If you or someone you know took wellbutrin, I would like to know what impact the drug had on your/their life. know this is a very personal question and many of you will not feel comfortable talking about such things in detail (I know I wouldn’t). You’re welcome to write as vaguely and shortly as you’d like.
I ask because I was prescribed Wellbutrin for depression. I do not know how much of the bad things in my head are part of the depression and which are part of my character. The worst thing of all (and perhaps the progenitor of all my ills) is my longterm destructive, non-sustainable apathy. There are others of course. Guilt, low self-steem and other classics have all joined the party at one point or another.
So, I just want to know what is reasonable to expect. Once again, I turn to you, dopers, for help. Give me the straightdope, don’t sugarcoat it.
I should add that I have sought help and am already seeing a therapist once a week. I’m not actually seeking medical advice or wondering whether to take the drug (I’ve already started taking my pills 5 days ago). I just want to hear your own testimonies.
I took it for a few days a few years ago, and it made me very jittery and gave me bizarre nightmares. On the other hand, a good friend of mine was on it for several years and it helped him a lot. Both of us had been diagnosed with depression and have it nicely under control these days.
Bupropion seems to be highly favored these days as a prescription for depression relief as it doesn’t generally cause the side effects of SSRIs (particularly erectile dysfunction and anorgasmia or equivilent hyposexual effects in females) and it acts much more quickly (3-4 weeks) that SSRIs. The effacy of it and specific side effects, however, vary dramatically from person to person, so the only way to know is start on a minimal dose and increase stepwise until relief is observed or side effects become too dramatic. Side effects typically diminish with acclimation.
Like Siege, when I took it I became jittery and anxious, and didn’t seem to get much relief, so I discontinued use. (I also didn’t have a good relationship with the perscription provider and didn’t get good answers to my questions, so I largely abandoned, for better or worse, the whole process of pharmaceutical treatment.) However, it has been used with wide success in treatment of depression, particularly dysthymia (chronic, low-level depression characterized by pervasive apathy and periodic severe depressive episodes).
You need to discuss the anticipated side effects and correct response (dose reduction, discontinuation, secondary sedatives, et cetera) with your psychiatrist or psychopharmacologist, and continue other therapy.
I was prescribed Wellbutrin for anxiety several years ago. The reason being that it’s much milder and less likely to be abused than Xanax and the like. It did take the edge off, and I didn’t suffer any uncomfortable side effects like nausea and the like. However, I just became . . . neutral? I can’t really describe it. I didn’t get worked up and overly-stressed anymore, but I didn’t get really excited about anything. It was a good short-term respite from all the anxiety attacks and allowed me time to learn other coping mechanisms.
And then it all became moot when I developed an allergy several weeks later and went into anaphylactic shock and had to be rushed to the ER. (Nothing brings back anxiety like your throat slamming shut.) As I understand it, allergic reactions to Wellbutrin are rare, but they run pretty severe. I wish I knew that going in.
I used zyban to quit smoking. I had some of the wildest dreams ever. But it gave me insomnia, and just made me feel wierd. Also, (TMI ahead) I spent a lot of time on the crapper constipated.
I just also wanted to wish you the best of luck, Gozu. The hardest part of my illness (in my case, anxiety) was getting off my rear and seeking treatment. Don’t be discouraged if Wellbutrin doesn’t work out. It sometimes takes time to find the best treatment for you. In the meantime, you have company who supports you and is cheering you on for seeking help.
I took it many years ago. I didn’t find a whole lot of relief from my depression, although it did make me not interested in smoking. (Which I wasn’t looking for but was a nice bonus.)
:eek: I had an allergic reaction to Wellbutrin, too! Not as bad as yours, just hives, but I’ve never seen any medical professional (and I’ve seen tons since then) that believed me!
OTOH, maybe at a higher dose it might have worked, but I was pretty much forced off of it by the hives. I have found Celexa and Lexapro work for me like nothing else (and I’ve done the entire Anti-Depressant Sampler Platter, thankyouverymuch).
I was on it briefly but the side effects were a drag so I went off it. Prozac was less side-effecty for me. As others have said, if it doesn’t work out, there are other options. You need to work with your doctor to find what’s good for you.
I was prescribed Welbutrin to help me quit smoking. It actually did work…until I had the biggest, scariest (while driving) anxiety attack ever. It scared the bejeebus out of me. I mentioned it to my Dr’s office and they were like “yeah if you get anxiety attacks already, Welbutrin might make them worse.” I had had 3 or for anxiety attacks before them.
BUT…I was given the drug by my GP not a psychiatrist. I’ve never had a psych evaluation. I might be depressed, I might not be. I might be anxious, might not. I’ve never taken any other psych meds before or since.
I do not remember any physical/mental problems during my time with Welbutrin other than smoking cesessation and said spazz out.
I agree with Pocito tho - keep going and make sure you find out what works for YOU. Don’t be discouraged if it’s not Welbutrin. As already described in this thread some folks had luck some didn’t. Keep working at it!
Because doctors assured me how safe Wellbutrin was, I was stymied as to the cause of my reaction. It was the ER doc who informed me of the severe side effects possible with any anti-depressant. I wasn’t the first he had seen with that particular reaction. I pay much closer attention to the insert thingies that come with drugs.
I was on Prozac for treatment of bipolar disorder. So after 2 months of “Ahh, nice” followed by 10 months of “waaaaaah! Not nice!” I just quit taking it. Yeah baby, that withdrawal part sucked. New shrink sez, “Prozac for BP? That’s no good. Here, eat these Wellbutrins.”
Been a few weeks now I guess and I’m humming along in “neutral.” I hate this feeling. But at least my boss doesn’t want to fire me anymore and I can bear to be around my kids again. I suppose how I feel could be described as “normal.” But it certainly is dull.
No wacky dreams, no tummy trouble, increased libido (me and the wife still aren’t on good terms though so I don’t count this as a good thing), and in general no other side effects. I have mixed emotions about giving up the disorder, but if putting a stop to profound sadness was the goal, then I’d have to say that it’s working for me.
I’ve been on it (450 mg/day) for a couple of years now. I had the jittery jumpy side effect at first, but it went away. I really haven’t experienced other side effects.
It’s working pretty well for me, although I’m beginning to think I’m experiening the dreaded poop-out. (Either that, or it’s because I have a terrible time being consistent about taking it – and I can tell when I’ve missed a few days.)
Good for you for pursuing therapy. (I probably need to go back.) What I’ve found is that the Wellbutrin makes it easier to accomplish the things I’m working on with the therapist.
You also might want to read this recent thread about depression.
But, as others have said, there are lots and lots of medications, and it may take some trial and error to find one (or a combination) that works for you.
I did’t really address the question of life before and after, so just let me add that, before Wellbutrin, I didn’t realize how much of my “bad” emotions were being fed by anxiety.
I’m surprised people are saying they were prescribed Wellbutrin for anxiety.
I went on Zyban because I wanted to stop smoking and I was also depressed. I also have anxiety. The doctor put me on it for the smoking and didn’t ask me about depression or anxiety and at the time I didn’t differentiate between depression & anxiety anyway.
A month or two after taking it I had a full-blown panic attack after having been drinking the night before. See, they’ll say “consult your doctor before taking this medication if you’ve recently stopped drinking.” I figured “that’s cool. I haven’t recently stopped drinking.” What I didn’t realize is 'recently stopped drinking" can mean "you drank last night and now here it is the next morning so technically you’ve “recently stopped drinking.” Well, I assume that had something to do with it.
I was on the freeway headed to work. The panic attack hit and I could barely control the car, flip the emergency blinkers on and swerve off the road onto the center median. I sat there for who knows how long gasping for breath, clutching my chest and regretting all the things I’ll now never get to experience because I’m dying. Right now.
I went to the nearest clinic I could find and the doctor said “oh, severe depression. And anxiety. Wellbutrin bad!”
The next couple months were kinda nightmare-ish. All day long, everyday, was a mental struggle fighting off a panic attack. A couple more times I had to pull off the road to fight it off. It’s starts as one little wrong thought. A tiny worry about something. Then that little worry-thought quickly begins to cascade, snow-balling towards a panic attack and it’s a constant battle to keep it from happening.
For the next who knows, six months to a year after that things were better. I still had to tread lightly with my thoughts, but it wasn’t all the time.
Now after about six years I rarely get that panic attack coming on feeling and when I do, I can clamp down on it without too much effort.
Has Wellbutrin had an effect on my life? I’d say “hell yes. I’m permanently more susceptible to panic attacks.” I still smoke, too.
I’ve been having Welbutrin for the last three months, it does seem to have a stimulant effect like a few cups of strong coffee to me. It also has none of the sexual disfunction side effects that I had with a few previous medications. From what I’ve heard and read, the sustained release versions of the tablets have far less problems than the older normal disolving tablets. I’m taking them with Lexapro, after coming of Zoloft and Lexapro. It is possible that combining medications also reduces the problems I might have got from Welbutrin on its own, your Doctor would know if that might be a good idea or not.
Funny, I went to the ER after having a severe, wanting to throw my monitor-out-the-window, crash-my-car-into-a-barricade, rip-the-parking-meter-out-of-the-ground anxiety attack only to have the resident voodoopsych come out and poo-poo my concerns that it was the drugs that were doing it. He even showed me the product literature that said it didn’t have these kind of severe side effects. :rolleyes: I went home and crawled out from under the covers three days later back to normal depression.
These drugs play with the receptors in your brain that control, amplify, or inhibit emotional response. You have to be aware that the effects can vary dramatically with different individuals, different emotional states, and different levels of exposure. Anybody who things psychophramacology is more than a crude empirical science is distanced from reality.
I’m on wellbutrin for depression. In my case, it’s being used to up my mood while leaving the effexor I’m on to prevent crashing.
I got real jittery at first but I found that if I spread out my dosage over the day, I didn’t get jittery and my mood was stable. If you do try this, I suggest a watch with multiple alarms because you do not want to start missing your happy pill.
Hold the phone! Sustained release? Do you know if these are available in Canada? I’m off to see my shrink next week and will definately ask about this.