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beehivebrain
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Trig Feb 23, 2019 at 09:34 PM
  #1
Hi,

My name is Jess. I suffer from Bipolar I, OCD, and BPD.

I just got taken of Vraylar and put on Seroquel. I am feeling the most rotten side effects. My dad said I've always felt side effects, I'm just now being more observant. I should probably mention that I'm 28 (turning 29 in August) and still living with my parents. I've been high-functioning, low functioning, high-functioning, etc. I don't know, really. Basically, I've felt high-functioning most of my life, except junior year of college where I had to take a leave of absence the entire year due to a depressive episode, because I was sleeping all the time and missing all my classes. Back then I had cyclothymia,then, Bipolar II- but, according to my new psychiatrist, it fluctuates. But, I definitely feel more manic now, so Bipolar I, it is.

I made the mistake of telling him I had these new symptoms like my hand tremors were coming back and I had thoughts of suicide--even though I didn't really want to end my life. I think I was just going through a Bipolar low and when I'm sad I do sad things like listen to sad songs and watch sad movies and I was watching The Skeleton Twins, which is funny, but very sad, and Kristen Wiig talked about "a way out" and that repeated in my head. So I told my doctor I was getting tremors again, which had gone away with the Vraylar. I was getting panicky. I no longer wanted to take my Klonopin, because I freaking hate taking medication (although I wish I had some anti-nausea medication) and I was having thoughts of suicide. He diagnosed me with BPD, also because I couldn't stop texting him, even though the line he gave me was for emergencies and I had low self-esteem and, he basically diagnosed me over text. I haven't seen him yet. He's a good doctor. I promise. I forced it out of him. I was doing my own research, because I have a Master's in Public Health that I don't use. And I research on PubMed and official websites and I noticed I matched up with BPD, so I straight up asked him and he said "You meet the criteria." So, I'm sure, that was a trigger to all these symptoms. And I'm sure the panicky feeling was that I was 28, had been diagnosed with OCD when I was 17, and it had been eleven years and I felt I had gotten worse, so my OCD kept going "11 years. 11 years. 11 years." In my brain.

So, it was my mistake to report these symptoms to my doctor.

He took me off Vraylar, which was actually making me feel good, and put me on the lowest dose of Seroquel. After just two nights, I felt miserable. I wanted to crawl on the floor and lie there and die- not in a suicidal way, I was just so tired. Fatigue was one of the symptoms, but it hit me so hard, after just two nights. It is hitting me hard right now, and it's been four nights.

I've had so many side effects to this medication, so soon. My question is, do you usually have so many? Because the ones I usually get from medication are constipation and weight gain, which work wonders together.

I'm getting constipation, too. I don't know. If that's a side effect. I can't remember.

But, fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness, dry mouth, not just nausea, but severe nausea (severe nausea is not a side effect), I'm getting everything.

The thing is, my tremors have gotten worse. The Seroquel is supposed to make that go away. And now the tremors have spread to my body. My knees are shaking now. My arms. Everything. And my hand tremors have gotten worse. I couldn't even hold a book the other day. I was so upset I started crying.

These attacks are coming out of nowhere. I'm fine. Jovial, then, two days ago, I start getting tremors, yesterday, I got panicky. Today, I'm fine. Then, I stand in the shower, I get fatigued, and start panicking because of the fatigue. I can't even stand.

Are the side effects supposed to be this extreme?

And by the way, I have reached out to my doctor and his medical assistant, neither have gotten back to me.

Please help. I have to work all day Monday and I can't miss it.

Last edited by bluekoi; Feb 23, 2019 at 09:54 PM.. Reason: Add triggger icon.
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Default Feb 24, 2019 at 02:54 PM
  #2
You might want to try calling a pharmacist, that's who I call when I can't get a hold of my doctor and need information regarding side effects, etc. I take 200mg seroquel and haven't experienced that but everyone reacts differently to meds. Generally about an hour or so after I take it I'm extremely exhausted and fall asleep very quickly, but that's a good thing for me because I was barely sleeping for awhile.

I don't think it was a mistake to report those symptoms to your doctor, it's important to tell them anything that's going on.

Sorry to hear what you're going through, it sounds scary. I hope you can get ahold of someone and get advice/help

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Default Feb 25, 2019 at 03:13 AM
  #3
I am sorry that you are having such a difficult time. Seroquel can be very sedating. Some people cannot tolerate it. It also depends on the dose that you have been put on. Some people need to have the dosage increased slowly in order to adjust. If the Vraylar was making you feel better to a point why stop taking it? One possible question to ask the doctor or pharmacist might be 'Is what I am experiencing a reaction to the withdrawal of Vraylar?
Hope that you can sort things out soon. You might need time to adjust before going to work.
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Default Feb 25, 2019 at 07:34 AM
  #4
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Bird View Post
You might want to try calling a pharmacist, that's who I call when I can't get a hold of my doctor and need information regarding side effects, etc. I take 200mg seroquel and haven't experienced that but everyone reacts differently to meds. Generally about an hour or so after I take it I'm extremely exhausted and fall asleep very quickly, but that's a good thing for me because I was barely sleeping for awhile.

I don't think it was a mistake to report those symptoms to your doctor, it's important to tell them anything that's going on.

Sorry to hear what you're going through, it sounds scary. I hope you can get ahold of someone and get advice/help

Thanks so much for the info and for your "setting of the bar" with the 200mg. I take 25 mg, so I don't know if I'm just super sensitive to medication, because I've been on the same medication for four years with a different psychiatrist. Because I sought a second opinion some months ago, at the same office with an NP (the office also has NPs, I'm seeing a psychiatrist now) and she put me on Latuda and I started getting depressed and lashed out at a friend, who is no longer my friend. I mean, it was an okay loss, we were really just Facebook friends. We hadn't been friends since college, but I lashed out at him for not reading my PMs, and I wrote this whole post on his wall, as in *public* wall. And he send me a PM apologizing for ever hurting me (he's actually very sweet), and unfriended me. I should have gone back to the NP, and told her what happened, but I wasn't sure if it was the Latuda or not because it was such a small dose. It was 20mg. It sounded like she could have diagnosed me with BPD right there, and looking back, there were many times I had lashed out at people for stupid reasons, and I think the Latuda just triggered a moment, so I went back to my old psychiatrist who put me back on the *same* medication.

I tried contacting my pharmacist, but the pharmacy just kept re-routing me. I'll try again tomorrow. Also again with the medical assistant, because I didn't realize the thing about being on the same medication.
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Default Feb 25, 2019 at 07:50 AM
  #5
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Originally Posted by possum220 View Post
I am sorry that you are having such a difficult time. Seroquel can be very sedating. Some people cannot tolerate it. It also depends on the dose that you have been put on. Some people need to have the dosage increased slowly in order to adjust. If the Vraylar was making you feel better to a point why stop taking it? One possible question to ask the doctor or pharmacist might be 'Is what I am experiencing a reaction to the withdrawal of Vraylar?
Hope that you can sort things out soon. You might need time to adjust before going to work.

Vraylar, I'm not sure I had a reaction to. I had started a new job, and it was really important to me, at the time. Looking back I realized it was the OCD that made it really important. And, then, I had gotten very manic, which never happens. I'm usually a depressive. Also, things at home weren't that great, and I started getting panic attacks at work. I was also very socially awkward at this job. There was a guy I liked and I didn't know how to act around him and it was kind of a clique-y job, where everyone stayed in their circles, and I wanted to move out of my circle, because it was a library job, and eventually I wanted to move up in the library district. So, I think that made me fluctuate from Bipolar 2 to Bipolar 1, which my doctor says happens. My new doctor. I had to find a new doctor anyway, because my old one stopped taking my insurance. I didn't even say it fluctuated. My new doctor rediagnosed me as Bipolar I. I couldn't sleep the night before I saw him for the first time, anyway, because I had already been suffering from insomnia, which I kind of still do. The Seroquel helps, but I still wake up at 1am and 4am (how random). It is currently 4:30am here. He put me on Vraylar the first time I saw him. He said it'd give you an "ants in your pants" feeling. But, then, the next two nights I couldn't sleep either, so I went back in his office and demanded a stronger anti-anxiety med than hydroxyzine, because my old psych hadn't trusted me with anything stronger (even though I was a grown up and I had told him repeatedly for years it didn't work), so the new psych put me on Klonopin, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But, I definitely follow the *as needed* instructions. So, I definitely think it's the Vraylar, plus my own actions that helped.

You might be right that it's the withdrawal from the Vraylar, because he just straight up put me on Seroquel. Same thing happened with Latuda. I was originally at that office before, seeing a NP for a second opinion and she put me on Latuda, 20 mg, again the lowest dose, and I had these weird emotional side effects. I was crying. I lashed out.

I was telling the above poster it could be due to the fact that I had been on the *same* medication, with my old psych, for four years.

But the Vraylar was making me feel better, even after I lost my job, which was around the same time I got prescribed Vraylar and Klonopin.

Then, I got a new job in January and I was really happy because it was much better my style, my boss was more understanding of my mental illnesses. My other boss had never supervised before, to say nothing of the fact of supervised someone with a mental illness. Brush up on your ADA, man!

However, I guess I was probably going through a low, recently, a week ago, and I had just gotten diagnosed with BPD and I was OBSESSING over all the stupid stuff I had done throughout my life that screamed BPD, and that probably triggered all these symptoms I told my doctor about like the tremors (which had actually gone away with Vraylar, but now have gotten worse) and the thoughts of you-know-what, which I'm not, it's just, you know how sometimes you want a way out of the pain, but you still want to live? I don't know. He said those thoughts were the BPD. But, I looked it up. I have an MPH, so I didn't like WebMD it. I went and researched Academic articles and official sites, and I found out that therapy is better use for BPD than medicine and Seroquel is actually a Bipolar med. Duh! Replacing Vraylar, a Bipolar med, with Seroquel, it only makes sense.

So, why would he replace a Bipolar med with BPD symptoms?

But, Seroquel is just really...hard. And I tried to get a hold of my pharmacist yesterday...but you know pharmacies, they just keep re-routing you.

And the damn medical assistant hasn't called me back.
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Default Feb 28, 2019 at 03:21 AM
  #6
Hope you can contact your doctor in order to work out what is happening. Often therapy can work better alongside the right medications.
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