I took prescription sleeping pills that were not prescribed to me and learned that there is a VERY good reason you talk to your Physician.

TW: substance abuse First and foremost I would like to make it clear this post will go heavily into substances and my personal experience w substance abuse. I (27F) have a friend (M) in my life that takes Seroquel (quetiapine) to help him sleep at night. Last night I went over to my friends place and had casually mentioned that I haven’t been sleeping well and said friend asked if I wanted to try a pill to help me go to go to sleep when I got home again. I’d like to make it clear: said friend is not someone i distrust. Looking back, hindsight is 20/20 but I truly believe he was not giving this to me for reasons other than I wanted to try them for sleep. He gave me 2 25mg pills and told me he typically takes two to help him sleep - being someone who has had prescribed medication before I truly did not think this would be something that would affect me very much. From here on out I’m going to lay it all on the line: so please if you struggle w substance abuse either comeback to this later or really try and hear me out. I took both of the 25MG pills. At the time of taking them I thought “hey, I’m tired, I’m having a nice chill night. I’m going to watch a movie with my son, make some dinner & go to bed. I took both pills at around 7:00 pm and by 7:30 I was having trouble staying awake and feeling pretty relaxed. Around 8:00pm I’m starting to eat the dinner I was cooking. I was still feeling pretty relaxed and was really enjoying how I felt on 50mg of seroquel, I felt calm, I felt relaxed, I felt good. Nothing was really going on around me other than watching a show on tv and I remember thinking I was content and that possibly chatting w my doc about these meds could help. When I had finished making my dinner I took a bowl into my bedroom and sat in one of those IKEA chairs that kinda bounce (awful explanation but I am hoping someone will get what I mean at least🤣) and ate some food but stared to get super groggy and out of it. TW once again - if you have struggled w an ED, substance abuse or have been in close proximity to a loved one who experienced this I highly HIGHLY recommend reading on at your own risk. ————- As I continued to eat I noticed that my body was not functioning as it normally does. The first thing I noticed was when I was chewing and went to swallow my throat muscles didn’t seem like they were wanting to help me digest my food. The second thing that I noticed was all of a sudden my entire body went numb and I genuinely felt like I was having a dissociative experience. Somehow I kept telling myself that this was not good but panicking would make it worse. Around 4 am I woke up (assuming from passing out; I have zero recollection of falling asleep) to my dog barking at something outside and could barely bring myself to wake up. I knew I had to / wanted to but I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed. This morning I woke up around 10:30 and felt slightly out of it still but was pretty much “back to normal” I can NOT stress this enough. Do. Not. Take. Prescription. Pills. That. Are. Not. Prescribed. By. YOUR OWN. Physician. I learned my lesson in a very weird way and I am truly thanking something greater than me that I woke up this morning. Thank you for reading, if you got this far - just know your body is truly a temple. Do not take your health or well being for granted EVER. I truly believe I had an experience last night that showed me a very very very hard but good lesson. note to add : first comment on this post made me realize this was an extremely scary situation and I will be seeking physician assistance going forward.