DOSE:	200 mg	oral	Pharms - Quetiapine	(pill / tablet)
		oral	Coffee
		smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

150 lb

Well I'm all over the place right now. I'm currently on my daily dose of 200 mg of seroquel for an as of yet undiagnosed psychiatric condition, probably bipolar based on my manic symptoms. I started seroquel treatment 10 days ago. My psychiatric symptoms are somewhat exacerbated by physical disabilities and history of recreational drug use. I've used weed chronically for 3 or 4 years now, I've done psilocybin: 20 to 25 times, LSD: 25 to 30 times, MDMA/E: 4 times, Ketamine: 3 times, mescaline: 1 times, salvia: 10 times.

My drugs of choice have up to recently been psychedelic (LSD & shrooms especially). I have always had a really low tolerance to psychedelics, and will typically feel 5x the effect of the drug compared to other users I associate with taking the same dosage. As a result of early experimenting, I learned how to moderate my usage of psychedelics. 1/3 of a tab of acid got me high for 12 hours in a recent trip, and .5 of a gram of shrooms sparked an anxious state two weeks ago in which I couldn't stop moving, and ended up biking around downtown Toronto for 8 hours in a 42 degree celsius heatwave. In fact, I can NEVER sit still on psychedelics.

So anyway, psychedelics fuck me up. Two days after this mushroom trip of .5 g in the afternoon (followed by another .5 in the evening), I had a complete nervous breakdown in reaction to stress. I flipped out easily, started shouting at people, and became increasingly paranoid of everyone who tried to help me (which was everyone, because my manic state prompted people). I have been ranting and raving since this incident about my 10 year history of untreated depressive and manic and psychotic episodes, at times culminating in delusions of persecution and perception of myself as an evil force ready to attack humanity. At my normal baseline state, I am a highly creative, highly motivated person.

Anyway. I am sitting here on 200 mg of quetiapine fumerate (Seroquel). This it the 10th day in a row and I am noticing 0 effects. Here's how my dosage schedule worked out. The doctor gave me 150 mg samples.

Day 1: inability to sleep due to extreme thoughts of suicide. Manic state increased after first dosage. Increased fatigue and inability to sleep accompanied this manic state. Trying to fall asleep gave me fully immersive visuals, unlike any drug, but reminiscent of synesthesia in some ways. Minute sounds in my environment were amplified and given a scene to accompany. I could see street corners in daylight with vehicles, traffic lights, pedestrians, down to every minute freaking detail. The scenes flickered like the flicker of an old projector. I got out of bed and stumbled to the porch where my friends were all drunk on gin. One of them kept talking about his various epiphanies which made me suspicious and irritable.

Day 2: Sluggish and zombie like, stumbling a lot. Ingesting food brought back the effects of the drug. Drank coffee to counteract effects. Slept a little better.

Day 3: Slept a full night, zombie like and sluggish, but less so than the day before.

Day 4: Slept 14 hours, woke up feeling dazed, then felt relatively 'normal' and functional after drinking coffee.

Day 5: Slept 8 hrs, then had an appointment with the doctor. By this point I was back up to as manic as I had been before. He gave me an increased dosage of 200 mgs and told me to throw out the 150s. The rest of the day I spent smoking weed to curtail the manic feeling, but my weed tolerance seemed to be much lower again on the drug, and as a result smoking weed increased my mania, and added a touch of paranoia. This night I impulsively started cutting my prominent blue veins on my wrist with a razor blade. I find it hard to draw blood, because of the prominent veins, probably a good thing. (damned fucking inbreeding nomads, those ancestors of mine!)

Day 6: Woke up feeling like I had felt on Day 1 of the 150 mgs. Smoked weed a little bit, felt dizzy while standing up whenever standing up.

Day 7: Seemed to mirror Day 2.

Day 8: Back to some level of feeling normal, noticing rapid weight gain (I'm normally at the anorexic level of 140lb/5'10'), gone up to 150 in just 8 days, gaining about 1.5 lb/day, feeling hungry all the time (unusual for me), though noticing pronounced reactions by my body to the drug. Increased urge to urinate all of a sudden (urinating 10-12 times in one day for the next 3 days).

Day 9: Cognitive functioning still slightly impaired by the drug, manic, more confused thoughts than normal.

Day 10: Today. Slept a normal amount, woke up feeling positively manic, more so than on day 5. Intense cravings for weed and cigarettes. I fed my nicotine cravings by chain smoking and blazed with my friend's vaporizer. I stood up right after taking a strong hit of cannabis (smoked from a volcano vaporizer) and all the blood rushed to my head. I started to have LSD effects instantly, and then I realized it was 5 pm and I had not yet eaten (this is kind of the norm for me, but on these drugs its a BAD idea not to eat). I stood up, noticing a sharp pain in my right knee due to over-use in the past month on my bicycle (I had a severe injury to the patellar tendon 2 years ago, followed by surgery, so it was a big deal for my mobility to be limited yet again). So in my panicked state of being really high, tripping out, and ready to pass out from hunger, I stumbled to the closest subway restaurant. I noticed that I was in a hypervigilant state while eating my food, everything was darkened, but I had a hyper awareness, and whatever I was focusing on was brighter. I kept fearing that maybe I was having a stroke, or ready to have a panic attack, or I dunno fully. It wasn't exactly the effects of LSD, but it felt similar to the anxiety I feel on most trips when the 5HT2A agonist effects are hitting me. Today I urinated probably about 12 times, which is way too much.

My HPPD problems seem to be fading with this drug, but at the same time, I am just as manic as ever after 5 days on a new dose. Maybe I need to up the dose even further. Judging by how quickly I am building a tolerance to this drug, my brain must favour 5HT2A receptor agonism and disfavour antagonism to the same receptor site. Seroquel is kind of like the opposite of LSD's effect on my brain, and my manic state feels like the mixed-feelings/euphoria of an acid trip. Actually, ever since trying acid I've had HPPD symptoms and feelings of euphoria, enhanced cognition, and creativity, but also disturbed feelings of anxiety, manic-depressive and mixed states, and a condition called paruresis. LSD amplified everything that was already happening, positive and negative in my life when it did. Though it did amplify things, it also provided me with a means of understanding my symptoms and how they are triggered.

Well now I'm in the process of putting the pieces together. This trip report is long and rambles alot, and for that I apologize, but it is an accurate reflection of the manic state and racing thoughts I am currently experiencing. It may seem to contradict other experience reports for this drug but you know, the recreational reports are biased negatively by the day 1 effects of the drug. Continued use of the drug seems to get rid of the lethargy and zombie-like feelings as one builds the tolerance. I actually feel like this drug may be helpful to me if the side effects don't continue to get worse and I get on a higher dosage.

I must say one thing. As a percussionist, there is a disadvantage to seroquel for percussion. It messes with my muscle coordination and focus to the point of making my musical ability seem to degrade by several months just by taking it. This effect seems to go away as my tolerance builds. It's taken a bit of a toll on my creative drive and cognitive functioning on a temporary basis.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 86661
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 24
Published: Jan 9, 2018	Views: 3,226
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Pharms - Quetiapine (273) : Medical Use (47), Combinations (3), Various (28)