Sephiroth999 Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 Hello. I asked my pdoc to be put on this med. I figured I would bite the bullet about it "increasing anxiety" and am giving it an honest try. Right now I feel it is doing something very vague. I respond very quickly to antidepressants and am sensitive to low doses. I actually do get a temporary lift from lamotrigine at only 25, but as usual wears off and need to increase to 50...75etc. I am hoping it makes it do I don't need Adderall everyday. My escitalopram and lamotrigine merely prevent the lows but do sort of nothing for the anhedonia. One really effective one was Cymbalta 30mg. After about 10-14 days I became "assertive me" ,stared caring about things again and had no emotional blunting but had to go off it because of side effects. I am hoping the wellbutrin works in a similar way. I would love to hear your experiences with this med whether it be positive or negative, especially if you are/were in a similar situation as me. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearhead Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 I love Wellbutrin. It works better for me than any SSRI ever has. I felt it at the initial loading dose, which I think was 150 mgs, but didn’t get the full effect until I reached 300 mgs, of the XL. It did make my anxiety worse at first, I think, and it took a couple of months to settle down, but for me it’s been worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikl_pls Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 I started at 150 mg SR from my GP. I loved it, felt the stimulation right away. But then after a few weeks I felt I needed more, so I went back, and they told me they wouldn't increase it in case I needed more down the road. (Um, you're supposed to increase it to 300 mg SR after a week... They just didn't know how to prescribe it.) So I struggled with it until that summer when he increased it to 200 mg SR once a day. It still wasn't enough. They had added phentermine also to the mix to help both meds work better and because I had gained a significant amount of weight while depressed (and from constant Benadryl overdosing). I attempted suicide late that summer right after school started back. They took me off phentermine and put me on Klonopin (first benzo I ever took, besides an occasional Xanax my mom would give me in a panic). Tried Prozac and Lamictal together but that wasn't a good match for me as I was started on 40 mg Prozac and 100 mg Lamictal (not titrated up correctly). That lasted a week... It wasn't until late fall (November) that year that I saw a different doctor at my clinic and he was like, "if it's working, why change it?" So he put me on Wellbutrin XL 300 mg, and it was a miracle. That was when the magic hit me. My anxiety went away mostly, my depression subsided, etc. A few weeks later I was put on Adderall 20 mg/day, and it synergized with the Wellbutrin in the most beautiful and harmonious way. My anxiety was completely gone, I could concentrate for the first time in my life, and I thought "where has Adderall been my whole life?" (Turns out I was put on it back when it first came out when I was in elementary school and I couldn't tolerate it, so my mom took me off it and didn't bother to pursue other avenues of ADHD treatment...) Then my boyfriend at the time broke up with me and I was like "okay, I'm gonna need something extra," so I started the Lamictal again, again at 100 mg not knowing any better about titration, and got through the initial side effects fine, and that was my miracle combo for the longest time. I eventually was increased to Adderall 40 mg/day. But that was my cocktail for years, eventually adding Latuda and Viibryd after I started seeing my pdoc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintalto Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Wellbutrin has been the magic cure for my depression for 17 years. I tend to do best on 300mg. When they took me off it briefly for a year or so, my depression came back, but now it's gone again. It takes awhile to feel the effects of it, but you start thinking and acting less like a depressed person and that's how you know. I felt like getting up and doing things, I wasn't so blank, I was creative again etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 (edited) ....... Edited September 16, 2020 by argh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sephiroth999 Posted February 10, 2020 Author Share Posted February 10, 2020 (edited) On 2/8/2020 at 2:44 PM, argh said: Takes a bit but then again I started with the 150mg XL version. Generic of course. Took about a month on 300mg xl to kick in. Pretty wonderful. Wrecked my cognition and memory. Sort of made me a bit hypomanic. Dropped the 300mg xl. 300mg ir, did the same thing to me to a lesser extent. Doc has been adjusting it for a while. Settled on 200mg of the instant release. Despite also being bupropion, the instant release feels different..but is hard to quantify how. I'd like 300 again but cognitive issues are intolerable and it wouldn't make sense to add more shit to stabilize from the top to nix the hypomania. I'd rather take this than an SSRI..well maybe sertraline is ok. Rule of thumb is if antidepressants work quickly or you failed a few, there's some bipolarity going on and you need to watch yourself. No anxiety here. If anything it lessens it If I am indeed a bipolar (not saying it's impossible, just IDK right now) my lows would have to be somewhere between "stay in bed and watch Star Trek for two weeks" and "feeling normal~mildly ecstatic". Edited February 10, 2020 by Sephiroth999 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sephiroth999 Posted February 10, 2020 Author Share Posted February 10, 2020 (edited) My "lows". (usually in bed) My "normal~mildly ecstatic" (Usually practicing Kenpo during listening to this kind of music) Edited February 10, 2020 by Sephiroth999 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blahblah Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Question for all of you: did you ever take Wellbutrin alone, or always with other meds? Which other meds? Are there different formulations? How long until it worked? Did it "brighten" both mood/energy? i've trialed Wellbutrin twice, heard so many great things, no blunting, doesn't obliterate sex life. But I don't remember really noticing much antidepressant effect. I had tinnitus, sweating, rapid heartbeat, mild restless legs...I think I took it for 2 months at 300 or 350mg. It was either by itself or with Lamictal only... Maybe it's redundant, but I'm still tempted to try it instead of Effexor...I'm really over the apathy/blunting from SSRIs/SNRIs... maybe Ritalin would work synergistically with it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) ....... Edited September 16, 2020 by argh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HydroCat Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 First time Wellbutrin alone. 150mg gave a mild energy boost that worn off quickly. 300mg was better, until it was too energizing (increased anxiety). Second time around, Wellbutrin 300mg+Prozac 20mg. Really good so far (6 months give or take). For the record, this combination worked better than 80mg Prozac I used to take some time ago. Side note: I am the depressed/no energy/no motivation type, so an energizing NDRI is really what I needed. Only side effect: I feel hot most of the time, even when the environment is not so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarn Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 On 2/8/2020 at 5:44 PM, argh said: Rule of thumb is if antidepressants work quickly or you failed a few, there's some bipolarity going on and you need to watch yourself. Where does the rule of thumb come from that is accepted in the wider psychiatric community? Surely not every treatment-resistant depressed person is bipolar or has bipolarity, whatever that is supposed to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 (edited) ...... Edited September 16, 2020 by argh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarn Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 That sounds to me like it is ONE facet of potentially bipolarity (I dislike the term; mood disorder to describe MI without hypo/mania would be more accurate IMO) and that the lack of response to a few ADs does not a rule of thumb create. I'm not saying they're wrong; I just don't like you suggesting to people diagnoses based on how many antidepressants they've been on. That's for their pdoc to do. I get that it's been difficult for you to accept your BP dx and maybe that's what's at the root of this but not everyone on here has 'bipolarity' assuming such a thing exists, and it does not have consensus scientific agreement based upon the link you gave. There are plenty of foremost experiments in mood disorders/depression/bipolar who would disagree....but then, perhaps, they're all part of 'Big DSM'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) ...... Edited September 16, 2020 by argh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintalto Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 @jarn @argh I agree with Jarn that we should not be handing out diagnoses to people based on anything. That is not our place here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) ......... Edited September 16, 2020 by argh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sephiroth999 Posted February 14, 2020 Author Share Posted February 14, 2020 Every time I bring up bipolar to my doctors they usually avoid the subject indicating no to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarn Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 23 hours ago, argh said: K. Agree to disagree. Sorry if I was overly bitchy yesterday - I've been all over the place and yeah. I do apologize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notloki Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 You need at least 300 mg to see anything most report. It also takes more time as 1) generally you titrate to 300 mg, that takes time 2) it is generally a slow to act AD. With its weak effect on dopamine and noradrenaline so it takes a good dose to see effects. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather M Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 I tried 6 or so medications that did nothing except make me feel more unwell. Remeron, was renamed redrum after I had an impulse to drive into a tree. I was also pissed off all the time. Then we tried a Wellbutrin & Celexa combination. I remember telling my PA at the time, that either my husband got funnier or it was working. It worked pretty quickly-I'd say within 2 weeks! Looking back, staying on a new medication for more than a couple weeks was a total waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notloki Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 It varies from person to person and the drugs involved so the number of weeks until it starts working is not fixed. At least give it time to get to a stable level and percolate for a few weeks at a stable level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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