Welbutrin

Probably spelled it wrong. This may be the first step in helping with my depression. I want to hear about the positive or negative experiences people have experienced taking welbutrin.

Thanks!

wellbutrin is good at giving a pattern of dopamine to your daily cycle of living. it is the only antidepressant that takes on depression from this angle (other than amphetamine off label as PRN for depression). dopamine is really important for mood and wellbutrin is just as good as SSRI medication on average. you don't get the same side effects on wellbutrin as you do with SSRIs. a lot of people say SSRIs dull their emotions and wellbutrin doesn't do that. in fact wellbutrin made me happy enough and motivated enough to create a decent youtube playlist of my favorite songs once. I remember staying a little more organized on my calendar also.

the reason i stopped taking wellbutrin. partly, because stimulant medication works better for me. but also because wellbutrin has the potential some days to trigger just a little too much energy for comfort. it's like one too many cups of coffee. at least that's it felt like to me. it was calming as if it was replenishing something in my brain. it's a decent drug and one of the easier ones to get off.

Wellbutrin has been a great drug for me. It is one of the only anti depressants that I can tolerate. It made me a little jittery and anxious in the beginning but that went away after about two weeks. I am generally happier with more energy on wellbutrin. As a side note it also made me quit smoking cigarettes.

You didnt say what your diagnosis is. Anti depressives can be problematic for bipolars because it can push you up too high, and bp2 can be harder to identify than bp1 because you dont have major manic episodes.
I nonetheless take a low dose of Wellbutrin because I would rather be a littl too far up than depressed. Welllbutrin is very energizing.

I'm 14 days into taking Wellbutrin and don't feel much of a difference except that my body pains from the depression have reduced a little.

I'm in the midst of an 18 month long depressive episode and my pdoc added Wellbutrin to try to get me out of it after trying other things like lithium and Modafinil. She might increase the Wellbutrin in another week or so if I don't feel any different.

i found it helpful. towards the tail end of treatment, i felt jittery and ditched it. looking back...maybe I could have just done w/ a dosage reduction? dosage seems to vary wildly, up to 450mgs/day. above, there's a -very- real risk of seizures, compared to other available treatments. now and then its too much for some people to contend with...that's true of all the antidepressants. some are too stimulating, some too sedating, some too numbing...

i will say that Prozac at a low dose has been better for ruminations and obsessive stuff, for -me- . wellbutrin might not be ideal if your depression involves loads of agitation, anxiety, etc. a former psychiatrist told me its 2nd or 3rd line for some forms of ADD/ADHD, which kind of makes sense. i lost a couple pounds, no big thing...if eating disorders have been an issue in your life, I think its officially not recommended, but its up to the prescribing doctor, obviously. less apathy and numbing than zoloft for me, but...when i dropped it, i did notice that there had been -some- apathy, just nothing as extreme as high dose zoloft, that's all.

ok. i do hope it helps. it was (is?) once fairly common to see an ssri and wellbutrin prescribed together. i dont know if that's still a common strategy or not.

Hi, hvictin61, and welcome to Psych Central! Wellbutrin is my favorite antidepressant. For one thing, it is weight neutral.

I was on it in high school for a year and then have been on it for most of my 20s til now (31). It made me go from super depressed to hyperactive cheerleader attitude and the shift scared me in high school. Withdrawal caused some brain zapping but overall not bad. Now it's been a life saver for me. It helps with my hallucinations (schizoaffective) and depression and gives me a slight boost in energy.

modafinil as an adjunct to wellbutrin sounds like pressing the gas twice on dopamine receptors. lithium is reasonable for management of mania and subsequent low. interested to know if you do wind up taking modafanil, how is it while one wellbutrin

I was on Wellbutrin for about 2 weeks. It caused a seizure, which landed me in the hospital. I'm now having to take anticonvulsants or they'll take my driver's license away. Suffice it to say, I stopped taking it. The psychiatrist saw fit to warn me about the increased risk of seizures only after I'd had one. Gee, thanks.

If you have a history of seizures, or have a family history of seizures, avoid avoid avoid. It 'lowers your seizure threshold significantly,' as the neurologist said to me.

One advantage to Wellbutrin is that it is not supposed to induce mania in people with Bipolar (not sure if you are on the BP spectrum or not?)
For me, it did induce mania and made my anxiety a lot worse, which is not what typically is supposed to happen. I remember it being stimulating compared to other AD's I've been on, but sometimes that's needed for certain people when it comes to depression. Good luck!