Questions:
My doc says that a percentage of people with Bipolar don't cycle. Do you?

I've never heard of it before. I know that with me I cycle, my manic episodes don't last super long usually 2-3 weeks and my depressive episodes last for months generally.

How have you done on Seroquel XR? Anything I should be watching for?

I've never taken Seoquel but there is plenty of great answers here.

After taking my first dose of Seroquel I slept for 15 hours, woke up for about half an hour and went back to sleep for another 4 hours. I might have just been exhausted, I've been averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a night/day. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Did it go away once you got used to it?

I do know that Seroquel can make you extremely sleeping when you first start taking it. That is why it is recommended to take at night. Eventually this is a side effect that can wear off.

The pharmacy pamphlet that came with the Seroquel said I should watch for over-heating. Is this something you've had to deal with? If you over-heat easily and the medicine makes you gain weight, how do you watch your weight?

I also know that Seroquel is a weight gaining drug. Almost all drugs in the antipsychotic class have weight gain side effects unfortunately.

I know that I have more questions, but I can't think of them right now. In fact, I have a hard time remembering much of anything these days, is this a "Bipolar thing"?

This is most likely caused from adding Xanax and Seroquel at the same time as they are both sedating medications that can cause you to feel fuzzy until you get used to them.

I would also like to echo that I would seek out psychiatrists for treatment. I started out seeing my GP during a depressive episode and she started me on Lexapro. Which then as I started to get super agiated and couldn't sleep she added BuSpar and Trazodone. Which should of been the sign that something was off for me. However I entered this really rocky area of moods where I would cycle about every month with no real middle ground I was either manic or depressed. Luckily I was seeing a therapist who works in my now psychiatrists office. The nurse there suggested I see the psychiatrist for med management and I had also gained close to 30 pounds on Lexapro. The psychiatrist reviewed my history prior to medication and what is going on currently and decided to take me off of Lexapro and start me on Abilify. Abilify did more harm than good I went in to a really bad manic episode really quickly where all my meds were stopped and I was started on Lithium, Ativan, and a higher dose of Trazodone.

It took about 2 weeks but I started to come out of the episode and have been stable for a bit now. I am getting ready to have my Lithium dose increased tomorrow.

Moral of my story is by just sticking with my GP for something than was out of their scope I caused my self to suffer for much longer than I needed to. I am getting the right care for myself now. So I advocate for finding a psychiatrist. You might be able to find someone through a community mental health clinic.