[idontknow13]

Went to my doctor's today and because of my weight gain on Effexor suggested taking Wellbutrin along with Effexor, for now I said no because I really dont want to start taking multiple meds but I am wondering if anyone here takes these two together and how it is going. Thank you!
Also I read that anxiety increases with Wellbutrin and I dont need that right now, having enough anxiety...

[phoenix47baby]

I have taken wellbutrin and Effexor XR together on many occasions. There were no side effects or reactions at all, just a feeling of being happier with the wellbutrin. It was safe for me to combine these two meds. Good Luck.

[sunrise]

I do know two people who found Wellbutrin increased their anxiety. One was on Lexapro and added Wellbutrin. He only took it a week or so before discontinuing.

I take Wellbutrin and have not had an anxiety problem with it or any bad side effects at all. I think if you do have anxiety, Wellbutrin will not help it, but it's not supposed to, as some anti-depressants are (e.g. Paxil, Lexapro). I remember my PNP told me when she prescribed it that if I wanted to deal with anxiety also, we would have to add another med to the Wellbutrin. I chose not to and instead worked on anxiety in other ways.

Good luck.

[idontknow13]

Originally Posted by sunrise

I do know two people who found Wellbutrin increased their anxiety. One was on Lexapro and added Wellbutrin. He only took it a week or so before discontinuing.

I take Wellbutrin and have not had an anxiety problem with it or any bad side effects at all. I think if you do have anxiety, Wellbutrin will not help it, but it's not supposed to, as some anti-depressants are (e.g. Paxil, Lexapro). I remember my PNP told me when she prescribed it that if I wanted to deal with anxiety also, we would have to add another med to the Wellbutrin. I chose not to and instead worked on anxiety in other ways.

Good luck.

Can you tell me the ways you found to fight anxiety??? thank you

[sunrise]

Originally Posted by idontknow13

Can you tell me the ways you found to fight anxiety??? thank you

I had anxiety because of a lot of stress and problems in my life, and also just way too much going on. So I worked on reducing these things. Not trying to do too much. Doing fewer things well instead of taking on too many responsibilities. Working to solve the big problems in my life instead of just trying to get by. Making progress on all this has lessened my anxiety. I have less stress and less to worry about. When I was worrying too much and getting too anxious, I did find some things that lessened the worry in the moment. These things will be different for everyone. For example, when my brain was stuck on worrying about something over and over again, I would allow part of my brain to worry but put that part of my brain in the background, and let another part of my brain be worry free and go about the tasks of the day. Compartmentalization. It's not a long term solution but helped me sometimes in the short term. It just seemed more helpful to let a part of my brain have its way (worry) than to completely try to stop worrying. It's like I let my dog gnaw on a bone, as long as it did it out of my sight. Another trick I used was to work math problems. I find them very relaxing and they occupy my brain and short circuit the worry cycle. I found some websites where you can work multiple choice algegra problems online and this was helpful. If I couldn't do that actively, sometimes I would take more of a longer "story problem" and give it to a part of my brain to work on in the background while I went about my everyday business. This is kind of like letting the dog gnaw on the bone in the other roopm but this time the bone was the story problem. Often times, hours later, this part of my brain would have found the answer to the problem and would tell me. That cracked me up. Kind of like that part was saying, "I'm done with that problem now, give me another."

Anyway, there are a lot of different techniques you can use (some people use meditation), and what works best for you is very individual. Good luck.

[tarabug922]

Originally Posted by idontknow13

Went to my doctor's today and because of my weight gain on Effexor suggested taking Wellbutrin along with Effexor, for now I said no because I really dont want to start taking multiple meds but I am wondering if anyone here takes these two together and how it is going. Thank you!
Also I read that anxiety increases with Wellbutrin and I dont need that right now, having enough anxiety...

Hi there,

I took wellbutrin and effexor together for a while and it worked wonders. You have to bear in mind that wellbutrin is an upper and will cause you to get jittery. I would suggest topamax as it has weight reduction properties. That's what my psych ended up doing with me was taking me off the wellbutrin and putting me on the topamax. Can't say I've had any results yet but the weight gain has stopped.

Love and Hugs,
Tara

[Moreta]

I took Effexor and Welbutrin for one month and had a headache the whole time.

[ngold004]

I don't know about Effexor, but Wellbutrin was a nightmare for me. At first it alleviated my depression but had the nasty side effect of exacerbating my anxiety disorder. Even after I went off Wellbutrin, I still had horrible anxiety. It was mostly panic disorder and social phobia. I would try to go to the store, and had a difficult time staying there because there were so many people. The first day of classes for the new semester was horrible, I cried so much and took meds just to get me out the door because I had really bad social anxiety. They also prescribed me Ativan, which helped so much. Unfortunately, I have a very small window between a therapeutic dose of Ativan and one that makes me lose my memory. Needless to say, memory loss and school don't mix. Oddly enough, I found that the effects of Wellbutrin were completely negated when I switched to Buproprion. I have heard that others experience this as well. Usually, I find the generics just as/if not more effective than the name brand...in this case, it was not. That's how I ended up on Cymbalta. Good luck on finding something that works.

~N