whiskermail: discontinuing Low-Dose Seroquel

[whiskermail]

Hi all.  Have only just found this website and discussion and it is totally relevant to me.  I am a 50-year-old female with anxiety disorder and major depression currently cross tapering from Lexapro to Dosulepin TCA.  SSRIs are simply far too activating for me so I am swearing myself off them forever.  I only tried the SSRI Lexapro 10mg again to help deal with menopausal hot flushes, which it did, but then made me too tense and anxious after 6 months.  Seems to drive up my mood or build up in my brain or something.  I can't have HRT (hormane replacement therapy) for menopause ever again as I developed a DVT (deep venous thrombosis) after a few months on HRT last year.  Anyway, I am very cautiously and slowly, in increments of 2.5mg Lexapro and 25mg Dosulepin for at least 2 weeks at a time, cross tapering back to Dosulepin.  I am fortunate in that my psychiatrist has prescribed me Xanax 0.5mg 3 to 4 times/day to help with the anxiety plus Seroquel 50mg at night to help me sleep and even with the help of these two agents it's not easy.  I had severe discontinuation syndrome last year after 6 months on Lexapro and spent one night in hospital emergency ward totally freaking out.  This time I aim to get off the Lexapro and avoid hospital!

 

To all of you striving to come off an SSRI I know how brave you are and just wanted to say never give up hope.  Take as long as it takes.  I think it's wrong to prescribe SSRIs to people with anxiety as in the long run it seems to make some of us worse.  Thank goodness for neuroplasticity and the knowledge that our brains can grow new neural pathways given time and the right nutrition. 

 

You're not a failure until you give up trying.  And it's OK to rest for a while. 

[whiskermail]

I spent the last six months of 2020 discontinuing Seroquel.

I was only on 50 mg as a menopausal sleep aid and adjunct to my antidepressant, escitalopram which I am still taking. 

I gradually developed severe akathisia over two years which was mistakenly diagnosed as panic disorder when I went to the hospital emergency department twice.

I worked out my own slow taper plan as no doctor had any idea how to safely taper, they just said to stop taking it.  Google searches were contradictory. 

I have been Seroquel free for three weeks now.

I feel great, have regained my enthusiasm for life and rarely have negative thoughts any longer. I have stopped obsessing over thoughts of myself and loved ones dying.  This medicine is used for off-label purposes too much and it made me have thoughts of suicide. I believe it should be prescribed far more cautiously.

[Sunnyday]

Hi @whiskermail

 

This is great to hear. I'm happy for you. Are you planning on staying on escitalopram, or did you want to come off it as well?

 

Take care

[FleeingFluoxetine]

Watch out for tardive akathisia from stopping it, although it seems unlikely. 
 

what was your tapering schedule? I’m in the same boat, 50 mg trying to get to zero. I suffer interdose withdrawal every night 

[Shep]

@whiskermailI just combined your latest post with your original introduction thread. Please continue posting here so all your information is in one place. 

[FleeingFluoxetine]

Thanks. I've bookmarked it.

[Shep]

 

On 8/4/2014 at 12:56 AM, whiskermail said:

Anyway, I am very cautiously and slowly, in increments of 2.5mg Lexapro and 25mg Dosulepin for at least 2 weeks at a time, cross tapering back to Dosulepin.  I am fortunate in that my psychiatrist has prescribed me Xanax 0.5mg 3 to 4 times/day to help with the anxiety plus Seroquel 50mg at night to help me sleep and even with the help of these two agents it's not easy.

 

On 1/1/2021 at 11:24 PM, whiskermail said:

I was only on 50 mg as a menopausal sleep aid and adjunct to my antidepressant, escitalopram which I am still taking. 

 

whiskermail, I just want to touch base and see if you're here for tapering advice. I see you're still on an antidepressant and when you posted before (back in 2014), you were also using Xanax. Are you still on Xanax? 

 

It's great you're doing so well and have lowered your drug burden. 

[whiskermail]

Hi people

I am currently on 10mg escitalopram once per day and 10mg diazepam twice per day.

I am having a well-earned break after detoxing from the Seroquel. Yay!

I am confident that this year I will manage to slowly reduce my diazepam dose with a view to using only as needed. I have read that a slow taper from diazepam is much easier than kicking Seroquel. There are no guidelines for Seroquel detox that I could find anywhere.

I would also like to be free of escitalopram one day. But one thing at a time.

In retrospect I don't believe I have a psychiatric disorder. I am simply a sensitive person who happened to have overactive thyroid (Graves disease) in my 20s and this triggered panic attacks which lead to depression.

The thyroid disorder has never returned.  It is hereditary, my late father also had Graves disease in his 60s.

Feeling so positive about life now!

 

"You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream." C.S. Lewis

[Shep]

11 hours ago, whiskermail said:

I am confident that this year I will manage to slowly reduce my diazepam dose with a view to using only as needed. I have read that a slow taper from diazepam is much easier than kicking Seroquel. 

 

We recommend tapering the SSRI first. Please see:

 

Taking multiple psych drugs? Which drug to taper first?

 

Pay close attention to the concept of "brakes and accelerators" - that will explain why it's best to taper the escitalopram first.

 

Diazepam is not necessarily easier to taper than Seroquel. Seroquel at the low dose of 50 mg was acting on histamine receptors. It's at higher doses (150 - 200 mg or more) that Seroquel acts on dopamine. At the 50 mg dose, it's more like taking a very strong dose of Benadryl. Since you're on a relatively high dose of diazepam, that likely made your Seroquel taper easier. 

 

 

11 hours ago, whiskermail said:

There are no guidelines for Seroquel detox that I could find anywhere.

 

Please see:

 

 

Tips for tapering off quetiapine (Seroquel)

 

11 hours ago, whiskermail said:

I would also like to be free of escitalopram one day.

 

Please see:

 

Tips for tapering off escitalopram (Lexapro)

 

11 hours ago, whiskermail said:

In retrospect I don't believe I have a psychiatric disorder. I am simply a sensitive person who happened to have overactive thyroid (Graves disease) in my 20s and this triggered panic attacks which lead to depression.

The thyroid disorder has never returned.  It is hereditary, my late father also had Graves disease in his 60s.

 

This makes sense. There aren't any psychiatry "diseases," since the mind is an abstraction and therefore can't be diseased. Psychiatry is a hoax. Once a physical problem is found (such as Graves disease), you no longer are treated by a psychiatrist. You move over to a legitimate field of medicine. Very glad to read you don't believe in the psychiatric label.

 

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[FleeingFluoxetine]

When you say the mind is an abstraction and can’t be diseased, are you saying that only physical issues cause mental problems? Like Sam Harris (a neurologist) who says “there’s no part of the mind that can’t be damaged by damaging the brain”?

[Shep]

18 hours ago, FleeingFluoxetine said:

When you say the mind is an abstraction and can’t be diseased, are you saying that only physical issues cause mental problems?

 

Many things can make us sad, anxious, and stressed. Trauma, poverty, and war can make us have these overwhelming feelings. Even excessive boredom can cause distress. 

 

18 hours ago, FleeingFluoxetine said:

Like Sam Harris (a neurologist) who says “there’s no part of the mind that can’t be damaged by damaging the brain”?

 

Not sure how a mind can be damaged, since it's an abstraction. I prefer Dr. Thomas Szasz who compared someone seeking treatment for so-called "mental illness" to a television viewer sending for a TV repair man because he dislikes the program he sees on the screen.

 

The answers to our distress don't lie in our brains (unless, of course, there is a physical problem with the brain, in which case, you'd seek out a brain surgeon, not a psychiatrist).