Buproprion SR Numb

[Guest needabrain]

Ok I know there are a lot of Buproprion/Welburtrin threads but I didn't see this covered.

I've been feeling very numb for a little over a month. Actually that feeling landed me in the hospital. Long story short I was kind of cycling, angst (crying fits), numb, suicidal. My mom caught me in one of the suicidal fazes and dragged me to the hospital. Well when they upped my Buproprion SR I totally stopped feeling anything. I'm just wondering if, since it gets worse during increases and lingers for several months afterwards, I should do anything, like ask to be taken off of it, or if anybody has had similar experiences.

[Velvet Elvis]

Have you been diagnosed as bi-polar, because that's sure what it sounds like you're dealing with.

Given the severity of your depression, it would really not be a good idea to discontinue to Wellbutrin unless you are going on another med it to take its place.

[Guest needabrain]

The whole am I bipolar is up in the air at the moment. I haven't been experiencing the cycling for very long, about a year maybe a little less. But so far it only happens in the fall or spring.

I plan to be put on a med after stopping/ while stopping if and when I do stop. I'm just tired of feeling absolutly nothing. The numbness started when I was first put on the med. Now I'm forgeting things left and right. I'm in the Land of Perpetual Wendsday. I'm running into things that were always there, like doors. I'm starting to wonder if this is nomal. I'm tired of feeling nothing. I want to know if the feeling nothing gets worse or goes away.

I don't remember when I started, I guess it was this June, I started out with a dose of 150mg a day. Then by the end of July pdoc upped Buproprion to 300mg. Then while I was in the hospital last week my Buproprion got upped to 400mg. Don't know if this helps but it's here anyway.

[Velvet Elvis]

I've decided that numb is better than the alternatives.  Since it sounds like you're in the fairly early stages of your treatment, I'd stick with whatever your pdoc recommends.  Give him/her a chance to prove that they know what they are doing.  Do be vocal about this numbness your next appointment, particularly if you've been feeling the need to SI.

[zsandoz]

yeah stick with the wellbutrin but see if they are willing to augment it with a different medication to put some more interest into your life.  im all about remeron hehe

[Axiom]

I had this experience with Wellbutrin SR

I took 150 mg for 5 months and it worked very well except I started having trouble with memory and word finding-Very frustrating when you are as talkative as I am.

I discontinued and realized how much it really had been helping me so went back on at 300 mg (which I believe is the standard dose)

300 mg made me feel despondant!  I cried all the time.  I could not see the point in anything at all.    I am ADD and not typically depressed.  I rarely cry.  On the higher dose I felt souless.

One of the strangest med experience I have had and the closest I have come to thinking suicide.

I know that meds that make me calmer and less reactive takes some adjusting to but this was not like that.  I was EMPTY not simply more stable.

If you are feeling bad and higher doses are making you worse this is important.  Your Dr. needs to know if you think this med is not helping.

Maybe just a break from it with supervision to see for sure.

I feel for you.

Peace,

Axiom

[Guest needabrain]

I was vocal to the pdoc at the hospital and he just stared at me with a dumb expression on his face. I haven't been able to see my pdoc for a little over three months, he canceled, then i canceled, then he canceled. Oh well I will tell him to his face on Wendsday that I'm not feeling anything and then I'll get to see if his expression matches that of his collegue.

[Guest needabrain]

Damn it I fogot all about being numb for so long. Stupid anxiety. Well now back to why I wanted to post. I'm starting to become a zombie. I don't want to repeat the Zoloft experience. I suppose I should try to get a hold of pdoc this week.

[Guest needabrain]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

[Stasis]

NO

[Velvet Elvis]

I don't know if it's good or bad, but you're not alone in feeling that way.

[Guest needabrain]

I'm tired of giving this med a try. So far it's only made things worse. When do I start to feel better? How could I be desensitized to something I haven't been exposed to?

[pacanuck]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

NO

[StrungOutOnLife]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

NO

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why "no"?

[StrungOutOnLife]

I don't know if it's good or bad, but you're not alone in feeling that way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If Dr. Antonio Damasio is right, and emotions are the root of rationality, then yeah, I'd say it's bad.

In case your wondering, he's a neurologist at the University of Iowa Department of Neurology. Long story short: he was seeing a lot of people in his office who had little if any emotional response to things that should have provoked that, passed all or most logic tests, and still did lots of irrational shit.

Longer story here

[Velvet Elvis]

While I personally think Damasio ROCKS, it must be pointed out that he primarily works in the field of  philosophy and not the sciences. It's lot harder to answer questions about ethics and morality with a yes or no answer than it is questions about meds.

Ethics and morality are a lot more fun to talk about though.

My memory of Descartes' Error is kinda fuzzy, but I don't think Damasio would hold that one is less rational simply becuae their emotional response to something is different than the majority of people.

[StrungOutOnLife]

My memory of Descartes' Error is kinda fuzzy, but I don't think Damasio would hold that one is less rational simply becuae their emotional response to something is different than the majority of people.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was under the impression that the emotional response was simply "not there, even for animals." I'm glad I was wrong about the animals.

Edited to add: You're right: he most likely would not do that with someone whose emotions were merely absent (as opposed to "I seem to recall that there was a...sensation of some sort along my spine..."). I just did not understand why no one saw anything (physically) wrong with that.

This makes the third time this week I had no idea what was wrong with my post till the next morning, in class, with several hours to go before I have guaranteed computer access (the other two were on a different board). Damn.

[Sulu]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Needabrain, I don't think it is a matter of good or bad.  I often feel that way and sometimes think it is because I get too overwhelmed by all the horrific stuff that is happening all round the world so I become numb.  A defence mechanism?  Much easier to feel for animals, they seem so less complicated.  Just my thoughts.  Sulu

[StrungOutOnLife]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Needabrain, I don't think it is a matter of good or bad.  I often feel that way and sometimes think it is because I get too overwhelmed by all the horrific stuff that is happening all round the world so I become numb.  A defence mechanism?  Much easier to feel for animals, they seem so less complicated.  Just my thoughts.  Sulu

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that, here, "bad" means "am I fucked if I don't get this taken care of?"

StrungOutOnLife

*who got to the point of not giving a flying fuck about animals because it wasn't taken care of when she did*

[ldo]

I don't know how relevant this is, but I have felt numbness when starting to take Prozac. It was mostly a good thing, as it was much better than the way I had been feeling before. As soon as I started taking Adderall for my ADD, my emotional range came back. My quick test for emotional range, as many of you know, is to listen to a good recording of Barber's Adagio for Strings. If you don't come close to a good cry, something's wrong. 

However, in my case I wasn't tempted to do anything self destructive, and that was another drug. Nor have I felt any mental fogginess from my meds. (I've just recently started Welbutrin.) So I don't know if this helps you.

As far as how you feel about the news, if you start feeling something about New Orleans, you may get overwhelmed. There's always gobs of news about terrible things happening to someone, and, if not, that doesn't mean it isn't happening. Just that it's not happening to someone who is considered interesting or important. We have to defend our minds against this some way or other. I don't think anyone can feel the pain of 6 billion people. Would be nice if the joy of 6 billion people was as obviously transmittable. We might be more willing to take on the whole package and do something about the other part. Meanwhile, I don't think your reactions to the news are alarming at all.

[Guest needabrain]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps I should've clarified. I'm actually glad that people died. All the less to deal with. And I naturally care more for animals than people but I have never been glad when it comes to death. I don't think it has anything to do with being "overwhelmed" by the so called "disaster." I also didn't give a fuck when the tsunami hit. It was like "it's just nature doing it's thing" not "OMG all the people."

[Velvet Elvis]

Are you an aspie or HFA by any chance?

I laughed like crazy during the Columbine standoff and my first reaction to 9/11 was a stunned grin.

[Guest needabrain]

I got dxed as an Aspie yesterday.

[StrungOutOnLife]

And those "stories" were Celebrian (1997) and The Interrogation of Leia (date unknown). The links to the relevant Godawful Fan Fiction Forum threads (complete with links to the original stories) are here and here (yes, I know the link in the first doesn't work. If you want it for some odd reason, go to page 3). Celebrian is basically the badly-written porno version of what the Orcs might have done to Celebrian. As for The Interrogation of Leia, let's just say that the fact that Darth Vader is Leia's father doesn't exactly help matters.

I know this because I'm the one who sent her those links (and the link to the God/Lucifer slash art thread, which is perhaps the least disturbing thread I just linked to, as it's positively boring except for the fact it's GOD/LUCIFER), with the idea that maybe her doctor will do more than just stare like an idiot and not do anything the next time she tells him why she wants off Wellbutrin.

I would have mentioned this sooner except that I didn't want to make a private conversation public without the other person's permission.

[StrungOutOnLife]

I got dxed as an Aspie yesterday.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Really? Wow!

[Velvet Elvis]

I got dxed as an Aspie yesterday.

I had my suspicions confirmed that I was about a month ago.

I think the whole preferring animals to humans thing goes with the territory.

[nightowl]

Is it bad when you only feel for animals but don't give a shit about the people from New Orleans and other areas? Or when you read a story/watch a movie that should compleatly horrify/disgust you and you aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I feel the same way, I was watching footage from New Orleans of adults refusing to leave their houses, children making their way in the flooded streets, and cut to a dog on top of a car barking for help, and then cut to two horses drinking the flooded water, and I became teary eyed... but not for the people...

[Guest Llamanator]

And those "stories" were Celebrian (1997) and The Interrogation of Leia (date unknown). The links to the relevant Godawful Fan Fiction Forum threads (complete with links to the original stories) are here and here (yes, I know the link in the first doesn't work. If you want it for some odd reason, go to page 3). Celebrian is basically the badly-written porno version of what the Orcs might have done to Celebrian. As for The Interrogation of Leia, let's just say that the fact that Darth Vader is Leia's father doesn't exactly help matters.

I know this because I'm the one who sent her those links (and the link to the God/Lucifer slash art thread, which is perhaps the least disturbing thread I just linked to, as it's positively boring except for the fact it's GOD/LUCIFER), with the idea that maybe her doctor will do more than just stare like an idiot and not do anything the next time she tells him why she wants off Wellbutrin.

I would have mentioned this sooner except that I didn't want to make a private conversation public without the other person's permission.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Erm, is it bad if I found myself laughing like a jackal at the sheer ridiculousness of that shit? Parsing them and finding the flaws of logic and mocking the sheer stupidity of the author/artist.

Heh.

When I was on Wellbutrin, I wouldn't have cared one way or the other, either. Zombiezombie. Sleeping all the time zombie, though.

Mimi

*edit: might as well note that i'm in the animals > people camp.  Is a Cat Syndrome. mother and self have regular discussions about the animals. never about the people, except about them being stupid. didn't give a flying fuck until i realized that once again stupid people were running things stupidly. got pissed for a while. got over it quickly.*

[StrungOutOnLife]

And those "stories" were Celebrian (1997) and The Interrogation of Leia (date unknown). The links to the relevant Godawful Fan Fiction Forum threads (complete with links to the original stories) are here and here (yes, I know the link in the first doesn't work. If you want it for some odd reason, go to page 3). Celebrian is basically the badly-written porno version of what the Orcs might have done to Celebrian. As for The Interrogation of Leia, let's just say that the fact that Darth Vader is Leia's father doesn't exactly help matters.

I know this because I'm the one who sent her those links (and the link to the God/Lucifer slash art thread, which is perhaps the least disturbing thread I just linked to, as it's positively boring except for the fact it's GOD/LUCIFER), with the idea that maybe her doctor will do more than just stare like an idiot and not do anything the next time she tells him why she wants off Wellbutrin.

I would have mentioned this sooner except that I didn't want to make a private conversation public without the other person's permission.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Erm, is it bad if I found myself laughing like a jackal at the sheer ridiculousness of that shit? Parsing them and finding the flaws of logic and mocking the sheer stupidity of the author/artist.

Of course not! The Leia story is in dire need of snarking, as most people are too squicked out to do it.

*edit: might as well note that i'm in the animals > people camp.  Is a Cat Syndrome. mother and self have regular discussions about the animals. never about the people, except about them being stupid. didn't give a flying fuck until i realized that once again stupid people were running things stupidly. got pissed for a while. got over it quickly.*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I could only get pissed off about FEMA being stupid, too--and I've noticed that animals being hurt stopped being an automatic squick for me for a couple of months. For some reason, I think it is again (maybe it's me reimagining those animal cruelty threads over at the Godawful News board). I hope to hell it has, because the alternative is Just-Not-Human-In-A-Bad-Way.