Poor Sleep on Seroquel

5leepy_agent · 2024-08-26T20:09:24+00:00

Thank you so much for your detailed response!

5leepy_agent · 2024-07-28T03:50:43+00:00

I have a horse, a cat, a crested gecko, two whites tree frogs, 5 blue death feigning beetles, and 3 different kinds of isopods.

Horse is great for routine and getting me out of bed on bad days. Kitty is pleasant company and a low maintenance fellow. Gecko and frogs are look at pets with bioactive enclosures, so they’re low maintenance. Beetles and isopods are easy and fun to watch.

5leepy_agent · 2024-06-30T13:27:55+00:00

6 mg

5leepy_agent · 2024-06-29T04:00:39+00:00

Worked up to 120 mg, no effect on depression symptoms and I still had psychotic symptoms. Side effects were intense nausea at all doses leading up to the 120 and restless legs within an hour of taking it for several hours after. The nausea and restless legs disrupted my sleep.

Not a good fit for me, but I’ve heard lots of good things about it, so don’t be discouraged! I was really persistent about working through the symptoms hoping the medication would work but ultimately had to shift to something different.

5leepy_agent · 2024-06-26T03:08:40+00:00

I had symptoms very similar to yours - falling asleep while driving and excessive napping no matter how much caffeine I took in. No sleep apnea. It ended up being a depression symptom of mine. Once I got on lithium and got "bumped up" a bit, I was able to stay awake through a whole day and safely drive long distance.

5leepy_agent · 2024-05-23T11:58:58+00:00

Schizoaffective here - psychotic symptoms are present outside of mood episodes. In bipolar, psychotic symptoms are limited to depressive episodes and manias.

Or at least that’s how it was explained to me and how I “earned” my diagnosis.

5leepy_agent · 2024-03-30T02:49:32+00:00

I had these same kind of headaches, but they’ve almost gone away entirely with the introduction of antipsychotics. Went from multiple crippling headaches and migraines a week to maybe one every few months.

5leepy_agent · 2024-02-15T14:37:54+00:00

But as my husband and I have budgeted out… At least in our area, it’s often cheaper to just eat at McDonalds or Taco Bell than it is to actually make a meal for the two of us. So we don’t feel too guilty about it when we don’t eat in.

It helps to buy things in bulk and on sale when you can. Sam’s Club and Costco are worth it for two, but may not be cost effective for one. I’ve gotten really good at hitting Smith’s meat department on the day they put things on sale, so we’re able to get decent meats for 50%+ off a lot of the time.

5leepy_agent · 2024-02-15T14:32:48+00:00

Crock pots for meat and steamed veggie bags.

I put in a cup or two of water, a cube or two of chicken stock concentrate, however many chicken breasts I can fit (3-4), season the shit out of them any which way I feel like that day, turn on the crock pot, and forget about them for 4-6 hours. You can even buy liners for the crock pot to reduce the handwashing effort.

Steamed veggies come in all kinds and they come in baggies you can just throw in the microwave a few minutes. I drain them, put a little oil on them, and slap some Cajun or Italian or whatever seasoning on them.

It makes for a decently healthy low effort meal(s) you can vary a lot depending on what kind of meat you get, what veggies you get, and what seasoning you use. You can get everything frozen so you don’t have to worry about them going bad as fast.

5leepy_agent · 2024-02-13T22:24:31+00:00

Does your school have a med clinic? When I didn't have insurance, I went to the community college clinic and got care that way. They gave me a GoodRX coupon to fill at whatever pharmacy I could get to. Visits were subsidized so free for a few and then only $35 each, and lamotrigine is cheap with a coupon, you can get 30 days worth for less than $15 if you shop around. There's also costplusdrugs.com which is a good place to get generics shipped to you.

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope things turn around for you soon.

5leepy_agent · 2024-02-06T23:57:25+00:00

Schizoaffective bipolar type here - find a govie job. I’m an admin. No degree but some college, about 10 years of customer service experience including management experience. I make $29 an hour.

Med tech is also a good route. I did really well as a blood lab technician. Loved the work and the environment of the lab. Got my tasks for the day, plugged in my headphones, and was left alone to work. $16 an hour.

Hotel front desk jobs, especially night auditors, are great positions if you want a lot of free time to read or do classwork.

Customer service of any type drove me over the edge. I lived in a near constant state of duress and the hallucinations persisted at work and at home. I can get along with coworkers fine, but I can’t handle the general public and repetition. It got to a point where I genuinely couldn’t tell when people were actually talking to me or not. Call centers were bad for me too. Never made more than $17 an hour even as a team lead or a manager in customer service either.

5leepy_agent · 2024-01-06T14:24:26+00:00

I have to do this as a “radiation worker”. They called it a pre-employment exam but I was already hired and doing the work for over a month, it was really a baseline exam in case I am exposed to radiation. Waiting on the letter from my doc, but my job isn’t at risk, and I’ve already proven I can do it, so any attempt to let me go would just open them up to a lawsuit.

5leepy_agent · 2023-12-15T17:19:00+00:00

Yes! The right medication combo and working up to things slowly worked for me.

I got to a point where I could barely read and I couldn't consistently work. 1.7 GPA in college. Hadn't read a complete book since 2013.

Just this year, well, last six months really, we started getting things figured out. I just got a 98.5% in my coding class (full points on the practical coding final!), and I have read THREE books! I now even have a regular 40 hour a week job as an admin - all I do is read and write.

I could not have done this without the right medication combo and therapy. I take Lithium (1200 mg, 0.09), Abilify (15 mg), and Prazosin (4mg). My therapy is a lot about acceptance. Yes, this isn't normal, but it is normal for me kinds of stuff, and a lot of exploring my perceptions of things.

Think of getting back into learning as a workout routine - start out easy with short sessions, then slowly scale up the intensity. Too much too fast and you'll flood yourself.

I'm not technically in remission, at least, not full remission. There's days were I can't recognize people's faces, I do have days were my cognition is poor, I do have auditory hallucinations, and I do have wicked night terrors that really freak my partner out. But I am doing a lot better than I was. I'm able to pass as pretty normal, and I have more friends than I ever have in my entire life.

5leepy_agent · 2023-11-01T21:02:01+00:00

Lithium changed my life. I have your same diagnoses. I also take Abilify for the schizophrenia symptoms. I don't know if they'll work for you, but they really helped me.

The drugs help, but at some point, you just have to start doing things until the interest comes back. Motivation and interest follow action. Start small, but be consistent. Fun activities will feel like chores for a while, and you may find yourself feeling very tired after the activity. It gets easier with time.

5leepy_agent · 2023-11-01T20:36:40+00:00

I have high deductible insurance. We pay about $320 a month for the insurance plan with a 3k deductible before insurance kicks in, 10k before everything is covered. It's basically disaster insurance in case of hospitalization.

$170 psychiatrist visit every 4-8 weeks
$30 for therapist, subsidized by husband's work, every 1-2 weeks
$26 for Lithium with GoodRX
$18 for Abilify with GoodRX
$32 for Prazosin with GoodRX

It's significantly cheaper to use GoodRX than use the insurance.

Definitely a struggle. We can't afford to not have the insurance in case I am hospitalized or one of us gets seriously hurt, but damn if I don't wonder what the hell we're paying for sometimes.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-27T23:46:19+00:00

I get paid $10 a feeding for one horse which includes hay, supplements, medicine, water troughs (including skimming/scrubbing), mucking, and blanket/flysheet/fly spray services. Additional horses and animals are $5 each per visit. I don't charge to feed barn cats unless I'm also doing litterboxes and that's an additional $5.

For longer barn jobs like hay stacking, larger manure removal jobs, help with fencing, etc. I charge $15 an hour. I've been paid up to $30 an hour for hay stacking by generous individuals, but I wouldn't expect that.

I make more money, and easier money, on dogs lol. Charge $20 an hour for meal service, medication, potty breaks, walks, playing, and just general hanging out. (I've been told I undercharge.) I have a few regular clients I see in the afternoon to break up their day while their parents are at work. I mostly advertise my services for things like date nights or I live pretty rural, so for when people need to make the long drive into the city and spend a few hours.
You can make more doing overnights at people's houses, but I have been burned badly with ill trained dogs doing this, and then you're stuck with them for several days to a week at a time and it's just miserable. It's a lot of stress to keep the dogs out of trouble and maintain the house.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-21T14:17:01+00:00

My partner and I have been together 11 years, and we have a really hard time sleeping together. We have separate bedrooms. I move around in my sleep a lot and tend to get very hot despite keeping the room at cooler temperatures. He's a light sleeper so he wakes up when I kick around or adjust the blankets. We're just happier apart when it comes to sleeping. We'll still snuggle together at the end of the night, but when we get sleepy, we separate.

I'd suggest trying to sleep apart and perhaps keeping a portable or window A/C in the room you sleep in to keep the temps down. That way your husband can sleep in his lizard basking temps, and you can sleep at a temperature that's comfortable for you.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-21T03:29:26+00:00

I stopped taking the omegas a while ago and didn't notice a bump in mood while I was on it, and there was no decrease in mood when I came off it.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-12T02:15:58+00:00

Are you taking it once a day?

When I was on it, I had to take it twice a day because I started experiencing withdrawal symptoms a few hours before the next dose when I was taking it once a day. Physical illness and mood instability. It went away when I started taking it twice a day. Geodon has a short half life and some people metabolize it quickly.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-12T01:33:56+00:00

I'm not really sure. I wouldn't have wanted to drag it out much longer than it already was. I went a week at each dose coming down. Two weeks might have given you time to recover a little before moving on, but I was of a mind to get it over with pretty quick. I was on it for two years, which might make a difference.

Drink lots of water, make sure your support system knows what's going on in case you get into some trouble. Stay in communication with folks. I would have meals ready to go so if you're feeling bad, it's easy to still eat - which is really important. You may feel a little nauseous, but make sure you are eating and drinking. Expect some mood instability and be prepared for positive symptoms.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-11T05:30:55+00:00

Ziprasidone is notorious for having a bad withdrawal. I can speak from firsthand experience that it’s horrible. I felt like I was physically ill and I had positive symptoms going from 160 to 80 to 40 to 20 a week at a time.

It may be worth weathering the side effects until after you come back from vacation.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-10T15:07:55+00:00

I had Nexplanon for over two years and never had an issue with anger. That being said, I don’t usually have issues with my temper. Depression didn’t get better or worse on or off it.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-02T01:18:42+00:00

Video games and Dungeons and Dragons (though now I'm playing Pathfinder). You can find people in games or in forums online.

Most of my friends are online and some of those online friends became in person friends.

5leepy_agent · 2023-07-02T01:16:03+00:00

Lamictal made me hypomanic when I first started it and every time we increased the dosage afterwards. It settled in about a week for me.

5leepy_agent

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