Hello, Pollywog, and welcome to the Bipolar Forum,
Tortoise, our moderator, is ill for a few days. I'll try to assist.
Please read a website called "seroquel withdrawal" and look at the recommendations there. Seroquel should not be stopped all at once. It needs to be reduced in dosage slightly over a period of time with your psychiatrist's approval. You should discuss this with him right away.
If the drug is to be withdrawn, your psychiatrist may start you on another one at the same time which does not have the same withdrawal symptoms as seroquel, and that will enable you to feel fewer and less severe withdrawal symptoms as you remove seroquel from your medication schedule.
The weight loss is of concern, of course. Do you keep a food journal of your daily food intake? I would try one, I think, and watch it work for you as you shift from seroquel to another medication. Be careful about
excessive carbohydrates in your diet. Have a big salad every day, please, and have a snack in the morning between breakfast and lunch (a small apple, for example) and one in the mid-afternoon (again, a small piece of fruit).
A specialist in Williamsburg, Virginia once told me that the stomach doesn't care what you have in it just as long as you have something there. So the snacks are designed to keep just a small level of food in the stomach between the larger meals. Even at that, you will need to cut back on the starches in your diet in order to lose weight. Removal of fatty foods is also extremely important in dieting. Exercise as much as you wish and be sure to keep it going at small intervals rather than getting it all in one or two days in the week.
A journal will be a big help for you to realize how you are managing your foods.
I think I should add that we are not doctors so we can't diagnose or say that is or that is something you must do. All that we can do is to tell you what has worked for us.
Good wishes on your withdrawl from a medication you don't want in your schedule anymore. Keep up the good work.
It's Genetic
Post Edited (It's Genetic) : 2/22/2012 12:18:04 PM (GMT-7)