@Chippy is it possible to help while still on meds ?

1 minute ago, SpiroC said:

yes it is not nearly intense as it once was (January/February)

This is very good to hear.

You might want to split your Seroquel does into 3 and take it evenly throughout the day, it has a very short half life. So 25mg 25mg 25mg.

If you do this, do it slowly, shiting 50mg back one extra hour a day, then when you get to the middle dose time, leave 25mg in place and continue to shift the final 25mg to make it an am dose. Interdose WD won't help things for you.

1 minute ago, SpiroC said:

@Chippy is it possible to help while still on meds ?

yes things can settle on the drugs. Healing is happening all the time.

4 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Hi @Fullhealing , yes it is not nearly intense as it once was (January/February) , but I’m still so scared of my mind and how a human brain can go there. It’s life altering stuff!

Is recovery from that state possible like will I ever get my mind back to how it was before? Almost feels like all innocence is lost..

You will definitely recover @SpiroC akathisia is truly beyond brutal but temporary and it seems like you bravely got through it!

Continue coping great and things will slowly balance out 🙏

Hi guys , @Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing ,

I’m really worried about being on this clonazepam 0.5mg for to long and to tell you the truth it dosent even help… Do you think I should taper this ?

2 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Hi guys , @Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing ,

I’m really worried about being on this clonazepam 0.5mg for to long and to tell you the truth it dosent even help… Do you think I should taper this ?

Hard to say. You’ve not been on it long so you could try to get off quickly. As you’re not stable you might struggle with this. You could try to reduce 10% and see how you feel. Ideally you should split your dose and not take it once a day as you are, particularly whilst tapering. Do you have scales?

@Chippy , I am in the process of buying a scale … I’ve been on the clonazepam for 2 months now. Initially at 1mg a day for 6 weeks and these last 2 weeks I take 0.5mg in the morning..

Regarding your question around Seroquel : splitting the dose 3 times a day. I do feel it helps me sleep somewhat at night. I’m worried about not sleeping as the last time I dropped the Seroquel fast my sleep completely fell apart.

8 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Hi guys , @Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing ,

I’m really worried about being on this clonazepam 0.5mg for to long and to tell you the truth it dosent even help… Do you think I should taper this ?

14 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Hi guys , @Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing ,

I’m really worried about being on this clonazepam 0.5mg for to long and to tell you the truth it dosent even help… Do you think I should taper this ?

You've been on twice and now once as I read in your signature? If so you're already in active taper there, how long have you been taking Clonazepam? what other drugs are you tapering besides Seroquel?

1 minute ago, SpiroC said:

@ , I am in the process of buying a scale … I’ve been on the clonazepam for 2 months now. Initially at 1mg a day for 6 weeks and these last 2 weeks I take 0.5mg in the morning..

How did that go? Did it make you feel worse?

2 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Regarding your question around Seroquel : splitting the dose 3 times a day. I do feel it helps me sleep somewhat at night. I’m worried about not sleeping as the last time I dropped the Seroquel fast my sleep completely fell apart.

I can understand that. It’s just something to bare in mind that’s all. You can end up with interdose wd especially whilst tapering and so at lower doses.

@Fullhealing Well in the last two months I dropped from

600mg gabapentin to 0.

200mg seroquel to 75mg.

Clonzepam was added 0.5mg twice a day and two weeks ago I dropped it to 0.5mg just in the morning.

The ssri I’m on is Zoloft at 125mg. (This is where my initial injury happened last year October when I came off in 4 weeks after 12 years of use).. reintroduced briefly mid October and then the psychiatrist poly pharmed me with lithium, Seroquel and gabapentin.

8 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Clonzepam was added 0.5mg twice a day and two weeks ago I dropped it to 0.5mg just in the morning.

How did this go? Did you notice the drop?

10 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

@Fullhealing Well in the last two months I dropped from

600mg gabapentin to 0.

200mg seroquel to 75mg.

Clonzepam was added 0.5mg twice a day and two weeks ago I dropped it to 0.5mg just in the morning.

The ssri I’m on is Zoloft at 125mg. (This is where my initial injury happened last year October when I came off in 4 weeks after 12 years of use).. reintroduced briefly mid October and then the psychiatrist poly pharmed me with lithium, Seroquel and gabapentin.

Okay, that's a lot, I understand the concern about being on a benzo for a long time, but continuing to reduce it while doing the rest can also be problematic as well..

@Fullhealing @Chippy Which do you think I should taper first?

@Chippy - I’ve been feeling this level of terrible for months so I can’t really tell..

1 minute ago, SpiroC said:

@Fullhealing @Chippy Which do you think I should taper first?

@Chippy - I’ve been feeling this level of terrible for months so I can’t really tell..

I think that as you have already reduced the benzo by 50%, I would hold here for 2 weeks and see how you are. Then if you wanted to taper your benzo we could talk about that then.

Overall you want to be stable and find your wd normal before tapering anything. Ideally. But I do understand you want to get off the benzo quickly.

@Chippy , when you say you want your withdrawal to be normal .. What does that actually mean ? What is normal withdrawal?

21 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

@Chippy , when you say you want your withdrawal to be normal .. What does that actually mean ? What is normal withdrawal?

Wd normal is a baseline that each individual learns to understand for themselves. It’s generally considered to be symptoms that can be rated 1-3/10 but of course this is all subjective. Often it’s used as a reference point as to when to start and stop a taper.

@Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing

Have you ever known people as Polly drugged as myself to ever come right ?

Of course. It takes time and you need to work at it, but you will heal.

15 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

@Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing

Have you ever known people as Polly drugged as myself to ever come right ?

Of course, there are many success stories on YouTube (I will share some links later), as @mstimc60 said with determination and self work the way out is guaranteed.

21 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

@Chippy @mstimc60 @Fullhealing

Have you ever known people as Polly drugged as myself to ever come right ?

As the others have said. People heal from this. And you will too!

Hi @SpiroC. I think you and I have been through similar experiences over the past year or so, although it sounds like yours has been more intense. I also relatively stable on an antidepressant (cymbalta) for 10+ years. I've also been through a merry-go-round of different drugs that has badly damaged my nervous system, all starting with a rapid cross-taper from cymbalta to zoloft. And I also recently tried to quickly taper off seroquel and stopped sleeping, so reinstated 12.5 mg/day. I was in a really bad place early this year and have been (very slowly) getting stable on my current 90 mg/day of cymbalta and 12.5 mg/day of seroquel. I've had depression, anxiety, brain fog and cognitive difficulties, sleep disruptions, nausea, headaches, etc. I would say all my symptoms are still present to some degree, but are gradually lessening in frequency and severity.

Anyways, feel free to message me or drop a post on my topic anytime -- maybe we can help support each other through this.

Hope you're having an ok day today.

Sarah

Edited April 30Apr 30 by SarahMc

On 4/29/2026 at 9:30 AM, SpiroC said:

@mstimc60 @Fullhealing @Chippy

When I began tapering Seroquel in December, my sleep rapidly deteriorated and I entered a state of extreme mental and physical agitation. I experienced intense inner restlessness, racing/disorganized thoughts, and a sense that my mind was ‘splitting’ or that I was about to lose control. It was accompanied by severe anxiety and dissociation. I also felt like I could not take care of myself , like extreme dysregulation and what I can only understand as a dissolution of self. Literally felt like my mind was splitting and I was going to loose my mind like it was slipping away.

I’ve since spoken to psychiatrists who felt this was not psychosis, but rather a severe withdrawal/destabilization reaction.

I’m trying to understand whether others have experienced a similar state during tapering and how it’s typically understood ?

It was quite literally the scariest thing I’ve ever been through. I never knew a human brain could go to where I went to and that for me has resulted in severe PTSD from the incident.

I wanted to stop by and say I feel the exact same way about the PTSD. My mind went to somewhere I never knew was humanly possible and now it’s terrifying to think it could go back there, someone suggested to me it was psychosis. Maybe, though I’m inclined to think it wasn’t as I was still aware.

Just to let you know you’re not alone. I think about this less now but in waves the thought of where I went still terrifies me. I now have long periods of not thinking about it and not thinking about ever going back there, but when I do that same fear of losing myself entirely creeps back in and it almost feels like I have to fight it and assure myself. I hope it all fades in time. Traumatic!

6 minutes ago, SparklingG said:

I wanted to stop by and say I feel the exact same way about the PTSD. My mind went to somewhere I never knew was humanly possible and now it’s terrifying to think it could go back there, someone suggested to me it was psychosis. Maybe, though I’m inclined to think it wasn’t as I was still aware.

Just to let you know you’re not alone. I think about this less now but in waves the thought of where I went still terrifies me. I now have long periods of not thinking about it and not thinking about ever going back there, but when I do that same fear of losing myself entirely creeps back in and it almost feels like I have to fight it and assure myself. I hope it all fades in time. Traumatic

@SparklingG , yes I never knew a human beings mind could ever do that. It felt unnatural and other worldly in nature. It felt like I was splitting / loosing my mind and it was down right the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.. I’m so scared that I’ll never go back to who I was before. I know I’m only 4 months into this but damn it’s been hands down the worst most traumatic experience of my life.

2 hours ago, SarahMc said:

Hi @SpiroC. I think you and I have been through similar experiences over the past year or so, although it sounds like yours has been more intense. I also relatively stable on an antidepressant (cymbalta) for 10+ years. I've also been through a merry-go-round of different drugs that has badly damaged my nervous system, all starting with a rapid cross-taper from cymbalta to zoloft. And I also recently tried to quickly taper off seroquel and stopped sleeping, so reinstated 12.5 mg/day. I was in a really bad place early this year and have been (very slowly) getting stable on my current 90 mg/day of cymbalta and 12.5 mg/day of seroquel. I've had depression, anxiety, brain fog and cognitive difficulties, sleep disruptions, nausea, headaches, etc. I would say all my symptoms are still present to some degree, but are gradually lessening in frequency and severity.

Anyways, feel free to message me or drop a post on my topic anytime -- maybe we can help support each other through this.

Hope you're having an ok day today

Hi @SarahMc , really appreciate you reaching out and offering support. It’s been an absolute shit show. It like I’ve been hit in the head with a sledge hammer and I’ve always been a person to be able to fight through anything but when one’s own mental faculties have taken a hit and you’re scared of your own mind it becomes increasingly difficult to have any sort of hope for the future. I pray every night that God can get me through this mess. My day was ok , went to work. Came home researched and watched YouTube videos on recovery and now I’m taking my pills and going to bed..

2 hours ago, Chippy said:

As the others have said. People heal from this. And you will too!

Thank @Chippy , read some horror stories on curving antidepressants tonight with people who were on far less than me and it scared the living Sh*t out of me