Seroquel Question

[LostButterfly78]

Hello all,

Throughout my journey of living with mental illness, I have taken many medications which have been prescribed to be (starting 10 years back when I was diagnosed with Anorexia, anxiety, OCD, and depression).

One of those medications was Seroquel. Well long story short, my current psychiatrist thought there was a drug interaction happening because I was consistently gaining 2-3 lbs a week. Since that was happening, my psychiatrist has decided to ween me off of seroquel. So here starts the issues...

Since I have been taken off of seroquel, I have been able to get ZERO sleep for about a month. I lay in bed frustrated all night long because I can't sleep (and I have to wake up for a job). My skin is very itchy and I have been experiencing worsening depression. I also have been seeing items in our bedroom move and appear colorful. The lack of sleep is the worst thing though. Has anyone else experienced this when coming off of seroquel??

[UFC80]

Ok, gaining weight while on Seroquel is a side effect, and It happened with me. Also,coming off seroquel, my insomnia was horrible!! I spiralled into a deep dark depression, as is stated on the RX label. Also equally intense was my anxiety acting up! I had some hallucination too. I was on 300 mg for 6 months. The longer you are on the drug and dosage also matter. Coming off this drug is hard and makes many give into going back on it. I resisted the temptation, while seeking comfort with therapy and coming on this support forum. It may take a little while for the side effects to leave. It took me a month n half. Have a talk with your psychiatrist. If not happy with this one seek another. 😁

[LostButterfly78 in reply to UFC80]

I am so sorry you had to go through that. You seem like such a strong person to have gone through it and survived. It really helps me because I feel like I'm not the only one having a tough time coming off of seroquel (I thought my body was just deciding not to sleep for 2-3 days). I am in therapy, so talking to my therapist once a week is helping me. Also I have emailed my psychiatrist half a dozen times throughout the last few weeks and he is going to start me on trazadone so I hope that helps with the insomnia. Thank you 🙂

[Dolphin14]

I had similar symptoms coming off a different med. I had the sensation that bugs were crawling on me. Itchy, moody,

It's withdrawal. Can you call your GP just run it by them? Mayb you can get s short term script for sleep?

I hope the symptoms go away soon. Withdrawal is awful

[LostButterfly78 in reply to Dolphin14]

I agree! I've never experienced withdrawal so this was new for me. Since it has been about 1-2 weeks since I have completely stepped seroquel, I have noticed that some of the symptoms have gone away. For example, I am not as itchy and my hallucinations have gotten less. My insomnia is still sucky, but more manageable. I took your advice and asked my psychiatrist what they could put me on to help me sleep. They are starting me on trazadone. So I appreciate you suggesting that!

[Dolphin14 in reply to LostButterfly78]

Great

I started trazadone last week.

I have broken sleep still so I'm trying to juggle it a bit.

It works great for a lot of people.

[LostButterfly78 in reply to Dolphin14]

Awesome! I hope it starts working well for you