Posted by ksvt on July 14, 2000, at 21:02:12
In reply to Re: Wellbutrin stories?, posted by MHK on July 14, 2000, at 14:29:59
> I've been on Wellbutrin SR twice: a year and a half ago at 200mg twice a day and again starting about 2 months ago (same final dose -- which is also the maximum recommended.)
>
> Negative side effects for me have been negligible. If I take it too late in the evening, I sometimes have vivid dreams that keep me from sleeping deeply.
>
> The only troublesome side effect was shortness of breath, but ONLY on the 150mg tablets. If I take two of the 100's, no problem. Nobody knows why (maybe some kind of peak release issue or a different binder in the tablet-making process), but it's been confirmed by trial and error that it is definitely the 150's that cause it.
>
> Good effects have been:
>
> -Effortless weight loss (I'm way overweight)
> -Increased sexual response
>
-Easier to wake up in the morningI started Wellbutrin about 3 years ago or so after a frustrating 2 years of trying out Prozac( which I was on for a long time but never really worked), effexor and luvox. I have some history of baling out of drugs and I think I stopped taking Wellbutrin shortly ofter I started because I didn't like the side effects. (mostly some intestinal discomfort) I came back to it because it was unfortunately obvious that i needed to be on something and it seemed a better alternative than some of the others if for no other reason than it didn't cause a decrease in libido. I started out pretty low and raised it gradually in 25mg increments over some time, either at the suggestion of my pdoc or on my own. I noticed with each incremental increase I'd have some side effects, like maybe an upset stomach and occasional lightheadedness. For a long time I took 100mg. 4xday and altho it was not a perfect solution it clearly worked better than anything I ever took before and after a couple of weeks any side effects seemed to go away. I never really noticed the burst of energy or nervousness that some people talk about altho maybe I just got so used to how I felt on it. I take a small amount of Klonopin at night so that pretty much took care of any sleeplessness. Unfortunately, about 6 months ago I felt myself really slipping and about 6 weeks ago or so I started looking at alternatives. I switched to 150 mgs 2xday of the Wellbutrin SR and augmented it with 50 mgs of zoloft. This has not worked well for me. I started having much more trouble sleeping and this made me feel washed out or very wired during the day. I thought it might be a different reaction to the SR variety so I went back to the regular form. My pdoc thinks that may be the zoloft and maybe he's right because I still have trouble getting to sleep. I just quit taking the zoloft on my own a couple of days ago because it has made me anorgasmic and I frankly feel like its leveled me out so much that I feel sort of emotionally numb. Most importantly, after initially making me feel alot better, I started slipping again and I'm not willing to increase the dose if that's what's necessary. I was actually originally drawn to this site in search of something else that I might use to augment WB. I find the whole process of coming up with the right drug or combination of drugs to be unbelievably frustrating and sometimes overwelming. It's so hard to find something good that it's particularly discouraging to see how many people have to start looking for alternatives after a fair period of time. I always feel with each drug failure that my alternatives are shrinking, and that's a pretty scary prospect. Nonetheless, give Wellbutrin a fair try, because I think it's a very good alternative to the SSRIs. It did contribute to weight loss for me too altho only after I was at a fairly high dose. Good Luck
> -More motivation
>
> I went off it last time because I mistakenly thought I could do without it. This time, it seemed to poop out a few weeks ago and now it may be getting better again (too soon to tell.)
>
> Best of luck to you.
>
> Heidi
poster:ksvt
thread:40344
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000708/msgs/40470.html