BelaLugosi: personality and spirit broken

[Altostrata]

If you're taking quetiapine XR, you don't have to take another dose in the evening.

 

If you're taking quetiapine IR, you'll need to take it twice a day. 

 

You can't split the XR tablet, it becomes IR. You might gradually replace it with IR so you can gradually reduce the morning dose. I might reduce it half-way, then reduce the evening dose half-way.

[BelaLugosi]

Ugh, when I think I'm understanding I get confused again.

 

4 hours ago, Altostrata said:

You might gradually replace it with IR so you can gradually reduce the morning dose.

 

So I should gradually replace the XR morning dose with the IR? 

The goal in this case is to the evening dose continue being higher than the morning dose as it has been since the beggining, right? Did I get it right?

 

And then when the doses get too different I will reduce the evening dose so it be proportional?

 

And then I gradually replace the night dose from IR to XR because then the final goal is to take them only at night?

 

That's how I understood it

[BelaLugosi]

I feel like we should keep the morning dose being majority XR so I don't risk feeling more weird

That's what i'm thinking, taking less 50mg each 14 days (the dose without anything written is the IR):

day 25-28 (current dose)> 450 (200xr day + 200 night + 50xr night)

 

day 29-11> 400 (200xr day + 200 night) (i have too many 200mg pills to use)

 

from now on will have to buy new pills

 

day 12-25> 350 (100xr day + 50 day + 200 night)

 

day 26-7> 300 (100xr day+ 200 night)

 

day 8-21> 250 (100xr day + 100 night + 50 night)

[Altostrata]

You said you wanted to stop taking XR because it was expensive?

 

You're not going to be able to split the XR tablet, if you want to taper the morning dose, you'll need to replace it at least partly with IR and taper the IR part by splitting a 25mg tablet or using a liquid.

 

6 minutes ago, BelaLugosi said:

The goal in this case is to the evening dose continue being higher than the morning dose as it has been since the beggining, right?

 

Good question. What is your goal? Do you want to go off quetiapine?

 

If you want to go off quetiapine, I would gradually replace the morning dose of 200mg XR with IR tablets.

 

You should have read Tips for tapering off quetiapine (Seroquel) by now. If you did, you would know that XR comes in 50mg and 150mg tablets. You might get a prescription for 150mg XR and add 50mg IR (or 50mg in quetiapine liquid) to make your morning dose of 200mg. Then you can taper from the 50mg IR part until it's gone. Then you'd be taking 150mg XR in the morning,

 

After that, you could make your morning dose with 2 50mg XR tablets and a 50mg IR tablet (or liquid), taper from the IR part until you're down to 2 50mg XR tablets (100mg) in the morning.

 

It makes sense to first reduce the morning dose rather than the evening dose, so the bulk of quetiapine effect in the evening may assist your sleep.

 

However, all of this needs to be done carefully so you don't end up in the hospital and re-medicated again.

 

[BelaLugosi]

Yes, I want to go off quetiapine!

 

K so I understood it, your orientations are aligned with my calculations, only the 200xr morning to 150xr + 50 morning till day 8/11 aspect you corrected is different right? (I'm thinking I'll be following the plan anyway because I already have the 200xr pills, I think it will be fine. Also day 12-25 can be smoother because I still have enough 50xr so I dont go straight 200xr to 100xr + 50 but 200xr to 150xr AND THEN

100xr + 50).

 

So when I get closer to day 9/21 I'll make more calculations and decide if i'm going to take XR once a day or IR twice. But let me ask already, if I take the xr only would that  be better morning or evening? And also if I decide to go IR twice a day what happens when  I'm on the lowest dose already, morning and evening? Which I go off first?

[Altostrata]

If you taper the morning dose first, at least part of it will need to be in IR so you can split the tablets or use a liquid (which would be IR).

 

I'll leave it to you to figure out how to do that. Perhaps you should swap the IR tablets you're using in the evening for the 200mg XR tablets you have on hand so you could taper the IR part of the morning dose.

 

On 7/25/2023 at 5:51 PM, BelaLugosi said:

That's what i'm thinking, taking less 50mg each 14 days

 

Why are you referring to the dates 8/11 or 9/21? I gather you haven't read Tips for tapering off quetiapine (Seroquel) We do not recommend a linear taper of 50mg reduction per week. We recommend a gradual reduction of 10% per MONTH. 

 

Since you're taking 450mg per day, your first reduction of 10% would be 45mg.

 

Your second reduction would be 10% of the 405mg/day you'd be taking then, or 40mg.

 

Your third reduction would be 10% of the 365mg/day you'd be taking then, or 36mg.

 

As I said before, you need to taper gradually or you risk exhibiting quasi-psychotic symptoms that might get you sent back to the hospital.

 

If you insist on tapering by the schedule you posted yesterday, we will be unable to provide peer support. Good luck. 

[BelaLugosi]

Oh ok, I just thought that 406,25 to 400 would be too small of a difference if the wanted dose is 405. 

 

I'm not doing it every week also. 14 to 14 days. I saw you and other people in  the forum saying one could try that..

 

I also came to the conclusion I was never psychotic, I was just telling the story my parents wanted to tell. Even in my first "episode" I was a different kind of crazy, not psychotic, just a extremist and traumatized person. Never had a allucination in my life, until this year with these kind of dreams you think you're awake and ptsd  allucinations noises that happens with like 46% woman with ptsd (saw this data one day and never forgot)

 

I'm checking my reactions anyway

[BelaLugosi]

You said you won't be able to provide support  but can I still update this topic for  communicate with others?

 

I had my period coming 1 week earlier today, and the last one came 07/11 almost 2 weeks later than normal.. 

 

My sleep was also different and more "light", I woke up 1 hour before the alarm and kept sleeping in that  weird state of conciousness where you are half awake half asleep.

 

Must become more disciplined with exercising now that I want to be off the medicine, but I'm going through hell with every aspect of my life thanks to anhedonia and personality/charisma obliteration and having psychos as family so it's not easy to make room to exercise more

[Altostrata]

You can continue to participate on the site and chat with members if you wish, but the staff may not feel up to assisting you if you get into trouble tapering your way.

[FeralCatman]

Altostrata is correct. At the dose you are on it is still heavily affecting dopamine and you run the risk of dopamine super sensitivity psychosis. This happened to me after I got out of the hospital in 2018 when reducing at the higher doses even doing a slow hyperbolic taper and it's not something you want to experience. You cannot Rush this process just take your time and you will get there and remember slower is faster.