Comparing Seroquel vs Zyprexa

For Bipolar Disorder Took for bipolar. Good side effects: more or less consistently put me to sleep every night. Bad side effects: gained roughly 20 lbs 6 months in, had a difficult time getting up every day, needed more sleep than usual. It helped for awhile, but it mostly made my episodes less severe, did not effectively stop or prevent them.

For Bipolar Disorder I've been on seroquel 100mg for about a month. My psychiatrist said I had some of bi-polar 2 and signs of depression. I couldn't get out of bed and I had suicidal thoughts. I began on 50mg the first two days then bumped up my dosage to 100mg. The first couple of days were pretty scary.. the side affects kicked in a bit. I had an anxiety attack while driving and had to get off my car (has never happened before.) One night I woke up in the middle of the night..couldn't breath felt like like I was about to vomit and pass out. About a week later, I began to feel better. Normal! Except for struggling to wake up in the morning. I am on my last week of the month and I'm starting to feel depressed again.. I jump in my sleep and get startled quickly. I have vivid dreams and sometimes I don't know if It happened in real life or not. Don't know why.. not sure if I need to change medication or dosage?

For Bipolar Disorder First year on 5mg at night helped my mood, anger outbursts and anxiety a great deal. Did develop high cholesterol and gained 15 pounds, but the trade off was worth it. Also helps wonderfully with insomnia. After the year mark it was no longer handling my anger well. Started having 2-3 inappropriate outbursts a week. Pdoc started me on geodon but couldn't handle the side effects, so back to the zyprexa I went with another 2.5mg added in the morning and gained another 6 pounds. Have tried other AAPs but can't handle the side effects so I'm still on the zyprexa for now until I get brave enough to try something else again. Taking with Pristiq, Trileptal, Vistiril and Xanax.

For Bipolar Disorder This medicine works really well as a mood stabilizer for me. The only MAJOR drawback is weight gain. I just can't control myself when the carb cravings happen. I am usually very much in control of my dietary habits, but on Zyprexa that just isn't possible. I also suffer from schizoaffective disorder and hear voices. Although Zyprexa suppresses them, it does not completely get rid of them in my case; they are quiet enough to tolerate though. I have gained 35 pounds in less than about a month and a half. I am going to wean off of these and ask the psych-doc for something else.