Posted by outhinkso on August 27, 2005, at 12:55:35
In reply to Re: seroquel to lunesta experience » mugsy, posted by vivi on April 24, 2005, at 0:46:57
This is response to Vivi’s post regarding Seroquel - Lunesta. Please forgive me, but I new to this posting thing:
Hi my name is Julie, and I've been taking 2mg of Lunesta per night and I have dropped my does of Seroquel down to 25mg last night. I was taking 200mgs and I have steadily been dropping my dosage per week because I have every intention of getting off of it completely.
I have been having problems with paranoia and hallucinations. The hallucinations didn't become really bad until I combined both drugs.
I was prescribed these drugs because I have insomnia. My problems sleeping date back to when I was a toddler. Both of my parents suffer with problems sleeping as well. I was also diagnosed as being borderline anemic as well.
To make a long story short if that is possible, I started suffering extreme exhaustion all the time after I added birth control pills to the mix. My Thyroid Gland was doing weird things and I never had any energy. I went to 2 different doctors who wanted to and Synthroid to the mix. I chose to get a 3rd opinion that did Thyroid antibody tests. He told me I don't have a thyroid condition and to start eating right. Go figure. So now I am taking a combination of vitamins, stop taking B/C, and I am in the process of getting off all sleep medications. I plan on going all natural and dealing with the lack of sleep on a daily basis.
It's taken me a year to realize most of the general practice doctors should not be allowed to prescribe any antidepressants. They don't know what they are doing. And women's needs are much different than a man's due to the hormonally issues we have.
A combination of the Seroquel and B/C pills have caused me to gain 10lbs, which isn't much for me since I am 5'3 and 125lbs right now soaking wet, but any type of weight gain can have a huge effect on one's self esteem when none of your clothes fit.
Not only that, I am convinced that all of these medications made my Thyroid Gland go nuts. I am 30 years old and I don’t need to be taking 4 medications a day.
I have been making a concise effort to eat at least 4 times a day and take my vitamins. Since lowering my dose of Seroquel I have begun to feel some what normal again. I went to the doctor because I was tired and couldn’t sleep well. I was working out on a regular basis which helped my stress. Since being prescribe a small pharmacy of drugs, I continued to feel worse. And the 2 doctors I was going to weren’t listening. I finally found Dr. John Partridge (my 3rd opinion) who is apart of the Va Physicians for Women who was a blessing in disguise. I believe now that the drugs are poison and I need to fully clean my system out. I am planning on getting back into the gym and taking steps to managing my stress naturally. I also believe that most of my problems were also due to the lack of nutrients /vitamins I was not getting fro food alone. People don’t realize when you don’t eat right; it affects everything including your sleep patterns.
If anyone would like to know what vitamins I am taking and how much, please feel free to e-mail me. I can only speak for myself, but going natural has really helped me. What I mean by natural is getting of the drugs and getting back into exercise and proper eating….I believe sometimes you just have to deal with your issues of sleep on a daily basis. Taking a walk or a motorcycle ride has really helped me. Everyone has to find what works for them. Not only that but Seroquel has some very serious side affects that the doctors don’t always inform you of – diabetes (which runs in my family), frequent urination (which I had and it sucks to be woken up constantly by it), leg spasms and the list goes on and on. The side effects were worse than not be able to sleep.
In conclusion, I guess in life you have trade offs to everything. You have to decide if the trade offs are worth it……for me they are not.
Jules
> > I just tried lunesta desperately hoping to find a gentler but effective alternative to the seroquel I've been taking (was taking 300-400 mg seroquel but tapered to less than 50mg for past coule of months).
> >
> > The first night (two nights ago) I took 2mg of lunesta and about 25 mg of seroquel. Went to sleep easily but woke up early (maybe got 4 hours or so of sleep) and could not get back to sleep after that. Did not seem to have the munchies as much as with seroquel but felt ok except for this really weird taste in my mouth which lasted through half of the next day. The taste is most noticable when I drink water, lingering bitter taste. The second night on Lunesta I took 2mg lunesta and no seroquel, I slept for a bit and woke up, I took another 2mg of Lunesta and went back to bed, slept a few hours and woke up again not really able to get back to sleep.
> >
> > So that is my first two nights on Lunesta. Tonight I feel a little weird. I don't know what to take now... but I know I won't sleep without an effective sedative.
> >
> > I'm bummed that lunesta isn't much better than it seems to me.
> >
> > This chronic insomnia has been killing me for many years and seroquel is not really very gentle for me. None of my doctors will prescribe benzos on a regular basis but they have been effective and by far the gentlest of them all for for me. The benzo tolerance effect is a pain but with careful dosing I found could be manageable for a long time.
> >
> > Seroquel makes me hungry and fat, affects my vision in a bad way, dries out and inflames my throat, irritates my sinuses and does other weird physical and mental stuff... but I either take that or friggin die of insomnia the way it is for me now.
> >
> > I'm disappointed in lunesta. it's hard to believe we can put a man on the moon but can't have a gentle and effective medication for chronic insomnia.
>
>
> Have you tried Ambien? it works faster than Lunesta, but not as long. I liked ambien, but I needed something stronger. I have read some posts that mention Remeron?
> Vivi
>
poster:outhinkso
thread:482377
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050827/msgs/547241.html