#bupropion

[glittergroovy]

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[meckelart]

Quick update on March 4th I started taking Wellbutrin/Bupropion for my Anhedonia. It takes up to several weeks to kick in, I’m on week 3. So I’m on a journey to get better, for those of you who take Wellbutrin leave a comment I would like to hear your experience.

[hersjourney]

Starting new medication is so weird. Is what I'm feeling really happening or is it just because I'm expecting these changes? So far today around lunch I've had less cravings. No particular "oh I need this kind of food" when I noticed I was kind of hungry. But I'm not sure if I'm giving myself a placebo effect or not because it seems fast for there to be that effect

[wearingmysweater]

i ❤️ wellbutrin

[idontgotopartiesanymore]

i lowered my wellbutrin dose after my psych appointment last friday (i take waaay too many meds and concerta has worked so well that i can lower the rest)

which great, less meds! i’m particularly looking forward to lowering my paroxetine bc it’s a lot and i’m pretty sure the last added 25mg are doing absolutely nothing for me

anyways my point: since halving my wellbutrin dose i had headaches every day, and very strong ones too. i hate it. i’m so used to my meds that i completely forget that they actually do something, have effects on my body and it always sucks to be reminded like this

but in the end i really want to rely on less meds so i’ll have to endure it i guess

[formergothkid]

Bupropion my beloved

[hersjourney]

So normally, after a suuuuuper early morning, hot yoga that kicked my butt, being on my period, not sleeping well the night before...I know I would have been craving bread and sweets and gone to town on them ASAP after getting home. But when I got home I was kind of aware that I needed to eat, yeah I was hungry, but that super specific craving that I need to stuff my face RIGHT NOW? It just wasn't there. I made some food, put a normal amount on a plate and ate it. Normally, I would have gone right back and eaten the rest of what I made. But I just felt full and done. I made sure I had enough protein in my meal and some veg and was satisfied.

Absolutely wild. Is this what a normal relationship with food feels like?

[ehlers-danloscircus]

Ok, since I started on a new medication and I'm feeling a little bit better…I thought I should finally update on what happened with the Wellbutrin.

Let me start off by again mentioning that I have recently had pharmacogenetic testing done which shows I have multiple issues metabolizing medications. I don't yet have the full official doctor explanation but it would seem that my body may have been metabolizing the Wellbutrin slow than intended so, it may have been kind of storing up in my body.

So as you can see from my original post about my initial dosage of Wellbutrin things were going pretty well (I will add a link to this post to that entry though) and I was seeing some good changes to my life after a month on that lower dose. At my next appointment my doctor and I decided to up the dosage.

So at this time in my life I was basically living in a long term stay hotel because of my health and a paint can that had been left open for almost a month in my home back in December. I had been at this hotel for at least a month, month & a half so, I was pretty familiar with all the sounds and comings and goings etc. About three to four days after upping the dosage I became sort of hyperaware of some noises in my room from a neighboring room. At some point that night it briefly occurred to me I might be hallucinating these sounds because as I said, I was very familiar with how sounds in the hotel typically carried and this suddenly didn't make sense to me. I ended up not sleeping that well.

The next day I realized that I may also be experiencing some sort of physical hallucination which basically felt like an on going small earthquake or like everywhere I went there were large engines/motor causing the building to shake. I was leaving the hotel that day to move into a rental place near by my home as things at home were slowly improving and seemed like I would be able to return soon. This seemed like a good opportunity to see if I was really experiencing these things or if I was hallucinating. Initially at the rental things seemed better and I was relieved!

Later that evening, however, it all came back and worse than ever. I became really paranoid that I had been followed. So I again didn't really sleep. I left early in the morning to go home to my mom. The sounds followed me home to varying degrees so it was even more confusing. I did call my doctor who set up some calls to varying departments to try and figure out next steps besides me going cold turkey off the Wellbutrin. At one point I for some reason was convinced again that I wasn't hallucinating and so some of those calls got cancelled. This was really bad because that night things got way worse.

I started to have visual hallucinations as soon as it got dark out and my paranoia skyrocketed. That continued into the next day and night even though I had been off the Wellbutrin since the morning I came home. It was a very strange and obviously terrifying and traumatic experience. It reminded me of when I was younger and had a really bad night terror, you at some points know your dreaming but then your brain falls partially back asleep. With this there would be moments where I knew I was hallucinating and none of this was really but then all of a sudden there'd be something that seemed so real my brain fell back into the hallucination and no one could convince me otherwise.

On the second night of the visual hallucinations I ended up voluntarily going to the psychiatric ER since I was too afraid to sleep at all. From there I had to do a one week stay at an inpatient hospital and was placed on some heavy duty anti-psychotic medication. On the third or so day of anti-psychotic meds the auditory and physical hallucinations stopped (I did not have the visual hallucinations anywhere except in my home.) This medication was no joke and I experienced a lot of extremely unpleasant side effects from it but I was willing to go through it rather than risk what everyone was warning me about which was that if we did nothing there was a chance that the hallucinations could become "permanent." Basically, it was suggested by the doctors that (kind of like trauma I suppose) your brain can sometimes hard wire those paths that it's making.

After the week there I came home, began recovery and started to slowly wean off the anti-psychotic (which was a whole other terrifying journey mostly just not being sure if everything would come back or not) which took about a month. The anti-psychotic it turned out was really ramping up my anxiety so once I was about to get down to a safe dose to go completely off it, that went away instantly!

So here I am about 6 months from the start of that increased dosage and about 4 months from weaning off the anti-psychotic. I've started a new medication at the lowest dosage, given guidance by the genetic testing, and that has definitely stirred up a of PTSD from the whole experience with the Wellbutrin but I'm working through it and trying to remain positive now that we know more about what might have happened. My psychiatrists feel very confident that there is no lasting/lingering issues to worry about and that it's very unlikely I have any underlying mental health issue (I'm a closed adoption adoptee so no family history to go on) that I need to worry about that would have caused this, given things stopped very quickly with the anti-psychotic and there has been no sign of return since stopping.

Apparently this is just an issue that sometimes happens with Wellbutrin and maybe more so as dosage increases. It may have been I would have been fine at that lower dose. This is also often an issue with stimulant adhd meds so for that reason I cannot take those (aside from also having heart issues which initially took those off the table.) I have since heard a lot of stories from other people taking these medications that have had similar experiences.

I'm sharing all this to say…it may not happen to you, it doesn't happen to everyone but it does happen…it's probably not a sign that you have schizophrenia or anything like that but you DO NEED TO TELL YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY! The sooner the better, even if you aren't having scary hallucinations like I did. Let them help you sort it out. Yes, anti-psychotics are scary and not pleasant I get that but it's really not worth risking the hallucinations getting worse or permanent. I know it can be hard to find doctors and psychiatrists to trust, BELIEVE ME I KNOW!! I knew that before but yeah, this was a whole new eye opening experience of how vulnerable one is in mental health settings…it can really be nightmarishly terrifying to feel so vulnerable. There are so many people out here (sadly) though that are willing to share there experiences and how to get through it, how to advocate for yourself, and resources of people and places to get help. It's something to be aware of, it's something to take quick action on before it spirals…

My last take away from this, which is something my therapist brought up and I'm very appreciative of, is when going on medication give a lot of thought to what you are looking for from it and keep in mind that "perfect" doesn't need to exist. Sometimes good enough is good enough. That low dosage for me was good enough after a month and who knows maybe it would have still continued to improve my life after several months on it with no issues. I think going slowly with it would have been fine (adhd wise). I admit I think I was desperately chasing some perfect idea I had in my head about how things were going to be in my life so I agreed to rush ahead. This time I feel like I have a better idea of what I want out of medication and what I'm measuring my experience/improvement/life by. I'm more ok with saying "Ok, this is pretty good or okish…it's not "perfect", it could maybe be a little better but I'm ok with staying here and seeing how it continues at this dose. If things seem worse then maybe talk about what to do from there." I think there's a medical mantra of "slow and low" (start low dose and increase slow), it's a good one.

[feralnightwing]

[deludedcrayon]

just got prescribed wellbutrin, also weaning off my prozac and intuniv and reducing my olanzapine… anyone here have experience wirh wellbutrin? i have bpd but my psych is mainly prescribing to help with my current depression and hopefully my anxiety and adhd. anyone who has experience with it please share it would be greatly appreciated!!

[lt-sarai]

Day 1 of Welbutrin offbrand Bupropion XL 150mg:

Forgot to take with food. Upset stomach. Quickly fixed by chicken nuggets.

No other effects.

Let's see if day 2 is better with cereal for breakfast.

[weirdpersonifiedpills]

Dilf detected

[fugu-in-f]

shit, I get why this stuff is prescribed to help people kick a nicotine addiction; I don't want *anything.* Food, rather not. Booze? Ack. Weed? I'm already disoriented enough, thanks.

Leaving home? That shit's work, man.

Want to focus? Sucks.

I'm just muddling through either until I adjust or can't take it any more, and I'm a hell of a lot closer to the latter.

I feel unwell.

[subtextread]

pharmacy delay on my wellbutrin script but I’m scared to start it anyway so 🤝

[donnieisaprettyboy]

anybody else on wellbutrin/buproprion notice a decrease in appetite?? I used to find myself eating/snacking ALL THE TIME but now I struggle to finish more than 1 meal a day. does anybody else have any experience w this? I know I NEED to eat but I have 0 desire to and I’ve never had this feeling before