Brain Damage from Seroquel?

I was put on Seroquel (Quatopine) in January 2011 and was on it until this past January 2014. I started at a low dose in the beginning and my doctor put me all the way to 600. Within in the first year I was put on 300mg of Seroquel, by May 2012 I was on 600 MG and have been on it until January 2014. All in all I was on Seroquel for three years. The thing is I never had psychosis nor am I bi polar in any way or form, Seroquel was prescribed to me as a mood stabilizer and to help me with my sleep, so I took it every night. I was also on Celexa for three and a half years for my depression before the Seroquel and I stopped both of them at the same time this past January, a side effect of the celexa was being hostile, angry, and rageful, I would get all kinds of angry thoughts, I was just a mean person and hated everyone, my doctor told me that Seroquel would help with that even though I was not psychotic, though he never pointed out that these thoughts and feelings might have been a side effect from the celexa. And so that is why I took Seroquel, I took it as directed everyday for three years making it all the way to 600mg a night. When I came off of it back in January I went through the withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and insomnia and a bit of depression but that was also because of the coming of off celexa as well. The thing that did not happen however, which happens to a lot of people who come off of anti-psychotics, is that no psychotic symptoms re appeared, key work “re” because I never had them to begin with, people that do have those symptoms which they were given the anti-psychotics for in the first place, do take a risk when coming off these meds of their symptoms returning, that did not happen to me, coming off of Seroquel did not make me worry because I know that was not the case for me, I was never psychotic in any way or form, nor did I get psychotic while I was on Seroquel.

So I came off the meds in January and it was not until about a month later that I got these anxiety attacks and constantly worry and obsess over things. It can be about anything. I get scared about a lot of things. Then I developed cognitive obsessive compulsive disorder out of nowhere where everything is mental and no rituals, this still carries onto other things, the issues change but the symptoms do not. The symptoms are worse now where I am severely obsessing and worrying about things, I ruminate, analyze and can’t stop thinking about things, it almost feels like I am less intelligent than before and that I am losing touch with reality, I go over the same things in my head over and over again and tell myself the same things over and over again, repeating things, ideas, conclusions, fears, what-if scenarios, analyzing. I talk to people about what specifically is on my mind but it only helps for a small while and everyone assures me of things, but I still go mad over the same things and new things as well, it is almost as if I am being psychotic because it is paranoia, delusional, and unrealistic, and even irrational. I can’t control my mind anymore, I am losing touch with reality. I was never like this, not before or while I was on meds. Though I am not hearing or seeing things that are not there, I still feel and know that my obsessive thoughts, worries, and preoccupations are not normal, the things I get crazy over seem silly to other people and these type of things never bothered me before or crossed my mind, knowing this is enough. I was never like this at all, never at any point in my life. This all started when I got off the Seroquel. What I am trying to figure out is that if being on an anti-psychotic without being psychotic could have messed up my brain by either making me psychotic or lose touch with reality, can my brain be like this now because of the Seroquel that I was on for three years which I stopped taking four months ago? Is this brain damage? Can anything be done about this? All these concerns over Seroquel can equally be applied to the celexa that I was on as well since I was on it for a little longer than I was on Seroquel for and stopped them both together this past January. Since January I have not been on any other medications. One last thing I want to add is that I might have weaned off my meds too quickly, i think i did it all in about three weeks, I had to do it by myself because my doctor did not want me to get off of them, he did not help me at all. But it has been four months now since my last dose of the meds, would this make any difference?

Any feedback, input, or personal experience would really help me, I am just really concerned over my mental state. Thank you.

Olddays14 wrote:I was never like this, not before or while I was on meds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardive_psychosis

Tardive psychosis, scary, I don't think your perma-fried yet, I took alot more pills than you as did many others who recovered.

With antipsychotics, associated upregulation can cause temporary... Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor#Dopamine_regulation

Lots of fancy ass scientific words to describe drug withdrawal but bottom line its not easy, that's why everyone is not just saying screw this going to the doctor and then the stand on line at the pharmacy to get the crappy pills even if they know they are making them worse.

Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), or the terms post-withdrawal syndrome, protracted withdrawal syndrome, prolonged withdrawal syndromes describe a set of persistent impairments that occur after withdrawal from alcohol, opiates, benzodiazepines, antidepressants and other substances.
"Other substances" someone add anti psychotics to wiki !A protracted withdrawal syndrome can also occur with symptoms persisting for months after cessation of use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-acute-withdrawal_syndrome

I had a rough time with Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome from psychiatric drugs but it got better.

Thanks Copy cat. How did you recover? How long did it take and what did you do?

I went through really bad insomnia in the beginning but now it is better, but my anxiety, worry, and paranoia get so bad that I think it borders on psychosis. The thing is i was never like this at all both before and while I was on the meds. I was prescribed seroquel off label as a mood stabilizer and for sleep.

Is there hope hat things will get better with me and I will return back to normal? How and how long can it take? I am just so upset. I should have never be given Seroquel to begin with, I had no reason to, especially for 3 years at a high dose of 600mg.

Copy_Cat wrote:

Olddays14 wrote:I was never like this, not before or while I was on meds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardive_psychosis

Tardive psychosis, scary, I don't think your perma-fried yet, I took alot more pills than you as did many others who recovered.

With antipsychotics, associated upregulation can cause temporary... Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor#Dopamine_regulation

Lots of fancy ass scientific words to describe drug withdrawal but bottom line its not easy, that's why everyone is not just saying screw this going to the doctor and then the stand on line at the pharmacy to get the crappy pills even if they know they are making them worse.

Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), or the terms post-withdrawal syndrome, protracted withdrawal syndrome, prolonged withdrawal syndromes describe a set of persistent impairments that occur after withdrawal from alcohol, opiates, benzodiazepines, antidepressants and other substances.
"Other substances" someone add anti psychotics to wiki !A protracted withdrawal syndrome can also occur with symptoms persisting for months after cessation of use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-acute-withdrawal_syndrome

I had a rough time with Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome from psychiatric drugs but it got better.

Olddays14 wrote:Thanks Copy cat. How did you recover? How long did it take and what did you do?

It took about a year to get right.

I went to drug and alcohol rehab, I learned about going to rehab because benzodiazepines are part of my story so is Zyprexa. I told the last clueless psych pill pushing doctor that inhabits almost every treatment center to F off when the standard 'suggestion' that I take SSRIs that 'may' help with anxiety and something for my mood that should help with insomnia. Suggestion- Zoloft and Abilify, yuck ! Virtually no one escapes a drug and alcohol treatment center psych med free these days.

I will never understand how these 'mood' drugs that BLOCK the natural ability to feel good are supposed to help a person that likes to take short cuts to feeling good with get high drugs and/or alcohol. I will never ever get that. "I want to get sober to be a zombie" no one ever says that.

Despite the attempts to keep me on multiple meds , the thing that screwed me in the first place, the rehab with all the CBT helped and so did going to those 12 step meetings. I had to re-learn and practice being around people, that's what meetings really do, and that practice is what helped me overcome the anxiety, worry, and even paranoia I was dealing with that kept me turning to alcohol.

I do have to be honest, I would take 12.5 mg of Seroquel for sleep, to shut off at night during this, that's right the little dose of twelve point five milligrams. What you used to take in one day was more than I took in a whole month. Quitting 12.5 daily is easy, switch to melatonin or just get off it.

Why the hell do they push daily dosing at high levels ? Incompetence , that's why. All these meds aren't totally evil, its the clueless retards with the script pads that are hurting people. The doctor (physician's assistant actually) at this rehab would go on google to answer client questions! What does 'web md' say dosing of Seroquel should be?? That lady was a bad joke.

But anyway that's how I recovered.

Thanks. Are you taking any meds currently? If not, how long ago was it that you stopped taking all meds? I have been off both meds since January and I do not want to go back on anything. I am able to sleep ok for the most part but I still do get headaches ever since coming off the meds and vitamins and supplements help with that. I just want to know if I can continue like this med free while getting therapy and eventually get better, be stabilized and if my brain will be back to normal?

Copy_Cat wrote:

Olddays14 wrote:Thanks Copy cat. How did you recover? How long did it take and what did you do?

It took about a year to get right.

I went to drug and alcohol rehab, I learned about going to rehab because benzodiazepines are part of my story so is Zyprexa. I told the last clueless psych pill pushing doctor that inhabits almost every treatment center to F off when the standard 'suggestion' that I take SSRIs that 'may' help with anxiety and something for my mood that should help with insomnia. Suggestion- Zoloft and Abilify, yuck ! Virtually no one escapes a drug and alcohol treatment center psych med free these days.

I will never understand how these 'mood' drugs that BLOCK the natural ability to feel good are supposed to help a person that likes to take short cuts to feeling good with get high drugs and/or alcohol. I will never ever get that. "I want to get sober to be a zombie" no one ever says that.

Despite the attempts to keep me on multiple meds , the thing that screwed me in the first place, the rehab with all the CBT helped and so did going to those 12 step meetings. I had to re-learn and practice being around people, that's what meetings really do, and that practice is what helped me overcome the anxiety, worry, and even paranoia I was dealing with that kept me turning to alcohol.

I do have to be honest, I would take 12.5 mg of Seroquel for sleep, to shut off at night during this, that's right the little dose of twelve point five milligrams. What you used to take in one day was more than I took in a whole month. Quitting 12.5 daily is easy, switch to melatonin or just get off it.

Why the hell do they push daily dosing at high levels ? Incompetence , that's why. All these meds aren't totally evil, its the clueless retards with the script pads that are hurting people. The doctor (physician's assistant actually) at this rehab would go on google to answer client questions! What does 'web md' say dosing of Seroquel should be?? That lady was a bad joke.

But anyway that's how I recovered.

Olddays14 wrote:Thanks. Are you taking any meds currently? If not, how long ago was it that you stopped taking all meds?

I will still pop 12.5 mg a few times a month if my sleep wake cylce is gets out of tune with the socially acceptable norm. I have had that bottle of 90 25mg for almost 2 years, how many left ?? maybe 25. Don't even get me started on what a total bunch of $#%^ it is that people who don't sleep and wake the same time every day are "abnormal" just google "the myth of the 8 hour sleep" its all bull. Melatonin works alright too for sleep but Seroquel is an off switch.

That was the thing that got me all screwed up by psychiatry, am I bipolar ADHD who knows its just a list of behaviors anyway not 'medical' , I was doing life jst fine before going to that doctor with complaint of anxiety insomnia "insomnia is a symptom of depression" try this... Doc it doesn't work, try adding this... I think you are adhd as well take this... Less than a year later I am all screwed up and less than year after that I get to see the inside of a psych hospital !!! Lots of times. Never before "meds" ever.

It took me a long time to say screw this psych med crap and get better, thanks to reading "anti psychiatry" the truth.

I felt a tiny bit of shame typing in that I still take a pill from time to time the way I bash psychiatry but being drug free is not what "anti psychiatry" is about. I have an adderal 30 I am saving for a fun day too, anti psychiatry is not "anti drugs" I am in recovery but I might party on something one day if I am bored.

Bottom line biopsychiatry is the biggest lie of the last 100 years, dollar for dollar biggest scam ever and lots of people are getting hurt by it. Our horror stories are one of millions.

I understand. How long ago was it since you took the harder medications?

I am not against all drugs either, I'll have a drink or two and I am not against smoking pot or even taking a sleeping pill once in a while or something to calm anxiety down for a bit, I am just referring to my case specifically of being on 600mg of seroquel for three years when i was not supposed to be, and even the SSRI, though not as harmful as an anti-psychotic, I still wonder if i even needed to be on it for three years and if I will need to take something else perhaps for my depression and anxiety, such as another SSRI as a last resort, but never again with anti-psychotic or even with anti-depressants for such a long time, not unless there is no other option.

Olddays14 wrote:I understand. How long ago was it since you took the harder medications?

2007 I came off the Zyprexa and did that pace back and forth loosing my mind vomiting out the back door on the steps hell. Thought I was done, never be the same, brain damage for sure, can't eat all that extra hunger is now nuasia and vommit maybe I will starve to death no food, I goto the E.R sick panic attacks can not sleep at all and am told "the doctor can give you more Zyprexa if we ask him nicely" Well that's great "ask him nicely" for more of the stuff that made this sick in the first place. I heard the nurses discussing sending me up to psych for and the unknown period of lockup that goes with it, so I "asked nicely" with an I hate you look on my face and went home with the crap that made me sick in the first place, no answers to why I was sick cause those incompetents had no idea about Zyprexa withdrawals.

2 or so weeks later I was back in that ER after a failed taper with the pills I got and up to psych and onto Ativan and a rough time for refusing Geodon. Then after I got out I had some guy show up at my house to "help" me get medicaid or some insurance for the bill. I am sitting here thinking how if I know then what I know now, I was in my right mind like now, I would have told that guy to get off my property right now and never ever come back , give the bill to the doctor that MADE ME SICK in the first place. Or E- ###$ ing Lilly .

The whole time up in the psych dept no one could tell me why the Zyprexa withdrawal nausia vomiting, I never got to see the gastroenterologist despite repeated desperate requests. Psych patients are treated like dirt. I hate psychiatry.

I was sick nausea and screwed up mentally from that withdrawal for I would say 9 months.

Anyway I recovered from a wicked anti psychotic psych med brain fry , it's possible.

-- Fri May 16, 2014 9:33 pm --

I am brain / body damaged from my psych med years, its hard to describe. These periods during the day when its hard to focus and even small tasks are just like not possible. It like this extra extra strong ADD that comes and goes.

Damn that sounds rough, and for 9 months...sheesh, it has only been four months with me and I think i am even making progress slowly but surely. Physically I am ok, no nausea, no insomnia, just headaches which i am working with.

How long were you on Zyprexa for in total? I tried Zyprexa for a few days and I did not like it at all, that is when I tried seroquel and found it more tolerable so I stuck with it and took it for three years, the last two years being at 600mg and the first year being on 300mg. Does that sound like something my brain can recover from?

Copy_Cat wrote:

Olddays14 wrote:I understand. How long ago was it since you took the harder medications?

2007 I came off the Zyprexa and did that pace back and forth loosing my mind vomiting out the back door on the steps hell. Thought I was done, never be the same, brain damage for sure, can't eat all that extra hunger is now nuasia and vommit maybe I will starve to death no food, I goto the E.R sick panic attacks can not sleep at all and am told "the doctor can give you more Zyprexa if we ask him nicely" Well that's great "ask him nicely" for more of the stuff that made this sick in the first place. I heard the nurses discussing sending me up to psych for and the unknown period of lockup that goes with it, so I "asked nicely" with an I hate you look on my face and went home with the crap that made me sick in the first place, no answers to why I was sick cause those incompetents had no idea about Zyprexa withdrawals.

2 or so weeks later I was back in that ER after a failed taper with the pills I got and up to psych and onto Ativan and a rough time for refusing Geodon. Then after I got out I had some guy show up at my house to "help" me get medicaid or some insurance for the bill. I am sitting here thinking how if I know then what I know now, I was in my right mind like now, I would have told that guy to get off my property right now and never ever come back , give the bill to the doctor that MADE ME SICK in the first place. Or E- ###$ ing Lilly .

The whole time up in the psych dept no one could tell me why the Zyprexa withdrawal nausia vomiting, I never got to see the gastroenterologist despite repeated desperate requests. Psych patients are treated like dirt. I hate psychiatry.

I was sick nausea and screwed up mentally from that withdrawal for I would say 9 months.

Anyway I recovered from a wicked anti psychotic psych med brain fry , it's possible.

-- Fri May 16, 2014 9:33 pm --

I am brain / body damaged from my psych med years, its hard to describe. These periods during the day when its hard to focus and even small tasks are just like not possible. It like this extra extra strong ADD that comes and goes.