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I started process of switching from Cymbalta to Remeron on March 25, and took my last dose of Cymbalta a few days ago. Other than a few days of extreme irritability, things have been going surprisingly smoothly. Except that I can't sleep. Not really. I'm rapid-cycling between moments of being awake and instantly dreaming as soon as I close my eyes. The waking moments seem precipitated by startling effects in the dream state, that usually have nothing to do with the content of the dream itself. The worst of these is the sudden sensation of being physically attacked by an evil presence. It seems to take me a little bit longer to wake up during these instances. Or at least that's how I perceive it. How much of this is potentially the residual Cymbalta withdrawal effects, and how much of this is the "strange or unusual dreams" listed as a possible side effect of the Remeron? And more importantly, how long can I expect this to last? If you experienced disturbed dreams while on Remeron, how long did it last for you, and did it turn out to be a deal breaker?

It's 11 and I woke up at 2 or 3. I don't remember. I went to bed around midnight. I have a disappointed cat and a cold apartment. An appointment with one therapist tomorrow and another on Thursday. Tomorrow is going to be with a therapist that has a focus on youth. I'm 29 so I'm only 'several months away from our last meeting. She's been with me for over 6 years. Oversaw my homelessness, my transition, my going into and out of hospitals. I want to keep seeing her weekly for years to come but I guess it's only reasonable. And the right time. If it wasn't I'd know. I just kind of.. I'unno. Her and I talk about nightmares a lot. They really fucking suck. I don't know if it's because I forgot to take my med last night but I had a lot of them. Walked in on a play my friends were putting on. Accidentally wandered on stage and I didn't have a part in it. So I ran off stage and into a field that kept changing. I got a call from a friend and I couldn't describe what I was seeing. I realized that no one could understand and I was going crazy. I then "woke up" in a dark room and someone was pounding on a door it was a rapist and I was in trouble. Lately I've been having those pop up in my dreams a lot. I won't share anymore. But I woke up for real and saw mealworms covering my body. And then the dream imagery stuff kind of faded away. So. that's cool. Usually I write a bit of what I dream to my therapist when it's awful. It must not be weird to have a connection with a therapist you've been seeing. I mean.. C'mon it's their job. But. Still. I'm an adult and in a way I feel like I'm going to be stepping out into the big wide world alone. In some ways I've been alone for most of my life. It's just.. in some ways it feels more so now that we're dissolving the relationship. Her practice is growing in leaps and bounds. She's going on a sabbatical and I... the great 29 year old kid is going to be looking for new caregivers. I guess. In a couple of months. Then why does it feel like it's already happened? Then why am I still scared to go to sleep like a child? Then why am I 29 years old still unable to go grocery shopping, step out of her apartment, still unable to shop for clothes and haven't done laundry in months? then why am I? I don't know... Why do I feel like I've already missed out on most of life? Unable to bring myself to play with my cat and spend a substantial amount of my time crying alone? I guess I don't know. fuck life. right?

Hi everyone. I'm currently taking 400mg Seroquel XR in the morning, sodium valproate 200mg 3times a day, 300mg seroquel nightly (all for bipolar type 1 & 2.5mgs-5mg Neulactil when required for severe paranoia & anxiety. Let me start by saying this combination is working quiet well so far compared to all previous combinations. I've been on seroquel for the longest out of all these medications (1 year 7 months) & I've always had extremely vivid dreams & nightmares from that. i generally take the Neulactil with my nighttime meds & ive noticed that since I've started taking it the dreams are getting a lot scarier and harder to distinguish from reality. If it's a pleasant vivid dream I wake up with a feeling of disappointment because it felt so real & I it's a nightmare I wake up with a feeling of relief because I could of sworn it was real (even though in my sound mind I know they are not) Has anyone else experienced worsening of dreams/nightmares when starting Neulactil ? I haven't been able to find much info about the drug at all, let alone this specific issue. Thanks in advance.

[TW: Brief/abstract mention of abuse/abusers] So, we've been getting a mix of outright-nightmares and intensely-vivid-dreams that are still on the "that was uncomfortable/disconcerting/constant-anxiety" spectrum, to the point of being often afraid to go to bed as a result. Abusers appear commonly, but far from "always", and PTSD nightmares were a thing we used to get that mostly faded.. A lot of these aren't related to them in any way I can see. Usually we get at least 2 'bad dreams' a night, sometimes more, often due to the "wake up a little early/on time, fall back asleep" thing, but often not; More recently dreams have been starting to chain together into ones where you 'wake up', which then go Unpleasantly as well. We have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome III, which I know causes raised adrenaline, night-time adrenal spikes, and thus vivid dreams & poor sleep. But still. This is a whole new level of it. Anyway. This makes us feel never-actually-rested and really dreading sleep every night and.. Yeah. Any tips? We've been in a mental health breakdown for the past few months (due to, but not exclusively, homelessness crisis/new abuse, housed but not out of the woods on practical stressors there by a long way), but since this is actively helping prolong & make the breakdown worse, any advice'd be much appreciated. thanks, Wynn

so I underwent a sleep study a while and was diagnosed with the following: minor sleep apnea, severe restless leg syndrome, and severe hyperactive REM disorder. I believe the third is what's causing my current issue. I get "suck" in dreams. I know I'm sleeping, but I can't get out. I do all the tricks (looking for colour (but I already dream in colour), turning on and off lights, drinking water, etc.), yet I can never get out of the dream. okay, so FINALLY I do. but then I end up in another fucking dream. and this will happen repeatedly until I travel through five to seven dreams. and when I finally wake up for real, I'm covered in sweat, panicking, short of breath, and (my partner says) sometimes even yelling. does anyone else have these "Inception"-like dreams? and if so, how do you manage?

Hi everyone, How mg of Prazosin do you take for your nightmares. I was on 1 mg, but my doctor is upping it to 2 mg as of today.

I'm certainly not asking for dream interpretation or anything, but does anyone else frequently dream about water? I often dream about submerged cities and roads that disappear underwater. Or bridges that go over water. The other night I had a nightmare about being caught in a hurricane that covered an entire hemisphere. It flung me around and around the eye across entire oceans. My husband had to wake me up because I was making upset noises. Friends suggest this is my unconscious processing emotions. I'll spare you my most disturbing water dream, as it's probably triggery regarding suicide (note: I am not suicidal, I just had a weird dream in which that was a theme).

Hey Everyone, I am new here. I recently had a particularly frightening nightmare and started searching all over about the subject. I stumbled upon this forum and have to say I like it a lot. I have done some research (not exhaustively, too many pages to read) and have not found this issue addressed before so I am starting this new topic. Before telling you about the nightmare let me tell you a bit about myself. Feel free to skip this paragraph. I had a psychotic episode 10 months ago. It was the first time I have ever had mental illness issues. My psychotic episode lasted several days and I ended up in a psychiatric ward in a hospital for 2 weeks. I have no true way of comparing, but from reading other experiences I think mine was at the top (meaning among the worse): I had major delusions, I heard voices and had other hallucinations, etc. While on the hospital I took up to 12 mg of Risperidone (hate that thing btw) and 6 mg of Clonazepam (along with other drugs I do not remember the names of right now). Since then I have had some other minor psychotic episodes and am still supposed to take 1 mg Risperidone. The psychiatrists that have treated me are not yet sure of the reasons for my psychotic episode, time will tell I guess. So, a few days ago I had this horrible nightmare where I felt like if I was having a major psychotic episode again. I was out walking on a random street and I would feel exactly like I felt during my psychosis. I would have delusions, especially one where other people were following me (and were able to read my mind) and that even close friends were lying to me (the delusions are hard to explain), hear voices and all that cr*p. I did not think to myself "hey, this is like a psychotic episode" while inside my dream, I think that would have probably calmed me down. I only realized it was like a psychotic episode when I woke up, sweating and as scared as I have felt in months; really horrible. Luckily it took me only a few minutes to understand it was a dream and that I was not psychotic again. Has anyone ever had this kind of dream before? A dream (or more accurately nightmare) where you would feel like in a psychotic episode? Or maybe relive your psychotic experience? Any thoughts on whether this means I am definitely schizophrenic and should better take my medication or it was just a bad dream? I am guessing people here will have lived something similar or can relate in any way. I will be happy to read your thoughts, please share them! Thanks and sorry I wrote so much.

I am ready to get off atypicals and Seroquel after more than 15 years on it. The vivid dreams and vivid nightmares have become so much that I am losing my will to live. I need stories and experiences from other people who have successfully gotten off it. I'm only on 100 mg, but when I go down to 50mg, I cannot sleep. If I add risperdal to the 50 mg, I sleep, but the nightmares are back. I can't stand it anymore. Your stories are much appreciated. It takes 3 months to get in to see a pdoc, and even then, I don't think they will help me sleep.

hello everybody , i have nightmare disorder (nightmares literally every night) and was wondering - is anybody else familiar with this disorder ? what are some ways to cope or get better ? i've tried everything in the book from hypnotism to cognitive therapy and i am completely lost - i don't want to deal with nightmares anymore i'm really sick of waking up every night covered in sweat , and talking (sometimes screaming) in my sleep every night as well ... any ideas are appreciated because i am having a lot of trouble right now

my seroquel story: for the better part of 2011/12, seroquel was my main mood stabilizer and AD. i loved it. gained weight of course, but it brought me out of the pit and kept me functioning for quite a while. i was taking something like 300 in the daytime, 50 at night for sleep, and 25 as a PRN if i needed it. i wasn't sedated at all, and actually also took clonazepam three times a day without sleepiness. last spring it quit working as a MS/AD. i became so sedated, suddenly, that when i was admitted IP my pulse had gone down to 50bpm from 80. my blood pressure was so low they measured it five times a day and weren't crazy about letting me go outside to smoke lest i keel over on the way. there was nothing physically wrong with me. so, off the quel and onto lithium and parnate with PRNs seroquel and/or clonazepam, whichever i preferred. i wanted the seroquel just to avoid benzo tolerance. even then, 25 mg made me a space cadet. 12.5, the same. but i needed something for anxiety, so i still alternated the two. by summer i was still majorly sedated, but couldn't recognize it until other people told me i looked high all the time. pdoc said "whoa look at you! no more seroquel, no more benzos" (even though i was on small doses of both). so i've been SOL for anxiety relief and decent sleep since then. it's fucking hell. the benzo withdrawal was the worst i've ever had and lasted a month. if you are reading this, DON'T be like me and insist on getting it over with faster. you won't be physically or mentally functional for a long time. recently i've decided i have had enough of screwed up sleep that i've been trying 12.5 of seroquel again. i've tried it four seperate times over the last month. every time is the same. i fall asleep fine, but the entire night is full of the worst nightmares imaginable, and i scream out loud all fucking night, about every fifteen minutes i'm told (my poor husband cannot sleep through this, i'm really loud and i don't stop until he shakes me several times). the following day i am truly a crazy person. the nightmares are stuck in my head and i'm so depressed i don't want to move. has ANYBODY ever had seroquel turn on them like this? everyone i ask either likes it or hates it, but it's consistent like other meds. i don't know anybody else who gets this sleep reaction, or anybody who suddenly had the drug sedate them into a zombie state AFTER it worked well for so long? sorry again for the length. i always write all the details so if anybody can relate or has suggestions, there's no wondering if i've tried this or that. i just wanna know WHY? pdoc shrugs at this one, she's never had anybody like me in this manner.