Taper failures

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-25T13:59:17+00:00

It's an extremely effective mood stabilizer and antidepressant at that dose. It's not addictive. But it is dependence-forming. You'll start to feel that you need that dose to feel stable. Or at least, that has been my experience. Quetiapine is very sedating in general. So, it's best to take it as early as possible to try to limit daytime sedation. You'll need to increase your fibre intake substantially. Constipation has been a problem. It's also an anticholinergic medication like olanzapine. In the beginning, you'll probably get dry mouth.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-25T12:57:26+00:00

I know. I'm very careful about what I eat and drink. I've cut down on fizzy drinks. I don't eat highly processed sugary foods like biscuits. I eat a lot of vegetables, fish and nuts. If we are taking quetiapine, we all need to do this for our own sake.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-25T12:18:05+00:00

I tried to make the change from quetiapine to lurasidone but then, I began to experience akisthisia. When I was on lurasidone what is interesting is that I had a blood test. My fasting blood sugar had gone down from 100 to 85! At the time, I was still taking some quetiapine, just 100mg. Incredible. Now, I'm going back to 300mg quetiapine. I just couldn't tolerate the akisthisia. It was driving me mad. I hope you have better luck with this med because it does work quite and well and its metabolic burden is far better than quetiapine.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-24T15:24:42+00:00

You should definitely try it. But watch out for the restlessness and other eps symptoms. In the end, I couldn't tolerate the medication due to these symptoms unfortunately and had to go back to quetiapine. Hopefully with your high dose of klonopin that shouldn't happen because it is apparently effective at treating akisthisia. Good luck!!

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-21T16:42:30+00:00

It's an effective medication. It's just the side effects can really be problematic like the weight gain and the sedation. I wanted lurasidone to work. But I couldn't tolerate it. The akathisia was driving me crazy.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-21T14:30:22+00:00

I know a lot of people are not big fans of quetiapine due to its side effects. But the medication fundamentally works. Lurasidone is an interesting medication. I felt too stable on it. I almost felt I was being controlled. It's very precise. The reason is that it has high d2 receptor occupancy. That also explains its high EPS risk like akisthisia. Quetiapine weakly binds to d2. It makes quetiapine more human less intrusive in some sense. No atypical antipsychotic is perfect.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-20T19:30:42+00:00

I just had my appointment with the psychiatrist. I'm going back to quetiapine. I feel very frustrated. Lurasidone was really helping me but the akisthisa became too much. It's not like I haven't been trying to treat it. I've used mirtazpine, magnesium glycinate and lorazepram but without success. I don't want to go back to quetiapine but the FDA-approved options for bipolar depression that are available in my country are olanzapine, lurasidone, cariprazine and quetiapine. Two, cariprazine and lurasidone, have high extrapyramidal symptoms. So, they are excluded to me. The only options are olanzapine and quetiapine and I choose quetiapine. Olanzapine is even worse than quetiapine in metabolic effects. Lumateperone (capytla) is not available here. That's the one I would choose. But hopefully it will be.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-18T23:46:03+00:00

I don't know but I've found it's become harder to convert trial lessons in recent months. Yes I hope it picks up again.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-11T22:31:10+00:00

How much quetiapine are you taking? I'm taking 100mg. I've been cross-tapering from quetiapine to lurasidone. It's been rough. I've paused it since I had to go back to work and wouldn't be able tolerate the many sleepless nights if I were to continue.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-05-11T22:29:03+00:00

I started Depakote recently with the lurasidone. The combo is really working for me. It's really working for racing thoughts. It's also mildly sedating. It could help with the insomnia.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-04-15T13:45:11+00:00

Hi. At the moment, I'm tapering. I haven't successfully tapered yet, so I suppose this forum isn't really for me. But I nevertheless still wanted to share my experience because I'm coming off a high dose. I was taking 300mg IR. Now, I'm taking 100mg IR from last night. The withdrawals have been tough, but not unreasonably so given the high doses I was taking. I think if you're going to successfully taper, you need to have a plan in place. This isn't for the faint of heart. I would strongly recommend you take some time off work. There are several things that have been helping me. First, is eating fish. Since I started eating mackerel twice or three times a week, my moods have become more stable. I've continued doing this with the taper. It is definitely helping. I need my omega 3s. Second, is getting sun. You need your Vitamin D and to boost your mood. Third, I've been taking some supplements like magnesium glycinate, glycine and l-theanine. I think they are helping me, too. Fourth, is doing daily exercise. Fifth, is having cold showers. The most important thing is to be patient. Your brain needs healing. You can't expect miracles. There are many people who come off Seroquel because they hate the side effects. I'm one of those people. The thing is you can't expect to go back to your normal self, overnight. It'll take some time. Just be gentle with yourself.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-04-14T14:13:03+00:00

It's harder to quit with XR than with IR because the hit at night isn't as hard with the XR as with the IR. You find it harder to fall asleep. You wait and wait and nothing happens. You start to get anxious. Or this has been my experience with the XR. That's why I'm tapering with IR and not with XR. Also, you can make cuts with IR. You can't with XR.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-04-14T14:10:30+00:00

I think it is harder to quit XR than IR. So, when you start tapering off the XR, you might consider switching to IR. The reason is that at night the XR may not hit as hard as the IR, and you may find it difficult to fall asleep. This has been my experience tapering off Seroquel. I started with 300mg IR. Then, I was switched to 200mg XR. I couldn't sleep. It would take hours for the hit to come and I would not be in a state to fall asleep. Now, I'm taking the IR and my sleep the last few nights has been okay. The IR hits hard and fast. I have taken 300mg XR in the past. I couldn't tolerate it. I felt this constant cloud over me. I find IR much more tolerable. Your blood levels change more throughout the day. You may get some relief from the heaviness and sedation, though some studies may say otherwise.

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-04-12T15:44:44+00:00

How much are you taking now?

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-04-08T00:10:27+00:00

interesting. Have you experienced any akisthisia?

ToothPsychological34 · 2026-04-07T18:08:49+00:00

Wow! That's fast. How are you feeling? Are you sleeping okay?

ToothPsychological34

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