? I, like you, took Seroquel for 5 years at around the same dose, but I just cannot take it anymore. I have been off of it and other things for about two solid weeks, and though it is very rough going at present, I feel I can do this if I stay the course. My main allies in the struggle are lots of exercise and nutritional supplements which I have been using for years now, and I think that those things have put me in a position to try and get off all this stuff. It is now 28 June. I have set myself the goal of staying off of Seroquel for 6 months, because certainly by Christmas I ought to have an idea of how I will do off of it. Any amount of time less than that simply will not give me a clear picture of how I am off of it as I was on it for so long. This is my view. At any rate, I hope you have had some luck in getting off of this and that you feel better. I too have had issues with alcohol and other things, so I know avoiding it is probably a good idea in general. Paradoxically, taking Seroquel DID enable me to drink more like "normal" people, but that in itself hardly justifies the huge cost one pays in taking it for years. My view is that such drugs are great for stabilizing people in acute crises, but as long term solutions to mental problems, they suck. Psychiatrists are extremely unhelpful when one makes it clear to them that one wants the SANE benefit of a trial without drugs. A lot of research shows that people who stay on these drugs for years do not function very well, and though that does not show a clear cause and effect relationship, it at least strongly suggests the possibility that the drugs are to blame. Best of luck. Andrew B.

Hi all, I've been taking 600mg of seroquel a day plus stilnox and xanax for about a year and a half. Today is my birthday and for the event i've decided to cut out all the seroquel. The side effects are awefull and i have discovered that i have to take an even higher dosage now for the same disired effect because i've become acostumed  and it doesn't work as well anymore. I believe there is really only one solution to kick through, just do it. your going to suffer, it will be hell but eventually you will win. Enough of being a vegetable, numb to everything. I'm sure anybody can win with the required determination. good luck to everyone and praise you all for wanting to beat the drugs.

I was on 1200mg of seroquel.  Went up because i got addicted to it.  It was given to me for sleep.  I think anything that needs to be weaned off is addictive.  I am now on 300 mg after a week of coming off it.  I am going to just take the leap and go off it for good.  My psychiatrist thinks i should stay on it.  I disagreed with him and told him i will deal with the sleepless nights.  Seroquel is addictive.  You start with 25mg for sleep and next thing you know you need more.  I am so against this drug.  I cannot wait to be completely off it.  It has made me gain weight.  I went up to 170 pounds from 125 pounds in less than a year.  I know they use this in rehab and detox.  My problem is that half an hour after i take it i get massive panic attacks.  I cant live with that.  I agree, enough of being a vegetable and numb to everything.  Get the hell off it if you are not schizophrenic.  It is poison to the body.  That is my opinion however.  Everyone is different and i aint no doctor.  This is just my hell of an experience with it.  Good Luck to all. 

I think that gradually easing off doesn't really work because there's a certain limit to the concentration at

which the drug has effect. for example, once you go below 150mg the drug has gone below its minimal

functional level. As to going off it completely, the main trouble is being able to sleep. And, to able to get

a proper recovery sleep. often, as you decrease the dosages, you may still be able to sleep but you don't feel like

your brain has had a proper rest. Most people seem to have tried melatonin, but i just want to ask does it have any side effects? do you become dependent on? it like a sleeping pill? are there any side effects?

Hello,  I am taking 25 mg. for so called Bi-polar disorder.  I was taking 50 mg. of Seroquel but I am going down to 25 mg. for a week or so and then stop.  This drug has caused me tremendous weight gain,  I was about 220lbs. a year ago and now I am 264lbs.  I am getting off of it because of the tremendous hunger for carbs and sweets.  I am going to combat the Drug with Intense Cardio workouts and stay away from Sugar and other processed foods.  I have been taking 5-HTP and it helps me with anxiety and my mood.  For me My Faith and reading God's word is helping me. 

hi i was on 600mg a day of seroquel for bipolar,ive put on loads of weight through it and i found the drug was making me worse...so i cut rite down over a couple of week ,till i got to 100mg and stopped completely four days ago....since then i felt sick and had a headache.for a couple of days and my skin itches at night...other than that so far i feel normal for once and gona tackle my bipolar a differant way....good luck to anyone trying to get off this drug its poison....

Yippe for you!! I hope all turns out well for you! You're very brave and dont give up on yourself! Seroquel is a dirty terrible monster!1 I was at 900mg and am now down to 200..i feel better than i have in a long time! I tried to stop cold turkey but i had chills and nausea and muscle tightening among other horrible things..so im coming off slowly. Good luck to you!!

I was having a bit of a gloomy week last week and was taking way beyond my prescribed 300mg a day. I took 900mg one night and then 1200mg the next night. I basically finished my one months prescription in 3 or 4 days. The trouble is I'm now completely out of them. I didn't want to tell my pdoc what I'd done in case I got packed off to a hospital psych ward.

The trouble now though is I'm getting the sweats. I'm really hot one minute and sweating then I'm really cold and have goose bumps the next. I'm shakey and I have stomach cramps. My bed sheets are soaking wet. I wonder how long these symptoms will last? Am I in any danger if I leave it any longer or will they go away in a few days?