Seroquel = catatonic zombie??????????????

[doriss49]

Anyone?????????????????

[Zooie]

Doris, my pharmacist told me, after I spent a few days in zombie land on seroquel, that they also use it as a sleeping pill.

The sad part is, the therapeutic dose kicks butt, for me anyway, so I just learned to live with a lower dose and try to reign in the ups by taking extra when I don't work and can sleep late, and lower it before work days and just deal with the hypomania as best I can. Actually, I LIKE being able to sleep 8-10 or more hours after a lifetime of only getting 5 to 7 hours a night. I take it around 8:30pm so I can function the next day. But that's not practical if you have a family to take care of or want to watch tv or participate in activities late. But BP comes first with me, I do what I have to do to manage it so I can have a life.

I wish you well, talk to your pdoc about dosage/needs/management. Also, there's a section on seroquel here somewhere...

[Native Arizona]

Within an hour of taking Seroquel, I experienced the strangest feeling. I could barely walk, was slurring my speech, couldn't keep my eyes open, and was essentially useless. I slept good on it though but stopped it because of severe weight gain, which affected my cholesterol.

[Muddler]

Seroquel seems to me to be quite idiosyncratic - it zombies out some people at low doses, others can take high doses & still go about the day quite "normally". I take 100mg at 20h30 & a sleeping pill at 21h30. That's what I need to fall asleep - sometimes. Just lately I've been taking smaller doses during the day for depressive anxiety - today I took half a sleeping pill to calm me down. The wierd part is that it's hailed as miracle drug for everything from insomnia to schizophrenia. I probably wouldn't cope without it.

[Luna]

I'm with Muddler about Seroquel being idiosyncratic. I take 300mg (100mg, 3 times a day) and I'm not sedated. I sleep well at night and easily fall asleep, so it does catch me by the last dose at suppertime, but I wake up alright without too much grogginess. If I'm going out in the evening I hold off the last dose until I get home. I take it in divided doses because when I took all 300mg at once, I got terrible akathisia.

I must say, though, that I am also on Wellbutrin 450mg, which is activating. When I was on no Wellbutrin at all, I WAS more sedated. But Seroquel worked like a miracle for my last suicidal depression, when my next option on the list was ECT, so it has become my friend. The steady weight gain is a bummer. A bitch, actually. I've yet to get the bloodwork done for cholesterol, glucose etc (it's only been 7 months) but I hope, hope, hope it'll be fine so I can stay on it.

LITHIUM was the zombie-maker for me. I was a blob, also gained weight, had no mood at all, just a bland nothingness and no motivation to do anything but sit around and stare. 3/4 of my hair fell out, and I stumbled around and fell down too. I envy people for whom lithium works, I had great hopes and wanted to be on it. But my body was having none of it. So doriss, if Seroquel makes you feel like lithium made me feel, then man, do you have my sympathy!

[NiGhTmArIsH1]

Seroquel works for me. My pdoc suggested putting me on Ambien CR to get me to sleep, but worried I'd OD on it. I told him he was a smart man. So he slapped me on 400mg of Seroquel to be taken at bedtime with minimum 9-10hrs to sleep. I can tell when it kicks in because my heart starts to race, I can't form a thought or speak correctly, and my balance is a wee bit off. But hey, it takes care of the nightmares lately too so I can't complain too much. I've found that 20-30min of cardio (stationary bike, treadmill, or elliptical machine all good) before I take my Seroquel to sleep helps keep the pounds off and allows me to wake up without feeling like the walking dead.

Lithium sucks! I partially blame my failed marriage on it; my pdoc had me on 1800mg/day. I had no sex drive, no original thoughts, no facial expression, no feelings whatsoever, no nothing and I gained weight like it was going out of style. Even at the high dose, he couldn't keep my blood levels stable and it started to box my liver and kidneys.

[doriss49]

Thanx for all your advice folks, it really helps. I'm on day 7 now and seem to be slightly less zombified. Certainly my anxiety and paranoia aredecreasing

[PurplePsycho]

I take 700mg seroquel a day n they was hard goin at first...all i did was sleep but now i'm so use to them that they do nothin for me nah. I usually get em upped once a year or twice depending on the depression. I started on 25mg 4 years ago.

K xx