Stop taking Wellbutrin?

Hey everyone!
So my psychiatrist put me on 120 mg cymbalta at the beginning of the year for major depressive disorder and general anxiety. About 2 weeks ago he also prescribed Wellbutrin xl (generic) to help with my energy level and and with my fatigue. I was on 150 mg, but it made no difference at all. So he bumped it up to 300mg and there was a huge difference.... For the first 2 days. It's been downhill from there. It started with me feeling very jittery, mostly just my hands shaking. But I could deal with that because I was focused, alert and awake.. After 2 days it was back to being tired. I still kept taking it though hoping to feel again what I had felt those first 2 days.

Yesterday, after giving my dog bath, I was very tired, but also feeling very weak. I went out walking with my family later that night after sitting for a while and barely made it back to the house. I would get dizzy and sometimes miss a step and I felt like my legs would give out on me at any moment. This feeling continued today so I didn't do much. But now I'm wondering how long I'm going to feel this way. My doc told me after 2 weeks to give him a call if the Wellbutrin didn't work. But I can't keep feeling this way so I was thinking of giving him a call and letting him know about the side effects and see what he wanted to do. The last time we spoke he had said if the Wellbutrin didn't work he wanted to move on to a stimulant, like adderall. My friends freaked when they heard this saying that's only for something like ADHD and I haven't heard of many people taking that for depression.

Should I stop with the Wellbutrin and possibly move on to a stimulant or have I not given it a chance to work yet? Sorry for such a long post, I wanted to get some opinions or if you have a personal experience with any of these medicines I would love to hear it! Thanks!

Wellbutrin is an anti-depressant with stimulant properties

I would call your psychiatrist and tell him/her what is going on. I also wouldn't fear going on a stimulant. My psychiatrist tried me on a couple and it was no big deal. They didn't help but if one of them had, I'd be all over it. The nice thing about stimulants is that you don't really have to wait to see if they work. You should see their effects almost right away. Good luck.

O course you would thats why a billion clubbers take them every weekend, AMFETAMIN all but in name.

How many days have you been taking 300 mg of Wellbutrin? I suggest informing your psychiatrist about the symptoms you are experiencing. It is common to get jittery and anxious the first couple days after a dose increase of Wellbutrin. The fatigue and weakness sound different though, so definitely check in with him. If you've only been on the 300 mg for a few days and it isn't unbearable, perhaps give it a week. Side effects often subside within a week. Also, you are on a very high dose of Cymbalta. Does your psychiatrist intend that you stay on 120 mg Cymbalta and the 300 mg Wellbutrin, or is he thinking to stop the Cymbalta and just stay on Wellbutrin?

Stimulants are sometimes used for treatment resistant depression. I have taken stimulants for ADHD and they definitely lift mood.

Some other ideas for adding to the Cymbalta instead of the Wellbutrin: Mirtazapine or Modafinil.

I would say give the wellbutrin more time. Your body adjusted after the initial side effects and returned back to your original fatigued state. Wellbutrin is a stimulant but it works slowly like an antidepressant. Hopefully the positive effects will develop in awhile, giving you more energy without the jitteryness. It is also used off label for ADHD, but unlike other stimulants also takes a few weeks to begin working. Thus, non of those nasty adderall crashes.

Also, Wellbutrin can dehydrate you big time. Definitely look into drinking at least 8 cups a day. I have had a doctor tell me to drink even more when taking ADs. The dehydration could be causing the weakness and dizziness. At the very least, staying hydrated should help even if it isn't the cause.

Sunrise, I ended up calling my doc on Monday. He told me to step down from the WB and he put me on a stimulant, vyvanse. Even with stepping down on WB I'm still having moments of dizziness but they are def less severe. I guess that I freaked out about those side effects cause a couple years back I actually was on WB for a year with virtually no side effects. But I wasn't taking cymbalta at the time and I'm sure that has an impact. One thing that I forgot to mention in my original post is that I actually did a sleep study even after taking the meds becaise I was not feeling rested. My sleep doc told me that I either have sleep apnea or idiopathic hypersomnia. He put me on a cpap but it hasn't been helping that either. The treatment for hypersomnia is a stimulant which now when I think about it is why my psychatrist jumped so quickly to prescribe me one.

Honestly I have no idea what my doc plans on doing with the cymbalta. He hasn't mentioned taking me off it even with the other meds. I guess it's something that I have to work out between him and my therapist cause I can't take this medicine for the rest of my life. We've been very focused on the present, cause I wasn't thinking much about my future. Guess I know what our next conversation will be about!

Odee-thanks for the info about the water. I actually had no idea that WB made you dehydrated. That actually explains a lot about the way I was feeling. I was drinking water but def not 8 cups a day!

You're welcome! Any stimulating med will dehydrate you. So even if you're not on WB anymore you still need to be chugging water.

I am curious why the sleep study did not distinguish between these two? The sleep study should clearly show the nighttime awakenings diagnostic of sleep apnea or not. They give you a figure that is your average number of awakenings per hour. What was yours? FWIW, I took Wellbutrin and Vyvanse for ADHD, and these worked well for me. Later I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and with appropriate CPAP treatment, I have been able to get off most of my meds and just rely on behavioral techniques to deal with the ADHD. My mood is also better. I now take just 100 mg Wellbutrin and only occasionally an ADHD med, when cognitive load is very high. This is usually less than a couple of times a month. I do find there is quite a bit of stigma against people who fall asleep during the day. This could be due to OSA, the idiopathic hypersomnia you mention, narcolepsy, etc. People just assume that you are bored, went to bed late the night before, etc. Sometimes I just tell people that I sometimes nod off and it doesn't mean I'm bored with you, it's just my sleep problem, and it is just momentary (at least for me). I guess I could take stimulants every day to prevent this, but is it worth the cost to my body? Now that I have CPAP, I am not falling asleep while driving anymore, so I am safe, but getting all the way through the day without nodding off at least a few times is impossible.

Good luck, shamon86. If you aren't sure about your nighttime awakenings from your sleep study, you should be able to get a print out from your sleep doctor that has all of your data.

ETA: if you do have OSA, it can take quite a while to see benefit from the CPAP, so don't give up. I think after 1 year of use, I was just edging into averaging 4 hrs a night of sleep with the CPAP.