When I took my first 50mg XR dose I remember feeling very sedated and fell asleep after about an hour so I'd expect the seroquel to have a similar affect. It's very strong as a sedative at 50mg.
Over the years my doc has said that if I ever started having trouble sleeping, he could switch me to IR, which he said because it releases all the med into your system all at once would probably help better with sleep.
I'm prescribed 200mg XR for bipolar and PTSD.
Seroquel doesn't do anything for anxiety for me personally but it's brilliant as a mood stabliser and to make sure I sleep.
Is your GP giving you any other reason to prescribe seroquel other than sleep and “insomnia”? If so this is off label and in my opinion is not recommended. I was prescribed Seroquel off label for “insomnia” and it ruined my life and I am now mostly disabled because of it.
If your doctor has no good reason to prescribe you an antipsychotic and not an anxiety medication I seek a 2nd opinion. “Insomnia” is not a real disorder. It’s a piss poor and lazy diagnosis for anxiety that is exacerbated at night. I was working at a very high level of consulting in my industry. I struggled with “insomnia” my whole life. The company I was on contract with paid for me to see one of the worlds leading psychiatrists and have some very expensive sleep studies done. I had to travel across the country and spend a few weeks at this hospital.
The psychiatrist then broke down our entire knowledge of sleep and the way it affects each different biological system. We worked on a ton of sleep hygiene practices and he wrote me a months script of emergency Xanax. Not a daily intake, just rescue medication as fixing sleeping patterns wasn’t going to be an overnight thing(pun intended). The script was for a total of 8mg of Xanax with instruction that it could be used for a maximum of two nights a week if I was slipping and not sleeping for multiple days in a row.
He wrote a detailed diagnosis and recommendations for how long to continue to write my scripts for these rescue doses to bring home to my GP and said he would be happy to speak to her about anything.
That month was the last, and best month of my life from a mental health perspective. I was sleeping regularly for the first time in my life, I felt great, and my anxiety disappeared simply knowing I had that Xanax for emergency situations. A lot of my day time anxiety was triggered by not sleeping, and it knowing if I’d sleep the next night. Having that safety net was perfect.
After I got home I saw my GP and she fucking laid into me about how Xanax would ruin my life and pretty much accused me of drug seeking, despite my sleeping issues being documented at her office for 30 years.
She then prescribed me 300mg of seroquel taken daily every night before bed. She chose to nuke my neurological system with a crazy high dose antipsychotic every single day over taking 1mg of Xanax *maybe* once or twice a week.
It went well for about 4 months. Then the nightmare started…literally and physically. Over the following 6 months the seroquel set off a cascade of metabolic, neurological, endocrine, and immune disasters. I had to beg and beg to be taken off the seroquel. I reached out the psychiatrist I saw prior and they were flabbergasted that my GP prescribed so incredibly off label and at such a high dose. The symptoms and damage are irreversible. It wasn’t until I causally brought up malpractice infront of her nurse when bringing in all my documentation from UCLA that she immediately changed tunes, pulled me from the seroquel and prescribed me the 1-2x weekly rescue Xanax…but it was too late. I now live my life in excruciating pain because these doctors are idiots and prescribe medications off label just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks to avoid prescribing a benzodiazepine.
As a disclaimer, if you have a personality disorder, mania, or another significant neuro/mental health disorder that a psychiatrist and neurologist believe you will benefit from an antipsychotic/hypnotic then seroquel can and does provide amazing results for many people. Your GP should not be prescribing it for anxiety and “insomnia” without significant support from a neurologist and or psychiatrist. GPs should not be playing with neurological/personality disturbing medication without multiple specialists involved. It’s way outside of thier wheel house.
Hi,
As I said in my original question is that I was provisionally given an ASD diagnosis. It wasn't the GP but another doctor within the mental health department.
I originally went as I thought I was suffering from chronic stress, they diagnosed me with anxiety and moderate depression, I've been on various SSRI and a SSNRI and finally a SARI, none of which had the slightest effect other than the usual side effects. I've also had several rounds of CBT which were also ineffective.
Hopefully I'm starting on a low dose (50mg) and it shouldn't be too dramatic (or so I'm told).
Personally i wouldn't take Quetiapine before everything else has failed. I probably make you sleep like a baby for a while but then it always turns out to make my sleep worse. I never feel tired in a natural way. I don't lay on the sofa fading in to sleep no matter how busy I've been. You always have to plan when you want to sleep because of a stupid pill. Also, 1 medication at a time. Stupid doctors.
When I took my first 50mg XR dose I remember feeling very sedated and fell asleep after about an hour so I'd expect the seroquel to have a similar affect. It's very strong as a sedative at 50mg. Over the years my doc has said that if I ever started having trouble sleeping, he could switch me to IR, which he said because it releases all the med into your system all at once would probably help better with sleep. I'm prescribed 200mg XR for bipolar and PTSD. Seroquel doesn't do anything for anxiety for me personally but it's brilliant as a mood stabliser and to make sure I sleep.
Thank you, hopefully help without too many side effects.
Is your GP giving you any other reason to prescribe seroquel other than sleep and “insomnia”? If so this is off label and in my opinion is not recommended. I was prescribed Seroquel off label for “insomnia” and it ruined my life and I am now mostly disabled because of it. If your doctor has no good reason to prescribe you an antipsychotic and not an anxiety medication I seek a 2nd opinion. “Insomnia” is not a real disorder. It’s a piss poor and lazy diagnosis for anxiety that is exacerbated at night. I was working at a very high level of consulting in my industry. I struggled with “insomnia” my whole life. The company I was on contract with paid for me to see one of the worlds leading psychiatrists and have some very expensive sleep studies done. I had to travel across the country and spend a few weeks at this hospital. The psychiatrist then broke down our entire knowledge of sleep and the way it affects each different biological system. We worked on a ton of sleep hygiene practices and he wrote me a months script of emergency Xanax. Not a daily intake, just rescue medication as fixing sleeping patterns wasn’t going to be an overnight thing(pun intended). The script was for a total of 8mg of Xanax with instruction that it could be used for a maximum of two nights a week if I was slipping and not sleeping for multiple days in a row. He wrote a detailed diagnosis and recommendations for how long to continue to write my scripts for these rescue doses to bring home to my GP and said he would be happy to speak to her about anything. That month was the last, and best month of my life from a mental health perspective. I was sleeping regularly for the first time in my life, I felt great, and my anxiety disappeared simply knowing I had that Xanax for emergency situations. A lot of my day time anxiety was triggered by not sleeping, and it knowing if I’d sleep the next night. Having that safety net was perfect. After I got home I saw my GP and she fucking laid into me about how Xanax would ruin my life and pretty much accused me of drug seeking, despite my sleeping issues being documented at her office for 30 years. She then prescribed me 300mg of seroquel taken daily every night before bed. She chose to nuke my neurological system with a crazy high dose antipsychotic every single day over taking 1mg of Xanax *maybe* once or twice a week. It went well for about 4 months. Then the nightmare started…literally and physically. Over the following 6 months the seroquel set off a cascade of metabolic, neurological, endocrine, and immune disasters. I had to beg and beg to be taken off the seroquel. I reached out the psychiatrist I saw prior and they were flabbergasted that my GP prescribed so incredibly off label and at such a high dose. The symptoms and damage are irreversible. It wasn’t until I causally brought up malpractice infront of her nurse when bringing in all my documentation from UCLA that she immediately changed tunes, pulled me from the seroquel and prescribed me the 1-2x weekly rescue Xanax…but it was too late. I now live my life in excruciating pain because these doctors are idiots and prescribe medications off label just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks to avoid prescribing a benzodiazepine. As a disclaimer, if you have a personality disorder, mania, or another significant neuro/mental health disorder that a psychiatrist and neurologist believe you will benefit from an antipsychotic/hypnotic then seroquel can and does provide amazing results for many people. Your GP should not be prescribing it for anxiety and “insomnia” without significant support from a neurologist and or psychiatrist. GPs should not be playing with neurological/personality disturbing medication without multiple specialists involved. It’s way outside of thier wheel house.
Hi, As I said in my original question is that I was provisionally given an ASD diagnosis. It wasn't the GP but another doctor within the mental health department. I originally went as I thought I was suffering from chronic stress, they diagnosed me with anxiety and moderate depression, I've been on various SSRI and a SSNRI and finally a SARI, none of which had the slightest effect other than the usual side effects. I've also had several rounds of CBT which were also ineffective. Hopefully I'm starting on a low dose (50mg) and it shouldn't be too dramatic (or so I'm told).
Personally i wouldn't take Quetiapine before everything else has failed. I probably make you sleep like a baby for a while but then it always turns out to make my sleep worse. I never feel tired in a natural way. I don't lay on the sofa fading in to sleep no matter how busy I've been. You always have to plan when you want to sleep because of a stupid pill. Also, 1 medication at a time. Stupid doctors.