Seroquel helped bring me out of a dark place. I was cycling terribly and was a living hell everyday, and it stopped that within a few weeks. Was a wonder drug initially. Then a natural cycle of winter depression hit, we upped the dose too much, a few months later I had gained 25-30 pounds and was asleep all the time with no intention. I barely left the house. It made me eat like crazy, at night. If I was not in bed in time, the eating started and there was nothing I could do about it. Even if I was in bed, I would get up and sleep eat sometimes.

I just recently started coming off of it completely after successfully reducing the dose some, but the sedation didn't change, nor the eating and that is why I chose to stop it completely. It is not normal for a human being to either be asleep or laying down for 14-16 hours a day. Even if you function OK the remaining 8 hours. that does not match my history at all, nor does being overweight.

It was not easy initially and my 'last dose' happened a few different times. At the moment, I'm at zero for over 3 full days, the longest I've been. And I might be able to never go back now.

I would take it again if I got sick. But for weeks, not months. IMO it's very dangerous long term. I wish I would have stopped it a long time ago.

I'm in bed about 6 hours a night now, and I wake up constantly. I am feeling OK overall though. I feel stable mentally, and actually a lot more clear. If I go for a long walk in the evening and take valium/lamictal when I get home, and a little more valium an hour later, I get some sleep but like I said, I'm in bed 6 hours now, vs. minimum totally knocked out sleep 10 hours, often 12, plus daytime naps from sedation.

I have a lot of work to do behaviorly, whether it's building a daily routine, exercise, leaving the house more, etc. None of those things were going to happen on seroquel, even a lower dose. Just wasn't possible. If it were, it'd have happened months and months ago. And trust me, I tried, and tried, and tried. I want to be able to get, and hold, a job again. There is zero chance of that happening, for me, on seroquel. Impossible. I want to have a normal social life again. Zero chance of that on seroquel. Being 30 pounds overweight isn't exactly good for the dating life.

Whether this ends up being a smart decision or not remains to be seen, but to NOT try it would be even worse. I will never, ever, routinely take an AP again as 'maintenance'. I think maintenance is BS. For an acute episode, seroquel/zyprexa/others are great. A few weeks, maybe a month or two. Then pull back.

In summary, seroquel is the best medication I've ever taken, it really really helped me. Until it didn't. The terrible anxiety I had in the mornings (that would go away if I took a morning dose), I now think was withdraw. I do not have morning anxiety anymore. It's gone. Medications MAKE symptoms sometimes. The paranoia and intermittently thinking people are watching/following me etc. Gone. The teeth grinding. Gone. I can tell I have lost weight in the past week, and I think I will drop at least 5 pounds in the next month. That is my goal at least. Exercise will help that, less nightime eating will help, and just being off it will help I think.

So my advice is proceed with extreme caution. I did not, and paid a heavy price that I am now trying to pull myself out of and that process may take many months. I am so glad I made the decision to stop it. If it blows up in my face, so be it. At least I tried. Worse case now, I end up back on a very low dose, strictly to knock me out. 700mg is not a low dose lol. 500 isn't either, nor 400. I can not believe I was ever on that much. I wish now I would have stopped it after a couple months.