Seroquel Quetiapine

hi, I've been taking quetiapine now for a number of years. I started out taking the extended release version of the drug for a couple of years, then was switched to the standard version around three years ago, as I suffer from insomnia, and cannot get to sleep without some kind of assistance, even where I haven't slept for days. I'm on 800mg per day, with 300 being taken during the day, and the remaining 500 being taken in the evening time. I suffer with paranoid type schizophrenia, and I do find that taking seroquel seems to keep the psychotic symptoms reduced to a manageable level. However, I've been suffering with side effects that include seizing up, where my whole body seems to contract, which can be extremely painful, I find breathing becomes a problem, and I can be left gasping for breath, to the point where sometimes I'm terrified that I'm going to suffocate, and I find I can't swallow, again leaving me sometimes feeling like I'm going to drown in my own saliva, and certainly trying to eat or drink anything is out of the question. I do suffer with minor side effects, such as dry mouth, and a slight tremor, however these are tolerable, and are something that I can live with.

I've tried telling my gp about these symptoms on several occasions, but am constantly told that these aren't as serious as I seem to think, yet I've gotten to the point that, because I live by myself, and have two pet dogs, that I have to leave my door unlocked when I go to bed, and have someone call around because I'm genuinely afraid that one of these days I'm going to go to bed and not wake up, as it's generally at night after I've taken my larger dose that I suffer the worst. I've tried reducing my doses, and splitting them up differently so that I take smaller doses at a time, however the withdrawal symptoms that I get when I do this are absolutely horrible, giving me serious mood swings, vomiting, and a range of other symptoms that leave me completely unable to function, and taking a reduced dose at night leaves me unable to get even a small amount of sleep, which in turn adversely affects my mental health, and has led to me being admitted into hospital suffering with serious hallucinations and delusions. Has anyone else found a way to manage these symptoms and side effects? I'm turning to places like this because my doctors seem unwilling to look into other possible treatment options, and dismiss my concerns as not being real, yet I'm truly feeling like if I continue to keep taking the drug, I'm going to cause myself some serious physical problems, and I can't seem to get myself off it without going through withdrawal that is just intolerable for me to manage without some kind of assistance, again something that my doctors are unwilling to give. Thanks for taking the time to read this

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Hello, Trippadan! How are you? I'm very sorry about the problems that you're having.

Have you been seeing a specialist? I really think that would likely be of more benefit to you.

If Risperdal is available there, trying it may help you more, while causing less side effects and it's very potent, so you'd not need to take such high doses….plus. it's wonderful at helping people sleep.

The FDA lists its typical side effects as possibly including nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, somnolence and weight changes.

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I take 350mg of Quetiapine slow release tablets in the evening(every day) and one100mg tablet of Quetiapine immediate release about an hour before bedtime(every day). I was once asked by a gp to change my medication, so that all of my Quetiapine was in the form of immediate release tablets. I made queries about whether or not to make this change and was told by two other medical persons that it would be unsafe for me to be on immediate release tablets for all of my Quetiapine.

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