Guest wrote:
My husband stopped Seroquel, 400 mg, two months ago and has experienced delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, mania, and no sleep. He originally started the Seroquel to help him sleep three years ago. He refuses to take additional meds to prevent these current symptoms. He became violent, destroying property because of paranoia and I have a restraining order against him. He is currently in the hospital involuntarily. This has been a very scary time. Has anyone else experienced these types of symptoms quitting Seroquel cold turkey? Any recommendations for treatment?
Ive experienced delusions and paranoia and hallucinations for seroquel too from quitting cold turkey
Sorry u r going through this with your husband.When I quit cold turkey, I locked myself away from everyone, advising them what a may be going through, stopping cold turkey. I think maybe because I had no-one around me, even though I felt
like death, I had no one to take it out on..So pleased I made the hard desicion to get off this horrible drug and have lost 30 kilos easily in 8 months, which I had never carried beforehand....good luck with your husband, sorry for what u r going through, buy he is better off them...It took me a total of 3 months to get it out of my system and the side effects....
why don't they tell us this when they first prescribe them?? They told me they weren't addictive but as we all know they are!!!! I'm frightened to stop taking mine all together, i'm down to 25mgs now and desperate to stop all together :(
i was on 600mg for 14 yrs-came off slowly over 8 mos-but i was given it for my bipolar- how long before i really feel free f itliska
I am on Day four cold turkey off Seroquel i got down to 25mg even though it took almost a year of excruciating headaches. Now I am going off them and am quit disturbed by the intensity of the withdrawal.
I gained about 100 lbs in the first year so began a strict diet and worked out alot and despite the fact that i live a very active life now, I am still about 60 lbs over my usual weight and have had no success losing any of it.
As for the withdrawal I have not slept for more than four hours at time since Friday and I have been forcing food and water down to maintain some kind of health. Also chills, fever, excruciating headaches, nausea.
i thought once i got down to 25 mg it would be a piece of cake......But I will carry on as I do not want to experience anything like this again. Does anyone know when it starts to get better??
Hope it gets better for you, could you please keep me updated as to how long it takes as i'm stopping mine after christmas and have got down to 25mgs, Some of the stories on here are horrific.
Day 6 has been a little better and over all it hasn't been nearly as traumatizing as i had expected.
Mind you my husband might disagree with this statement.
The three main issues i have had in order are sleep, headaches and very itchy skin.
I used to sleep 8-10 hrs per night , easy. Since friday i have been sleeping in 2-4 hour increments although last night i slept for 5 hours which has left me feeling a bit better today.
As for the mind crushing headaches they come and go now and are not constant which was for me the hardest part.
Still itchy all the time also hoping that goes away soon too.
I find this has been a far better experience than it was going down from 200mg to 100mg it was also very bad when i went down to 25mg, which made me very leery of taking this final step. I do not for one minute doubt the traumatizing events that i have read on this forum. When i went from 200 - 100 i cried for two weeks because of the discomfort and pain experienced.
I guess once you get down to the lowest dose it is easier because aside from the first 72 hours this has gone better than i could have hoped
It has been over a week since quitting seroquel all together. Much of the discomfort is gone. I am not sleeping like i'd like to but that gets better everyday. I still have battles with the itchy feeling but that gets less and less every day. On a positive note I have lost over 10 lbs which i didn't think was even possible. It has been a long haul to get to this point... But I feel better, have more energy, eat less and I don't feel that heavy fog i used to get when i woke up every morning .
It was scary for me to make the decision to quit seroquel because despite the weight gain and other side effects it actually seemed to treat what it was suppose to....I am glad to be off it and the learning experience i gained from this is always research the medication you take. Back when they put me on it i blindly agreed and didn't really question it, but i now know there are other medications out there that can treat my disorder without the side effects i had from this medication.
Hi i was on serequel 800mg for 4 years and tapperd myself over a month and i have flu like simptoms and also cannot sleep, I also had itching gained 25kg and was feeling num do you have flu like simptoms what can I use Kind regards Popi Moon
This "medicine" is a a complete neurotoxin. I've been off it for just over 3 months and I still can't regulate a good sleep pattern. Was prescribed this sh*t because i was having serious insomnia from fluoxetine (Prozac), but I regret having not stopped taking fluoxetine instead. Now, 4 & 1/2 years later, i'm 70 kg (154 pounds!!!) heavier, and recovering from this "medicine" which completely ruined my life. I couldn't control my eating habits, had sever personality changes, felt like i was asleep all the time and truly felt dead inside while i was taking it. Every time i tried stopping, i ended up in complete insomnia. 3 months ago, i was so far gone on my mental health (severe anxiety, personality changes, concentration difficulties [yet felt extremely aware, possibly due to the severe anxiety] and depression) that i tried to take my own life, with dreadful consequences for my physical/mental health and family relationship. Today.... I feel a LOT better, but it's been VERY difficult handling all of the previously mentioned, and i know it's not over yet, but it's getting better. I would advice everyone from taking this drug. My best explanation for this experience is like waking up from a mental coma or an extremely bad nightmare :-S
I had to be hospitalized to get off seroquel because I was so sick trying to do it on my own. 1200 mg for over 3 years is not an easy task to kick. the poison made me gain a lot of weight and I developed type 2 diabetes as well as severe heart problems. my doctor has now put me 5mg of saphris twice daily. I struggle to sleep even with a sleeping pill (ambian). i don't know if is because it has only been a few weeks since I kicked the seroquel habit or if it is because of the saphris. the slip that you get from the pharmacy is identical to seroquel's! so am i jumping from the fire into the frying pan? saphris is a new drug on the market, so a a little bit more tan a little concerned. i truly believe that doctors prescribe this stuff because they get kick backs from the drug companies. Can anyone give some insight or advice regarding saphris?
My sister was prescribed seroquel five months ago and we thought this was a miracle drug until a month ago. She is a congestive heart failure patient at age 49 and has a pacemaker and defib. She was doing wonderfully, had improved her injection fraction from 15 to 55 though diet and exercise. She was hospitalized for a manic episode (we think she had been taking her antidepressant to long, about 7 years) the hospital psychiatrist diagnosed her as being "bi-polar", enter Seroquel. About a month ago, she started having heart palpitations and arrythmias, upper body burning sensations, nausea. She was hospitalized, but her heart checked out and she was released. Her seroquel was increased. Next week, she fell in the floor and passed out cold. I thought she was dead. Ambulance ride to the hospital again. She underwent a cardiac ablation procedure to try and correct the the arrithmias, although the tests for her heart were great. Back home, still having the same problems, but worse. Symptoms, burning, vomiting, heart arrithmias, tremors and ticks, muscles stiffening and could not walk well, feeling of suicide. Her upper lip and face looked strange, not swollen, just a strange masked look. Back to heart doc and psychiatrist. Psychiatrist prescribed two more meds given to people with parkinson's disease to counter affect the side affects of seroquel. RED FLAG! We started doing a little research and reading everything we could about the drug seroquel. We did not like what we read. The drug facts only list some side affects, but we really started taking notice about the drug when we started reading forums of other people's experiences. They were having the same symptoms she was having. Exit seroquel. Went to GP last week to get a plan to back her off this medication slowly. She is already feeling better, although she is not "out of the woods" yet and she realizes this will not be easy. This is her experience. This drug may help others, but in posting her experience with it, I hope and pray it will prompt others to take a closer look at whatever they have been prescribed if it's not working. I hate to think that people are suffering as badly as she has and I know they are, because I've read it. She has had no quality of life and could barely function. Question, question, question everything. Talk to doctors you trust and write down every question you have. Praying for all those who are hurting.
This is a nightmare. I feel for all you. I have been on seroquel for 10 years. I thought I new better I trusted my dr. You are right, I did things at night and really did not remember in the morning. Luck ally they were good things like (cleaning the house) which during the day I was too tired to do from sleeping 12 hours and being in a fog.
Well, 10 days ago my primary dr. Said to get off them, we always thought it was thyroid that made me tired. Well my thyroid was off and is now adjusted with synthroid 100mcg. But still weak, gerd is bad migraines, nausea. So, like I said, 10 days ago, I went from 150 (300 cut in half) to 50 XR can't sleep and all the rest plus I am coming down on Cymbalta another bad drug. In order for me to get any kind of sleep I need to take 2 ambien (10 mg each) and 15mg Valium and of course the 50er seroquel. Plus I take a high dose of Dilaudid which takes the edge of my terrible back pain. I am going to do this. I take too many pills. So believe I know what everyone is going through I don't know what's next. I am afraid to stop without seeing phy. In 2 weeks. If I can see him sooner.
i had withdrawals a few years ago on Xanax ( another bad drug) I couldn't take it anymore so I went to butler hospital and dr. Put me on Depokote. Worked great in 2 days. I don't know if its good for sero.withdrawals. But would find out.
cc razor: thanks for your information. I just finished reading all of these posts (yes, a boring new years eve lol) and have been on seroquel at a high dose (900 mg) for about three years. I am practically crying and about to vomit reading all of this. How stupid I feel for trusting my doctor to have my best interests in mind, regardless of side effects or dependence. I should have researched this on my own. I have lately, and inexplicably been flying into rages, plotting vengeance (I am NOT like that at all!) and scaring myself. I also cannot sleep, even if I take four or five Benadryls, have lost about 10 pounds (I weigh 97 at 5' tall). I am utterly appalled at the myriad of symptoms that I have been experiencing but attributed to stress and perhaps menopause (I'm 45). Do not quit cold turkey. The last time that happened to me (Medicaid would not approve a refill) I was destined for the hospital. Like you, I was hooked previously on xanax for about a year and withdrawal from that was pure, unadulterated hell. Same with Seroquel. I had no idea. Why do we let big pharma dictate to doctors what to prescribe and most incredibly, not warning us of all the awful side effects. I have reduced the dose on my own, but within measure, and have experienced insomnia (chronic up all night, have to work and drive in winter storms the next day - not so cool), massive itching and rashes (Seroquel is supposed to be an ANTI-histamine so what gives with that?), clenching my jaw/grinding my teeth, paranoia, sweating (hot flashes I never had before), major nausea, loss of appetite (I have lost ten pounds in 30 days), dry skin (peeling even), and most disturbing, blind rages. I am scared of myself and what I am capable of in this mindset. I am normally nice to a fault. This is not me. Unfortunately, being a rapid cycling bipolar the Seroquel really worked for me. First it was my friend, and now it has betrayed me. I am sick to my stomach. There is no such thing as the perfect panacea apparently. Pardon me for getting on the soap box, but this country is a slave to big Pharma and all of its promises and secrets. Who do you know that is not taking some sort of prescription for something? It's really sad. I don't know what I'll do exactly, but having read all of this, I will opt out of the unsubstantiated belief that "a pill" will make me better. What goes in, must come out' somehow. And I'm not willing anymore to ignore the awful side effects in lieu of the "cure". The blind rages I have been experiencing, and KNOW this is not me, will land me in jail much before my rapid cycling will. I could not understand my anger until I read all these posts. I just thought I'd had enough; but I am truly afraid of what I might do. That in itself makes me want to flush all of my Seroquel, if I did not need it to wean. c**p this sucks. Like a Hoover upright; I will no longer deem my psychiatrist as the pharmaceutical demigod without researching myself. I feel punked.