I'm driving myself crazy with this sleep issue!

[GrayEyes777]

I did tons of reading on the internet today about Seroquel (I tried my first one last night), and of course now I'm scared sh$tless to keep taking it.

I've been on the Trazodone for quite awhile now, and even at 200 mg barely get 4 hours of sleep on it.

I'm not "comfortable" with either of the pdocs I'm working with right now (one who refuses to take me off Trazodone but just keeps raising the dosage) and the other who prescribes Seroquel using her Blackberry without even talking to me about it.

The seroquel scared me honestly- almost felt like I was going under anesthesia or something. The sleep was nice, don't get me wrong. Just after reading everything today scared the cr$p out of me.

What about switching things up? Like doing Trazodone for a few nights in a row and then the Seroquel on the weekends? Or maybe adding like .25 mg of Xanax to the Trazodone which always seems to help me sleep longer than 4 hours?

I really hate this - I almost feel like I'm trying to self-medicate, but then again, I'm not trusting my docs. So where do I go for help?

And where can you find recommendations of pdocs? At this point, I'm willing to go out-of-network if necessary - just want someone I can really talk to.

Sorry for the babbling....

Terri

[netsavy006]

Well when I was inpatient I was up as high as 300mg of Trazadone before I had to switch to Remeron for sleep. I gather if you communicated to the pdoc that you wanted to use Trazoadone on the weekdays and Seroquel on the weekends as long as there are no drug-drug interactions between them I don't think a psychiatrist would have a problem with that (at least I don't think they would).

The only thing is if you want to take .25mg of Xanax every night on top of the Trazadone, that makes me a little nervous only because over time, with regular use, even though .25mg is a low dose, you could become use to that dose over time and eventually need higher and higher doses to get the same effect you wanted to maintain the original .25mg dosage if that makes since.

Not trying to scare you but letting you know that sometimes that's what happens when you take medications like Xanax long term, so taking breaks if you can and using it less frequently if you can are 2 good ways of helping to prevent this if your planning on only using the lowest dosage if you can't get to sleep if the other options fail.

I wish you luck and I hope this helps.

Andy.

[GrayEyes777]

If Seroquel works, take it.

Most of what you read on the internet is slanted toward "OMG THIS STUFF IS AWFUL."

What, exactly, are you worried about with Seroquel? The dosages used for sleep don't have as many side effects as the ones used for mood stabilization and managing psychosis.

I think I get the feeling that Seroquel is the last-ditch stuff you turn to for insomnia. So when THAT stops working, what then? And from stories I read on the internet, people are saying that once they had to go off it, that NOTHING helps them sleep afterwards. Now THAT scares me! All I could think of was Michael Jackson and the depths he was willing to go to for some sleep! I totally get it.....

Andy: I get what you said about the .25 mg of Xanax. Again, from what I've read on the internet (and yes, I've spent WAYYYY too much time doing that today!), it seems that people will do that for years and years and rarely need to updose. ???

Terri