Tiny HQ: help tapering off seroquel

[TinyHQ]

Hello,

 

I'm 37 years old and have been unofficially diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder since 2006. The highs I was experiencing could not fully be called manic or hypomanic episodes. Because of that depression and anxiety are the only official diagnoses that I have, but bipolar 2 is still in my file. 

 

I'm on 100mg Lamictal and 75mg seroquel for my mental health, plus movisse birth control, oxybutinyn for interstitial cystitis (painful bladder syndrome), an allergy pill (10mg loratadine. Also taking 250mg magnesium for sleep, lowering my dose after reading some of the stuff here and tylenol at bedtime for restless legs. 

 

Short history..

when I was 21 I was in college learning about mental health disorders. I had a lot of the symptoms of bipolar 2 so I went to my doctor to discuss it. Got sent to a psychiatrist who told me I was definitely depressed but he couldn't say I had bipolar because I didn't quite fit into the hypomanic category. He put me on 100 or 150mg of zoloft. It worked and I wasn't sad anymore and could go on with my life. I got pregnant in 2009 and got off the meda because it wasn't safe for baby. Don't remember any side effects except weight loss. I barely gained any pregnancy weight because of the zoloft weight falling off me. 

In 2013 after baby 2 I got bad post partum depression and got put back ok the zoloft, same dose. Gained all that weight back. 2 years later in 2015, The weight was affecting my mental health more than the depression did so my doctor switched me to Celexa. I don't remember the dose but it wasn't high so probably 20mg. It helped with the weight gain. My life started getting really chaotic, just lots happening around me and changing rapidly in 2016/2017. So in 2017 I went back to the doctor because I was having severe panic attacks at completely random times. He sent me to psychiatrist number 2 and she said I checked some boxes but not all for bipolar 2. She put me on the 100mg Lamictal and 75mg seroquel.

 

I asked my doctor in 2020 if we could discuss me going off my bipolar meds since my life had changed a lot and I was more stable. I was also still having panic attacks, despite the medications. He was open to it but wanted me to talk to a psychiatrist about it. So I got referred to psychiatrist number 3. He was awful, basically told me I was too crazy to go off my medication and I'd be on them for the rest of my life. And even though the entire appointment was to get off my meds, he prescribed me more! I told him he was not a good fit as my psychiatrist and I would not be seeing him again. 

The pandemic had started so I just stayed on my meds and let time go by. In September my family doctor retired and was replaced by someone else. My world has calmed down a lot so I call my doctor to again bring up weaning off my pills. She says what the last doctor said, I'm going to be on these pills for the rest of my life. 

I want off them. I want to know if I can function off them. I still experience a lot of the things that got me put on them and I'm getting through them. I just want off them. But I want to be safe about it. I don't want to crash and have my family suffer because I want off my pills.

I'd like to do this as safely as possible.  I'm going to start with the seroquel and get off them and then when I know I'm good, I'll work on tapering the Lamictal. At least that's the plan right now. Any advice would be so appreciated.

Thanks!

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @TinyHQ

 

I am sorry you've gone through this, with so little benefit. Why have you decided to go off lamotrigine first? Seroquel is the higher-risk drug.

 

Here are our 

Tips for tapering off lamotrigine (Lamictal)

 

Tips for tapering off quetiapine (Seroquel)

 

[TinyHQ]

I'm planning to go off the Seroquel first and then deal with the lamotrigine second. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my post. 

[Altostrata]

What times o'clock do you take your drugs, with their dosages? How do you feel before and after each dose?