Posted by helloieeees on March 15, 2002, at 23:45:44
In reply to Re: seroquel withdrawal syndromes? » ttt, posted by Tony P on November 16, 2001, at 2:37:17
> > Does anyone know how zyprexa or seroquel work on the brain chemical to cause sleep and when we stop it, we get chronic insomnia?
> > I did not have insomnia before zyprexa.
> > How do I get out of this zyprexa/seroquel hidden dependency? I'm getting desperate now.
hi, and helloieees ;)
I just registered to post on this site (03-15-2002) and found a couple of old posts from nov. 2001 regarding seroquel withdrawl symptoms via the google.com search engine
(don't mean to repost, i just wanted to start up the thread again in hopes of feedback)Before my experience in dealing with antipsychotics (particularly the atypical ones, risperdal, zyprexa, seroquel and clozaril)for "depression with psychotic features" to my present dx bipolar disorder (with ultridian cycling! ugh) - i always had problems with regulating my sleep patterns, cycles of oversleeping and close to none at times. It seemed at the time that the sleep distress perhaps was a symptom of the deep depressions I was having.
over the past 3 years or so, i've been on and off of seroquel, initially on "low" doses from 25mg to no more than 100mg (due to the really horrific sedative side effects i'd have throughout the day, not only at night) up until last oct.-my sleep patterns have always been pretty off, and essentially directly related to my "wellness." and i've always relied on "pills" to sedate me at night.
This of course has brought me solace in the beginning when i could sleep at night, but in the end has bothered me (perhaps it's my lack of acceptance of the illness)Come August to October of last year, not intentionally, or not blatant non-compliance, I didn't take the seroquel that zealously skipping a dose here, and there because i wanted to "stay up and do my homework all throughout the night"; i always felt limited by the seroquel, causing me to sleep too much, better yet the cognitive effects of topamax really killed my concentration, i felt sooooooo dumb. I also feel until now depersonalized.
eventually i plummeted into a horrible mixed state predominantly manic, (the type of manic that's not "high," nice or seductive...) where people would ask "what the heck are you talking about? slow down! You make no sense!" and where the thoughts race faster than you can grasp. I was hospitalized for the month of november 2001 and they increased my seroquel up to 450mg. (currently i'm i the post manic depression, it really sucks)
nevertheless, my concentration improved, i became coherant again and my neurosis (or even psychosis) was halted. HOWEVER, the notion of me having a sleep disorder really bothered me. I thought taking all of these pills which were sedating for the time being was just kind of denying that i realy suffer from some sort of wacked out part of me that doesn't achieve sleep naturally and "normally."
even though, i will probably be on seroquel for a long time, tapering down seroquel in past totally left me an insomniac...
and more importantly NOW (i know that the seroquel is therapeutic in some important ways and that i was teasing myself and being at such a relatively low dose) if i miss just ONE dose of seroquel, if i take it a little late, or if i go more than like 24 hours w/out it
i get so nauseated, dizzy and headachy i feel like i want to die literally and pass out, i cannot be in anything moving or have anything moving near me or i will puke my brains outthere was one day where i didn't take my seroquel at night... fell asleep from exaustion from the hectic mondays - and the next day on the train to school i was literally dying, i barely made it to school, stumbling on the sidewalk and spent the whole time while i was in school on the toilet. luckily, later in the day, I found the seroquel on me. Once i took the dose, i felt fine in like 30 minutes, then of course fell asleep in that zombifying sedation. (waking me up, and getting home was a mess)
-one can say this is probably a good thing, that it will force me to take my meds on time, but there's no flexibility, absolutely none, (what if i accidentally forget it, and it's 5am, not even , say 1am? i can't take it then, or i'll fall asleep) and i still face the issue of having to take it at 10pm, if i want to get up in the morning, leaving me literally no time for school work or leisure time. i have no probs increasing the drug, in fact it feels good oddly for 2 days after an increase, but any decrease kills me.
- this huge dependance scares me, i feel like a drug addict, or on toxic doses of lithium!! and I worry if the time comes to taper it off, i wont be able to do so... i hate this dependency, and of course, accepting the fact that i'll have to take pills for a chronic illness is one issue, but the dependency is freaking me out, what if i don't have seroquel one day? is it still beneficial despite all of this and the dependency?
-oh yeah, have any of you experienced BINGE EATING on seroquel, or ANY antipsychotic? Once i'm in that state of sedation, it's like i'm hypnotized to put anything and everything in my mouth (i don't have to be hungry at all), it's really hard to hold myself back. Sometimes now, when i take it, i just want to eat until my stomach hurts whether or not i'm hungry... it's almost replaced my cutting (that's another story.)
- in the hospital i've noticed that any of the girls taking a PRN to calm them down (thorazine .. SUPER SUPER SUPER elephant tranquilizer lol!) their eyes get all baggy like mine do on seroquel and they all just want candy and food. it's weird, but there's definitely a connection.
-i've had my share of weight altering drugs, and i'm definitely tired of it. but i guess it's better to fluctuate up and down in weight than be psychotic.so anyway thanx for reading (if you actually got this far ) i know it was long
any feed back would sooooooo be appreciated;)
annie.
poster:helloieeees
thread:98250
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020313/msgs/98250.html