Gearhead Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 I’ve been taking 300 XL for long enough now that any initial side effects have passed, but something weird is still happening and I’m wondering why. Wellbutrin is in my morning pillbox. I generally take it around 11:00 am. And I’ve been noticing that roughly six hours later, my hands start to shake, I get pretty dizzy, and disoriented to the point where I can’t remember what happened ten minutes ago. I am putting pieces together, I think, and have tentatively linked relief from this feeling with eating dinner. Still, it leaves me feeling wiped out for the rest of the day, and my memory is going to hell. I am very bad about eating breakfast, and/or lunch. It may be my autism, but I am almost never hungry in the sense of my stomach reporting pangs or any kind of discomfort to my brain. And I plain forget to do it. You can chalk that up to dubious executive functioning. I’ve been reading and I gather you’re supposed to take Wellbutrin with food. How much food? What kind? Does volume matter, or substance (protein vs carbs, say) or am I supposed to measure by calories? Can I just drink a glass of milk? Eating when you’re not hungry is disgusting. People always say “Smoothies!” but the texture of such makes my gorge rise. Not an option. I also hate yogurt. I’m confused about whether not eating can really be making a difference so long after I take the med. Is it the food? Should I be looking at something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceberg Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 2 hours ago, Gearhead said: I’ve been taking 300 XL for long enough now that any initial side effects have passed, but something weird is still happening and I’m wondering why. Wellbutrin is in my morning pillbox. I generally take it around 11:00 am. And I’ve been noticing that roughly six hours later, my hands start to shake, I get pretty dizzy, and disoriented to the point where I can’t remember what happened ten minutes ago. I am putting pieces together, I think, and have tentatively linked relief from this feeling with eating dinner. Still, it leaves me feeling wiped out for the rest of the day, and my memory is going to hell. I am very bad about eating breakfast, and/or lunch. It may be my autism, but I am almost never hungry in the sense of my stomach reporting pangs or any kind of discomfort to my brain. And I plain forget to do it. You can chalk that up to dubious executive functioning. I’ve been reading and I gather you’re supposed to take Wellbutrin with food. How much food? What kind? Does volume matter, or substance (protein vs carbs, say) or am I supposed to measure by calories? Can I just drink a glass of milk? Eating when you’re not hungry is disgusting. People always say “Smoothies!” but the texture of such makes my gorge rise. Not an option. I also hate yogurt. I’m confused about whether not eating can really be making a difference so long after I take the med. Is it the food? Should I be looking at something else? It might just be a trial by error type thing where experimentation is necessary to find a solution, cuz I’ve never heard specific food guidlines for Wellbutrin. My doc always says, when having food related med issues, to start small with the amount you feel would be easiest for you (so maybe the glass of milk) and titrate it up like you would do with a med dose, except by caloric amount or portion size Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
looking for answers Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 FWIW i usually dont talk welbutrin with food........and fast for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 i never take it with food either. Only the IR version gives me a crash like that. XL doesn't. My bupropion is made by par pharmaceuticals, if that helps nay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blahblah Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 (edited) Sounds a tad like low blood sugar?? There are no specifications for Wellbutrin (AFAIK) but it can make a huge difference in efficacy (with some meds) whether I take before or with breakfast, what types of food I eat, etc. I get more side effects without food. It can effect the absorption and metabolism of the med. Also taking certain vitamins (or say citrus juice, a no-no) really effects the absorption or excretion rate of the medication. I would highly recommend starting small, once your stomach gets used to eating you'll adjust and begin to get hungry in the morning. I eat something very plain (oatmeal) and a bit of fruit... protein is ideal, but sort of heavy so maybe just toast or something for starters? I recently had to start taking my stimulant 40 mins before breakfast because I think I was excreting it too quickly (I think I'm a fast metabolizer) Edited July 8, 2019 by Blahblah 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRedhead Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 (edited) 14 hours ago, Gearhead said: I’m confused about whether not eating can really be making a difference so long after I take the med. Is it the food? Should I be looking at something else? I take my WB XL (300mg) in the morning, on an empty stomach, and always have (I'm famous for not eating breakfast). FWIW, pdoc who started me on it said that I could take it with or without food....She said it's absorbed equally well either way...Pharmacist said same thing. That's just my experience.......I agree with @Blahblah that it could be low blood sugar.....Maybe you could start trying to eat at least a little something for lunch, and see if things improve? Edited July 8, 2019 by CrazyRedhead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notloki Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 No breakfast and no lunch brings on hypoglycemia (the shakes, dizzy, fainting, others). Wellbutrin has nothing to do with this, it is your eating habits that are the cause of these symptoms. Normalize your eating habits and this will go away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearhead Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 Thanks, everyone. I’m going to have to try to remember to eat and see if it helps. It’s weird, though. I’ve eaten (or not, depending on your pint of view, I suppose) this way my entire life and never had issues before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notloki Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 6 minutes ago, Gearhead said: Thanks, everyone. I’m going to have to try to remember to eat and see if it helps. It’s weird, though. I’ve eaten (or not, depending on your pint of view, I suppose) this way my entire life and never had issues before. You are aging so your responses are changing. I did not get diabetes until my late 30's, prior to that I ate anything and everything without any negative results. Anyway "We always did it that way" is a poor argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikl_pls Posted July 10, 2019 Share Posted July 10, 2019 Wellbutrin made me have tremors and disorientation/memory problems for as long as I took it. It could be because it's an α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, which initially worsens cognition, but is supposed to improve it in the long run. What was strange about Wellbutrin, when I first started it, of course I got the memory problems and cognition issues, but I started remembering things I hadn't thought about in years to decades, and my dreams started getting very vivid. I digress though. I do agree with everyone's saying it could be low blood sugar too. The aforementioned pharmacological effect is just another possibility I thought of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearhead Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 Eating isn’t helping. Any other thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Wellbutrin actually helped memory and cognition at first but beyond that wrecked it and left me sort of disoriented at 300mg. Never went to 450mg Best part of that for me was that i forgot the past too. Was sort of affecting work and non work however. I dont have this issue in 150mg xl. Could you lower your dose and not lose your shit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
browri Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 Sounds to me like a crappy generic that dissolves too rapidly and behaves more like the SR. You could try switching to twice daily dosing with the SR. It's release mechanism over 12 hours is more consistent in my experience than the 24-hour release mechanism of the generic XL tablets. However, I can say that I never had a problem with Aplenzin ER (bupropion hydrobromide) 24-hour tablets at all. Aplenzin made me feel less jittery. It was just "smoother" overall. The conversion from 300mg Wellbutrin XL (bupropion hydrochloride) would be 348mg Aplenzin. Also, for what it's worth, there has to be at least a slight difference between Wellbutrin and Aplenzin from the salt base difference. They did a study and determined that while Aplenzin doesn't have a lower risk/probability of seizures, but when seizures did happen, they were shorter and less severe in nature than the ones caused by Wellbutrin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CookieN Posted September 8, 2019 Share Posted September 8, 2019 On 7/7/2019 at 7:27 PM, Gearhead said: I’ve been taking 300 XL for long enough now that any initial side effects have passed, but something weird is still happening and I’m wondering why. Wellbutrin is in my morning pillbox. I generally take it around 11:00 am. And I’ve been noticing that roughly six hours later, my hands start to shake, I get pretty dizzy, and disoriented to the point where I can’t remember what happened ten minutes ago. I am putting pieces together, I think, and have tentatively linked relief from this feeling with eating dinner. Still, it leaves me feeling wiped out for the rest of the day, and my memory is going to hell. I am very bad about eating breakfast, and/or lunch. It may be my autism, but I am almost never hungry in the sense of my stomach reporting pangs or any kind of discomfort to my brain. And I plain forget to do it. You can chalk that up to dubious executive functioning. I’ve been reading and I gather you’re supposed to take Wellbutrin with food. How much food? What kind? Does volume matter, or substance (protein vs carbs, say) or am I supposed to measure by calories? Can I just drink a glass of milk? Eating when you’re not hungry is disgusting. People always say “Smoothies!” but the texture of such makes my gorge rise. Not an option. I also hate yogurt. I’m confused about whether not eating can really be making a difference so long after I take the med. Is it the food? Should I be looking at something else? Could it be a seizure from low sugar? Make sure you eat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearhead Posted September 8, 2019 Author Share Posted September 8, 2019 Well, I’ve been doing better about eating, mostly, but my best guess is that browri was right and I got a bad batch of a crappy generic. I asked Walgreens to look at my history, and they filled my prescription with a different generic in July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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