My girlfriend’s doctor has prescribed a daily dose of 150mg of Wellbutrin for her. We’ve read all of the pharma info/propoganda but would like to hear user experiences as I am considering going to my doc for a script as well. Neither one of us are what you would call clinically depressed, it’s more about situational difficulties (I’m an auto worker for one of the Detroit 3) and we’d both like to hear about other folks experiences with this ssri and if there is any sexual dysfunction side effects.
I’m on it now X.E., and have noticed no sexual inadequacies. It also seems to control my appetite, and as you know, it was at first pescribed to stop smoking.
But… you have to take what I wrote up there with a huge pound of salt, because side effects vary from person to person, i.e. some folks say it makes them gain weight and some experience a decreased libido.
I take it in combination with Cymbalta.
Q
The wife and I had good experience with Wellbutrin. By itself it did not affect my libido. Combined with Cymbalta (which my wife needed) it took her libido, put it in a small box, and locked it far far away.
Which is odd because seperately, they’re marketed as not affecting the libido.
We’ve been on Lexapro and Xanax as well. It took awhile to figure out which medications in which amounts worked for each of us…it additionally took some counseling as well to help us turn the corner (stress from kids, death of parents, work stress, and relationship issues.)
We’re both completely off medication now, but it was a good 4 or 5 year process to get there. We couldn’t have done it without the assistance of the meds. Just remember it may take a little fiddeling to get things straightened out.
Female here - when I was on it, it helped a lot, and my libido went back to what it was in college. (That is, through the freaking roof.) I’m not on meds these days. As you might guess from the other responses, your experiences may vary, and combinations of meds definitely can change things.
I’ve been on it for years, and it’s an Ogsend. Thing is, I was clinically depressed, in that I had a chemical imbalance that Wellbutrin corrects. Not sure if it would do anything for situational depression, which, while it might suck, is a perfectly normal and reasonable response to a depressing situation.
Bear in mind that different antidepressants work for different people. I started out on Prozac, which is of a different class, and it didn’t do diddly-squat for me.
I’ve experienced no side effects whatsoever. I can’t imagine that anything could dampen my libido, and it certainly never made me want to quit smoking.
I used it as a smoking-cessation treatment 2 yrs ago and had some seriously and horribly unpleasant weird side effects. The worst was a complete out-of-body experience that had me nearly call an ambulance because I was just totally INCAPABLE of getting it together. It was frightening and regardless of how unlikely it was to have long-term effects, I discontinued my use of it immediately.
My body and Wellbutrin obviously are not destined to have a long-term relationship it seems. 
BTW, I’m on nicotine lozenges now, and after 6 weeks, going well. 
I took it for a short time, lost my libido, although other situations may have caused that. The reason I stopped though was from a seizure. Never had one before or after. That was weird. One minute I’m standing in my kitchen, the next, I’m on the floor with a paramedic standing over me. If I would have been alone, I would have never figured out what happened.
I also took it to quit smoking a couple of years ago. I lasted about a month and didn’t really cut down on the 'mokes too much. I just felt a bit out of kilter while I was taking it. BTW, I quit smoking at the end of July, cold turkey (well, fear actually was the catalyst–I was developing high blood pressure).
It did well for me for over a year, but then my hair started falling out. :rolleyes:
I had this sort of thing.
I took it to stop smoking. It actually did help with that - the smell of smoke repulsed me when I was on it.
But, I had the absolute worse panic attack I’ve ever had in my life when I was on it. I had it in my car (ugh!) and had to pull of to the side of the road and have my brother come get me. While I waited for him I was howling and crying and beating myself up with my hands. Totally sucked 
I told my doctor I was off the Wellbutrin and he said that if you are prone to panic attacks (I am) that the drug can exacerbate them.
As for libido…I don’t recall. I don’t have much of a libido to begin with and I don’t remember having problems at the time, so I don’t think it made mine go up or down.
I am currently on 300 mg XL and on the depression front I have found it to be the magic bullet (BTW Welbutrin afaik goes after dopamine and norepinephrine, not serotonin). That said, I will say that when I first started on it I was a little “twitchy” (that is a lot better now but not gone) and that I do get dizzy from time to time and am a little bit more aggressive. But, it is way better than suicidal ideation.
Was this the doctor’s diagnosis as well? Or did the doctor believe that there is clinical depression present?
Yay, kam! Go, you!
I took it with no ill effects, but it quit working for me after about a year. I’m on Effextor XR now.
I was on it when I was 14 or so, so take this through the filter of 14 year old male hormones…the main side effect I felt was uncontrollable rage. Doctors called it mood swings, but it never really swung, I was just violently angry pretty much all the time for the 3 weeks I was on it. The seething anger subsided when my meds were switched up. It was not a good experience for me.
That being said, I was young and male and prone to that sort of emotionallity anyway, and the mood swings side effect is supposed to be somewhat rare.
I tried it both for depression and to quit smoking. It gave me a full-blown panic attack on the freeway that almost killed me.
The doctor I went to next told me it’s counter-indicated if you’re prone to anxiety.
Do you ever get little anxiety attacks? Where your heart suddenly starts racing and you feel a little panicky or a sense of dread? If so, be careful.
i was on it and am in the process of going back on it.i am prone to anxiety attacks but never had one while taking it - Lexapro, on the other hand…
Anyways, my sex drive was good. My mood swings were less frequent. I was walking on sunshine… until they came out with a generic form. And then all went to hell a few months later (btw, I came across an old post of someone who reported the same otherwise I never would have connected the two).
first year I took it was one of the best of my like, second year pretty decent, after that, meh. No libido issues, healthy wt loss, yay. have been off for awhile. Tried SSRI’s (cymbalta, prozac) i’m the guy they put mandatory suicide labels on those for. I’ve heard of the generic form concerns but haven’t researched them yet
I’ve been taking Wellbutrin for a few years now, and it does a pretty good job of leveling me out emotionally-- at any rate I haven’t found anything better. I would never have suspected that it was affecting my sex drive in any way, but earlier this year I thought I was doing well enough to quit. Boy was that ever a mistake… Interestingly though, I also suddenly found my libido amped back up to high-school levels of randiness. Ultimately I decided it wasn’t worth it.
Wellbutrin is not a SSRI, and neither is Cymbalta. I don’t believe Wellbutrin even affects it.
I had severe sexual side effects with SSRIs. I experienced none with Wellbutrin from what I can remember, nor any other side effects. It just didn’t help me much.
Cymbalta caused severe nausea and a propensity to vomit.
Thanks for the input. I was under the impression that Wellbutrin was an ssri which is why I was worried about the sexual side effects. Thanks again folks