Is Lifelong Medication necessary for a Nervous Breakdown?

Does a high stress Nervous Breakdown require life-ling sedation?

I wrote this originally for Extreme Dehydration from Seroquel.
But the last section contains my personal history of Bipolar.
This may not be the case for people who have a serious issues and especially NOT for schizophrenia.

Seroquel causes EXTREME DEHYDRATION!
I started taking Seroquel (Quetiapine 800 mg.) in Feb. 2016 after a terrible Manic Episode.
I would get very Dizzy not long after taking it. I would almost pass out and barely crawl to my bed.
I assumed it was the Sedative effect.

I happened to be checking for High Blood Pressure and I noticed that my BP was dropping to only 70 after taking it and stayed there all night!

My psychiatrist said that can’t be true because none of his patients ever had that problem.
I believe many did but assumed it was sedation (as I did) not Dehydration which showed up as very low Blood Pressure.
I stumbled across this purely by coincidence.

A few years later, I felt sick on Wednesday afternoon and when I woke up it was FRIDAY!
My Doctor said it was DEHYDRATION that is what caused the full day of Memory Loss.

(A woman reported waking up with 3 cats in her room. But she only had One cat. She found that she did indeed go to the shelter and pick up 2 cats the day before and had no memory of it. She didn’t mention Dehydration. But they called it a “Seroquel Hangover” which is dehydration.)

My doctor reduced me to 400 mg. Then 200 mg. After 2 weeks at 200 mg. I was getting terrible Crying Spells.
My new doctor lowered me from 400 mg. at 50 mg. every 4 weeks. (at my request)
This worked out Very Well.
I’m at 150 mg. now and my BP still drops to 100 and sometimes 75. And I can barely stand up to pee at night.
I’m 63 years old and anything less than 120 I get dizzy.

I’m going to see how low I can go (with my doctor’s supervision). But very slowly.
I had 2 previous Manic Episodes when I tried to quit on my own! NOT RECOMMENDED!!!


My history of Nervous Breakdowns and Treatment:

I had a nervous breakdown in 1987 after a friend was abducted by a religious cult and they were doing what appeared to be Satanic Rituals.
I was speeded up mentally for several months but still functioning OK.
I didn’t know I was supposed to be Sedated the rest of my life.
But I was perfectly fine until 19 years later…

In 2006 I learned the truth about 9-11, the Banking System and all the corruption.
Nobody would listen to what I had to say.
My boss CHEWED ME OUT BIG TIME and threatened to FIRE ME AND RUIN MY CAREER if I dared talk about this at work!
So I had another mental breakdown and they put me on meds for life.
Not because I had a “History of mental illness” but because I CARE about people more than most people do.

If I had not stumbled across this information or not had so much Rejection, I would still not need to be sedated every day of my life.
NOBODY would give me any support or even listen to my extreme concerns.
I later learned this was Cognitive Dissonance because the Media attached so much Emotion to that day. I didn’t have Cognitive Dissonance because I never trusted the media or government since I graduated high school in 1976.

(I’m now 63)
I’m trying to get to where I don’t need meds at all (because I don’t have such extreme stress that caused both Mental Breakdowns but I’m taking it VERY SLOWLY to prevent Withdrawal and I’m having very good results so far.

In some Eastern Religions they induce a state of “Enlightenment” by intentional very intense concentration for a few weeks. The mind kicks into an extremely heightened state of awareness.
That’s exactly what I did unintentionally both times.
I’m sure this happens to most people who are diagnosed (labeled) as “bi-polar”.

They call it “Bipolar” because you are in a state of Acutely Heightened Awareness and a single thought will immediately attract similar thoughts like a powerful magnet.
This causes the extreme mood swings and the confusion that leads to Delusional Thinking.

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A single med. can have a different

The same med. can have different effects on different people. I never had any dehydration from Seroquel. I hardly know I’m taking it. But if you are having problems with dehydration you might fix it by drinking more fluids. … As for the lifelong medication, I wouldn’t say that is written in stone, but judging from personal observations I would say it is likely that you will have to stay on some form of psychotropic med. for the rest of your life.
The same med. can have different effects on different people. Personally, I could hardly tell that I was taking Seroquel. If you’re having problems with dehydration from it you might try drinking more fluids. As for the lifetime medication, I would say there is a good likelihood you will have to take it for the rest of your life.

My Psychiatrist said he had never “seen” this in any of his patients.

I would never have seen it either.
It was a coincidence that I happened to be taking blood pressure readings at that time.
But it wasn’t until the ER visit that Dehydration was mentioned as causing the low BP.

I’ve drank a lot of apple juice in the evenings for a long time. I didn’t notice any difference.
I also tried Pedialyte recently. It had no effect either.

Yeah, a lot of people think I’m crazy.
But others just think I study a lot.
I get censored a lot for posting things that most people are unaware of.

Does Seroquel make you dizzy?
Do you have what feels like a hangover in the morning?
Have you ever checked your blood pressure after taking Seroquel?

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Stan

Well its your life. You can decide if you want lifelong or keep them as needed.

Yes seroquel for me was bad made me eat a lot as well

Has your doctor never tried you on anything else

Good luck with your meds & tapering off!

I never had these problems with it. I can barely tell I’m taking it, but when I don’t get it I start to get jittery.

I fainted twice when i was on seroquel… i have the screws and plates in my jaw as a reminder to stay away from it.

Yeah, Seroquel made me dizzy, too, when I would stand up after sitting…I would get up and then pass out and wake up on the floor. I also put on 100 lbs in 2 years of Seroquel. Another side effect I got from it was seeing “floaters” in my vision that the optometrist couldn’t see. I was on 600mg.

Common side effects of Seroquel include: asthenia, constipation, dizziness, drowsiness, headache…
I learned that these are the symptoms of Dehydration which also causes a sever Blood Pressure Drop. In the morning it feels like a Dehydration Hangover.

I was on Seroquel a long time ago and went up to 250 lbs.
More recently (since 2016) I have stayed at 115.
I wish I knew why. (Maybe Lamictal? IDK.)

I recently started taking Wellbutrin for mild depression caused by environmental factors.
It helps increase Dopamine which is a “reward” chemical.
It reduced my craving for snacks and I dropped from 215 to 200 lbs. with no effort whatsoever.
It’s awesome for Alcohol and Marijuana cravings and probably a lot of different “reward based” addictions. I used it in 1989 and I was amazed how well it worked.
It’s mainly uses as a Stop Smoking aid.

Seroquel knocked me out cold but before I passed out it gave me these strange visual hallucinations of flying hologram ghosts in my room.

Strangely enough I was pretty stable on Seroquel but I had to stop because it messed with my thyroid and blood sugar levels.

My mind races like crazy the afternoon after I miss a dose. Reducing from 400 mg. to 200 gave me terrible crying spells. But I dropped to 150 mg. with no problems at all by decreasing 50 mg. every 4 weeks or longer. (But I still have terrible dehydration).

I have been working only with my Psychiatrist Practitioner only.
I just made an appointment with the actual Doctor in 3 weeks.
I’m hoping he can switch me to something else.
I let this drag on for too long because I was so used to the dehydration.
I hoped that decreasing the dose would help. But that isn’t happening.
Dehydration started causing Morning Anxiety. If not for that I would have kept suffering.
Sometimes bad things happen for good reasons.

I haven’t read the entire post as it’s very long.

That being said clozapine made me also dizzy.

I think some APs have that effect.

Being on that medication for so long i wouldn’t stop taking it. I think it will mess your brain changing APs too often.

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For Years, I thought the dizziness was just a sedative effect.
If I didn’t go to bed soon enough I could not stand up and had to barely crawl to bed.
Even at 150 mg, I can barely stand up and my BP is 100 or less for 8-10 hours every night.
The list of side effects should emphasize “Dehydration” as the cause of dizziness.
If you can, get a blood pressure monitor. It seems to be an indicator of Dehydration.
I stumbled across this by accident.
My Psychiatrist at the time had never seen this in any of his patients. But they probably just didn’t know the dizziness was caused by Dehydration.

What medicine did you switch to? I’m looking foe suggestions.
(I was wondering about Blood Sugar levels too but I don’t have a test for it.)

My dentist said that most antipsychotics cause dehydration.
3 years ago I ended up in the ER and my doctor said it was Dehydration from Seroquel and Lamictal I was taking.
I was feeling sick on Wednesday afternoon. And I woke up on Friday with amnesia the whole time in between.
This has not happened since. Be careful with coffee. I think that might have been a factor.

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I’m on risperidone now and am very happy

THANKS!
I’ll ask my doctor.
My problem is Racing Thoughts and Mania (bipolar 1) but never severe depression.
I feel wonderful but everyone around me suffers.

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I can barely tell I’m taking Seroquel. I’m surprised so many other people are having a hard time with it. I suffer a little bit if I don’t get it for a prolonged period, but for me it has been a great medication.