senseless: tapering off 25mg Seroquel/quetiapine after being on it for a month

[senseless]

Another night of blissful 7 hours of consolidated sleep woo! The tapering is following a pretty regular pattern now generally 1st night or 2 is a bit rough but by the 3rd/4th im back to 6-7 hours sleep.

[senseless]

Hello overdue update time.

 

I want to start things on a positive note on the 20.11.2020 I slept for a consolidated 7.5 hours! woo!

Anyway! As you can see from my signature I increased the rate of my taper quite a bit and may of pushed it a bit too hard. As I hit a wave at 1mg with my sleep deteriorating and had a small relapse of suicidal ideation. But after doing an unfortunately necessary hold I'm doing ok again.

Sleeping decent enough 6-8 hours fractured, feeling well rested. Which I was not a couple weeks ago, withdrawal has made me cherish being well rested. 

[senseless]

Update.

Currently at 0.5mg woo! Almost there.

 

I was originally planning on jumping off at 0.25mg, but I'm not sure about that anymore. 

It seems even at tiny doses Seroquel is very potent.

As the jump from 0.75mg to 0.5mg,  although initially fine. The past 5 days have seen my sleep time reduced to around 6 hours a night, compared to 7-8 hours I was getting at 0.75mg. 
 

I'm going to continue holding for a while and hope my sleep improves. May need to updose to 0.6mg but hope it doesn't come to that

 

[Cat416]

Well done on your taper! 

[senseless]

On 2/2/2021 at 12:52 AM, Cat416 said:

Well done on your taper! 

 

Thankyou cat

[senseless]

Quick update.

Sleep is returning to a normal level now around 7-8 hours now, which is good.

I'm not sure how much longer I should hold at this dose, I'm thinking at least another week  or two may necessary so I have a good base before I jump down. 

Input from @DataGuy and @Shep would be appreciated  

One interesting note is recently I have purchased a dreem headband, it is a sleep device that monitors and analyses your sleep via  EEG electrodes, accelerometer and pulse oximeter.
Its shown to be as accurate as conventional polysomnography.

Anyway according to this device most nights I am getting between 3 - 5 hours of rem sleep. Which is incredibly high, most healthy adults get around 90 minutes per night.

I'm thinking surely this must be a consequence of withdrawal? And most likely explains why myself and many others experience high number of awakenings. 

As it has been shown that daily mild stress results in an increase in rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190128101104.htm#:~:text=2-,Stress and dream sleep are linked to,brain cell death and survival&text=Summary%3A,sleep%2C a new study reports.

Anyway just thought that was interesting. Going to keep soldiering on

[DataGuy]

Hi @senseless,

 

Great work on reducing and stabilizing : ). 

 

That sounds like a cool device. I did a quick google and couldn't find any critical reviews that stood out to me. I know some of those sleep devices claim to track sleep stages and don't, but maybe this one actually does. I see they have a publication in the journal "Sleep" on it. Interesting stuff. Most of these psychotropics taken long term do suppress REM sleep, so much longer REM during withdrawal would be in keeping with what you'd expect to see. I remember I had a sleep study a long time ago while taking clonazepam and they said I had zero REM sleep! I am not sure why that didn't ring any alarm bells with them.

 

So to answer your question, yes, people typically get what is called REM rebound in withdrawal. It is just your brain making up for the REM you missed while on the med. Glenmullen notes in one of his books that it can take over a year for REM sleep to return to normal once people stop taking their antidepressants. I am not sure if similar studies have been done on APs. 

 

In terms of holds and reductions, once you get to very low levels you can typically hold for much longer. Brassmonkey recommends holding for 6 weeks or longer once you get near the end. I think the most important part is that you are stable for a comfortable length of time before you make any major reductions. 

 

Hope you continue to have a smooth ride down!

[senseless]

On 2/12/2021 at 8:56 PM, DataGuy said:

In terms of holds and reductions, once you get to very low levels you can typically hold for much longer. Brassmonkey recommends holding for 6 weeks or longer once you get near the end. I think the most important part is that you are stable for a comfortable length of time before you make any major reductions. 

 

Hope you continue to have a smooth ride down!

Yeah I understand that in the end game I need to do longer holds, as it more likely to result in successful outcome shown by this site.  But at the same time AP's are probably the most destructive class of drug you can take, so every extra day on this drug means more damage incurred. 

So I'm constantly feeling conflicted about what is the right course of action, as its a balancing act between these two factors.

[senseless]

Hello update time,

Dropped to 0.25mg last week. Its going well so far, sleep is about 7-8 hours even had a nice 7 hours consolidated sleep couple days ago.

Hoping not to be hit by delayed withdrawals

If my sleep maintains at this level for the next week, i'm gonna jump down to 0.125mg.

[Cat416]

Following your progress. Well done on your progress thus far. I have 50mg to go. I recently made a big cut which I regret. My sleep is very poor. You mention waiting for sleep to recover before continuing to cut. Can you tell me something about that? Do I wait until 8 hours of sleep returns? I may have to wait a long time. My psych wants to give me me Trazzadone for sleep. I don’t want to add any more drugs. Any encouragement? 

[senseless]

Hello update time,

The last month has had its ups and downs. Have had a couple night of bad night sleeps (only 5-6hours), which generally comes with depression/hopelessness and no motivation to do anything. Those days are unfortunately complete write offs for me.

But the last week has been great, consistently getting 7-8 hours of sleep even had a consolidated 7.5 hours of sleep yesterday which has beautiful. I feel amazing when i have a good night sleep.  

So with that in mind I'm going to be making my last cut before I completely jump off, I'm feeling a bit nervous about it but ultimately optimistic.

Little disclaimer, I have been using CBD to help with the final transition. I know this site does not condone the use of CBD. But i thought i would be 100% transparent with my methods of coming off this drug.
 

[senseless]

Hello update time, 

 

Withdrawals sure are a rollercoaster. So initially after I dropped to 0.125 I was sleeping great, consistently getting 8 hours of sleep. 

 

But 5 days ago I was hit with delayed withdrawals. My sleep has taken a sharp decline and reduced to around 6 hours, last night I only had 4 hours of sleep  .

 

I feel a bit disheartened as I thought I was out of the woods. 

Contemplating just jumping off entirely, at this micro dose the effects are so insignificant it feels like I'm just taking a placebo.

 

 I think mentally I would be able to more easily handle/accept the withdrawals if I was off entirely. 

Though for at least another week I'm going to hold. I hope things get better

[Bee5]

Hi! 

I'd be really interested to know how you have been doing since the jump to 0?

Also, did you find the CBD oil to help? 

Regards, 

Bee

[senseless]

Hard to believe its been over 3 years since this all started, where my life became before and after quetiapine.

 

The time has gone by so fast, it honestly all feels like a blur.

 

Sorry for going AWOL, i've been too busy living life.

 

That is to say i'm better, far better than i ever imagined i would be at the start of this nightmare.

 

Sleep has improved alot, though still dysfunctional(multiple wake ups per night) i regularly get 7-8 hours sleep waking up feeling refreshed. 

 

Biggest remaining issues for me are:

 

Emotional blunting/anhedonia: Some huge tragic life events have happened to me in the past two years. Those being my girlfriend of four years breaking up with me and my mother suddenly unexpectedly dying. During both of these events i more or less felt nothing. 

 

Cognitive issues: I have some level of cognitive impairment, either from quetiapine or chronic sleep deprivation im not sure and it doesn't. But my memory is *****. Constantly forgetting where i put things, can't remember how songs i'm familiar with go, word recall, unable to remember most moments from my life. Its very depressing and alarming as i'm only in my late 20's.

 

I'm not fully healed.

 

But i have come to some level of acceptance of my condition and determined to life a have happy life despite it all. 

 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

[Shep]

@senseless Thanks for coming back with an update.

 

I'm sorry to read about your breakup and the death of your mother, but it sounds like you've reached a wonderful level of acceptance. 

 

11 hours ago, senseless said:

I'm not fully healed.

 

But i have come to some level of acceptance of my condition and determined to life a have happy life despite it all. 

 

 

You wrote you're still struggling with cognitive issues, but I want to point out how incredibly wise this is.