Depression and Weight Issues - OT - Wellbutrin

Hi there. This is not a question about depression and weight loss exactly but I was interested to know if anyone takes this med and if you can tell me about the side effects. My husband was taking Paxil for several months and while it did wonders with his mood he was not happy about the sexual side effects. He started Wellbutrin on Sunday and he's been quite dizzy on and off ever since. I was wondering if there is anyone here who has taken this med and had the dizziness and how long did it take to get over it? Also he did not sleep well at all last night and was that a side effect for anyone as well? The dr told him to take this in the morning rather than at night but I wonder if it would be better at night instead. does anyone have any first hand experience with this med?

Be careful! My exprience with this med was thoughts of suicide.

I, too, thought that the sexual side effects of other antidepressants were something I could avoid with Wellbutrin.

So one summer day I was driving along and I suddenly realized that my thoughts were constantly dwelling on how much better off everyone and I would be if I were not around. I stopped the wellbutrin and the thoughts went away.

I am a counselor and recognized the side effect pretty quickly. Tell you husband to be vigilent regarding this med. It works wonders for some people but it's not for everyone.

I think you can say the same for just about any kind of antidepressant but thanks for the warning.

I was not able to tolerate Wellbutrin very well, I think I stuck with it for 2 or 3 months, 2 years prior......it did keep me from falling asleep and staying asleep at night (leading to MORE trips to the fridge)....I was told to take in AM also. I do remember feeling "jumpy".

I also took Wellbutrin for at least a year to "boost" another antidepressant I was taking, and it made me EXTREMELY jumpy and irritable. I remember that I had this weird habit of bouncing my leg up and down when I sat that went away completely when I went off the Wellbutrin.

On the upside, it definitely helped me quit smoking.

Definitely worth monitoring how he responds to it!

Just thought you should hear from someone who has had an excellent response to Wellbutrin. I've been on it for about 4 years now, and about 6 months ago started the XL. I've had no serious side effects. I think the worse thing is dry mouth - I have to make sure I'm drinking extra water, but that's not always a bad thing. ;)

I can't remember how I felt when I first started, but it's fairly normal if I recall to feel "strange" for 4-5 days. Another thing to consider is his dose might be a bit to high for him.

But anyway, I just wanted to say this has worked wonders for me personally.

Good luck!

If you don't mind me asking what dosages were you taking and how did the side effects change with the dose? My husband has just started with one tab and supposed to increase to 2 tabs after a week. So far just the dizziness and difficulty sleeping is all he has experienced.

Marbleflys - did you take anything at night to help you sleep and did it help? I would like to get him something for sleeping, was just going to try something over the counter which is mostly all Benadryl anyways if you read the labels.

Jen, I know you didn't ask me specifically, but I had trouble sleeping, too, and they gave me Trazadone, another antidepressant with a side effect of drowsiness. Sometimes I took just a quarter of a pill, and I could sleep all night!

My husband has taken Trazadone and it didn't seem to work for him so I don't know if something over the counter will work if that doesn't. I've taken it too and half will give me a really good night's sleep.

A whole, on the other hand, and I'm a zombie the next day!!! :lol:

Trazadone doesn't do diddly for me, I've seen every informercial ever made that comes on in the middle of the night! (I especially like the one for "colon-cleansing" where they say that John Wayne had a 40 lb. blockage in his colon when they autopsied him.....talk about scare-tactics and all this time i thought he expired of lung cancer?)

Back to topic after that bit of trivia........I take 1 mg of Ativan (lorazepam) to stop my nighttime anxiety and help me sleep, but I've built up tolerance over the past year so I just stop it for a couple of weeks and tough it out....I also take Ambien 10 mg. but i only get about 5-6 hours out of that too.

2-4 mg. of Valium will really work, but then I am like the walking dead the next day and my thought process is blurred, not good for work.

Benydril sometimes works and Zyrtec acts like valium on me.

sometime what works best is 2-3 shots of Jack Daniels (not with the meds, with diet ginger-ale).

Of course the most sensible thing to do is when I cut out all caffiene after noon, not work myself into a froth at night and practice deep breathing and other relaxation techniques.......

I just got taken off the wellbutrin as I was taking celexa also. They took me off because I have trouble sleeping. I would go 2 or 3 days with just an hour or so. Make sure to check with the doc. However you need to understand that you body is going through a chemical change when you get on this medication. Always keep close eye as I am only speaking from my experience with it.

I love my Wellbutrin. I started on Paxil in 2000 and it made me extremely suicidal (almost to the point of needing to be hospitalized) and left me with a twitch that still comes back when I'm really upset. NIGHTMARE. It turns out that I suffered some of the side effects that they don't tell you about because they only happened to about 1% of patients.

Wellbutrin, on the other hand, has worked really well for me. I started off on 300 mg a day and have cut back to 200 mg which I take at night. I never had problems of any kind with it. I was scared to try it after my Paxil experience. The doctor told me that anti-depressants are trial and error until you find the one that works for you, but I really didn't want to chance another round of the effects I had on Paxil. I knew though that I needed something. Thankfully I found the right one on my second try.

thanks everyone for their replies. Marcia, you are 100% right, what works for someone might not work for someone else particularly when it comes to antidepressants because you never know which of the side effects will hit you and how long it will take for your body to get used to the med. My husband hates going through this stuff and usually wants to quit taking the med. I have been doing my best to keep reassuring him that it might only take a few days before the effects subside. I hope that the antidepressant effects kick in soon as he's been so miserable to live with and his mood is terrible. I need the Valium at this point! Well he's going to try Benadryl tonight for his sleeping and see how that works. If it doesn't work he may have to get a prescription though the Jack Daniel's might be a faster solution!

Just wanted to update this. My husband is still having some dizziness but it doesn't seem too bad, it's not like he is passing out or falling down. The insomnia is still bad. Last night he took Ativan which he says didn't work well but he seemed rather refreshed this morning, better than he's been other mornings. Yesterday though he was quite agitated and angry and upset which kind of freaked me out a bit as I haven't seen this side of him in a really long time. I was reading in a drug book that these are not unusual for the first few days of taking Wellbutrin. So I'm hoping that things will start to smooth out soon. He'll up his dosage on Sunday so I don't know if that is going to make the dizziness better or worse.

when i take ativan, it takes about 2-2.5 hours to get through my system. I don't think it is fast-acting like Ambien....also, it depends on how much you have eaten. (they recommend an empty stomach in my brochure from the pharmacy)

Wellbutrin was okay for me, it was Zoloft that made me have bad thoughts...scary.

I talked to the dr today about my husband's symptoms especially the dizziness and she said as long as it is managable to keep taking the med but she doesn't want him to increase the dosage for another week. I've talked to him on the phone a couple of times today and he sounds better than yesterday, I just hope nothing sets him off on the drive home and maybe he'll have a better night than yesterday.

I took wellbutrin on and off for two years. The first time I took it I had a very bad panic attack, I swallowed it with my morning coffee a big no no. My doctor prescribe xananx till it took effect. For six months I had to take the xananx or I had terrible anxiety. I stopped the wellbutrin and tried other drugs only to go back to the wellbutrin. Wellbutrin gave me the energy I needed as I couldn't get out of bed. But the anxiety was terrible. I suffered also with dizziness, severe at times till it got into my system. This took about six weeks.
I've been off wellbutrin since the summer as I had a very bad anxiety attack at work, I since quit my job. I'm on zoloft now and I'm not much liking this either. My depression is gone and so is my anxiety, but I have gained weight and I feel more lazy, but a happy lazy if that makes sense.
There are no easy answers as these drugs have side effects. Then you take more drugs to counter act those side effects. I would love to be drug free, I'm trying.. maybe one day..

marble~~ I was ambien for a year and half. I became immune to it. I took 10mg and it did nothing. My doctor said it was time to come off. how long have you been on it? Are you finding you are becoming immune to it also?
I also had a headache in the morning when I woke up, but at least I slept!

purplepansy - it sounds like it can take awhile to hit the right antidepressant and I can understand the frustration that goes into taking all kinds of different pills and not knowing if they are going to work.

my husband has been a right @sshole today (pardon my french but there is just no other way to describe it). Well maybe that is too strong but you'd think a 37 year old man could control himself a little better around his 3 1/2 old child. I guess maybe I should consider myself lucky that he hasn't resort to slapping us around and just has bursts of anger and frustration and generally gives us the silent treatment. Speaking as one who has been on both sides of this I think he could be coping better but really I shouldn't judge. All I know is that this whole thing is making me very depressed. I just blew off 2 days of work because I am upset and miserable. I concocted a very good cover story and got a doctor's note to back me up but really physically I was fine, just mentally I am going downhill. It is nerve wracking because I never know what kind of mood he is going to be in or if he is going to get aggressive. Also I've clued into some other behaviours that were going on before. He goes out and spends money and/or I buy him stuff in hopes that this will make him feel better. All this has done is get us into a huge financial black hole. I sort of had an idea about this before but it never really hit home until about this past week when he's been wanting to buy all kind of things where a couple of weeks ago when he still was on the Paxil he had no desire to spend any money if he didn't have to. Well I know I've got to put up with this for awhile yet, I hope the time goes by fast!

pansey:

I've been on Ambien for years since it came out.....but I only take it intermittently (2x a week at most)...it has quite a 1/2 life and like ativan it builds up in your system.....if you come off it for 2-3 weeks it begins to offer you sleep again.

Jen: count to 10 and just let him deal with himself......when he's calm and clear-minded, you can tell him that his behavior is making you feel .......(like slapping him...badly, worried, etc.)... In the interim, concentrate on yourself. good luck!

Jen~ if you husband has aggressive tendencies, wellbutrin is NOT for him!! Wellbutrin can add to it... Hubby got very aggressive, to the point I was afraid of him! He is on pamelor now.. call your hubby's doctor and expess what is going on.

email me anytime
dakotaq@aol.com
LYNN~

marble thanx for the info on ambien. I'm taking it one time a week at 10mg. On other nights I take tylenol pm. I have a tough time sleeping at night...

My husband does have aggessive tendancies but the Paxil did wonders for that, his mood was much, much improved. I did tell my family dr that he has been quite agitated on and off. Yesterday he was fine as long as he was by himself and listening to music and the times he was talking to us he was okay. I talked to him on the phone at work today and he sounded okay. I think it is just a matter of wait and see what happens. I think too he'd be so much better if he had some decent sleep, I called the dr about that today too. I'm a complete grump if I don't get a good night's sleep so I can imagine how he feels when he is sleeping badly for long periods. I'm praying that his mood improves soon, when he was on Paxil it only took about 2 weeks to start working so hopefully this starts working a bit soon.

Why do you have to call your husband's dr. and report his symptoms? Why doesn't he take responsibility for for his own health?

I am a registered nurse and usually able to convey better what is going on to the dr than my husband does. Believe me I have let him manage this stuff in the past and it takes twice as long because he is not happy when he comes back from dr's appts because he couldn't get across what the problem was and then we have to go back for another appt. So when I talk to him I can ask him the same assessment questions that she would ask him and then relay it back to her and it ends up being a better way of doing things. He is one of these guys that would never go to the dr no matter what. Also it's not like she takes my word for everything because he has to go see her on regular visits but for something like this she would call in a prescription based on what I tell her.

Jen: you're cracking me up.....I figured he was "one of them"....(i'm soooo intolerant of some of the common male traits)....he is beyond lucky to have you, you sound like a truly patient compassionate person. i hope things even out soon for both of you.

Just a quick update. My husband's mood seems to be improving a little, he's a lot better these past couple of days then he was late last week and on the weekend but he's still have trouble sleeping. The dr never called back or called in a prescription so I'll have to call back today. Normally my husband has to be dragged out of bed but the past week or so he's wide awake even before the alarm goes off and it's not because he's gotten a good night's sleep. The bags under his eyes are starting to look pretty scary. Hopefully the dr will give him something so he'll get a decent sleep tonight. Take care all and thanks so much for all the helpful posts!

glad his mood is better..!! keep us updated

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. Yesterday he came home in an extremely foul mood because someone had been playing games with him on the highway as he was driving home. This other guy was slowing down and speeding up and sounds like he tried to run my husband off the road. Lucky my husband didn't run him down in his truck the way he's been feeling lately. Then he makes me feel guilty this morning when he got up over an hour early because he couldn't sleep because I was snoring so loud. So he just got up, got dressed and took off for work. Last night was very tense and difficult because we'd had a little fight over the phone which is something we haven't done is a really long time. What amazes me is that I lived through him being like this for years. I can't believe that I put up with it for so long. Also how can it feel for him to be like this all the time? Anyway here's my daily prayer that his med kicks in soon.

HI
JEN
I'm sorry. I know it is hard to put with a depressed/aggressive person. The doctor told me that agression and anger is a feeling of being out of control.
Has your husband tried zoloft?

Well I don't know about him feeling of control, I can't even guess anymore that he is going to say or feel from one minute to the next. All I know is that things are getting worse and I feel miserable all the time. Last night we had a very unpleasant episode and if I could have left him I would have but we have a son I have to consider and the way things are around the house is not good for him either. I'm trying to be supportive because I"m praying daily that the meds kick in. I know he's not like this, when the meds are working he's fine but it is just so hard to stand by and take this crap. You know all I really wish is that he could at least say that he has an inkling of what I am going through and that he is sorry that he is being so hard to live with. Right now he is being so selfish, I don't think that this has ever crossed his mind. I'm trying hard not to sound like I"m being a real b!tch, selfish and unsupportive because I really don't think I"m any of those thing. I'm trying to be there for him but when every other word out of his mouth is F*** and the other words are pure negativity, anger, critisism it is pretty hard to stay upbeat. Anyway thanks everyone for letting me vent.

I first started taking Wellbutrin SR about 2 years ago, I think. At first it helped a lot, my depression went away, and it suppressed my appetite and I lost about 30 pounds. The dosage was 150mg. It started to wear off about 6 or 7 months, so they increased it to 300mg. 300 started making my hair fall out, so I had to stop taking it. I started taking 150 of Wellbutrin XL about 3 or 4 months ago. It had very little effect on me until I started taking it with Lamictal(for bipolar). But I've found that my hair is starting to fall out again, so I'll have to stop taking it. The main side effects I had when I first started taking it were dizziness, dry mouth, shaking, and nausea/loss of appetite.

sorry ( Jen) hugs
I know it is hard. I'm sorry. I know that it sucks when it comes to having the kids around. My husband at one point said out loud, he wanted to smash my teeth in, while my daughter was in the room because I didn't park in the garage.
I have dealt with alot. I also have depression and have to cope with feeling like crap naturally and to deal with his garbage, sometimes I want to throw in the towel..

Jen we have alot in common, send me a private message, I'm a nurse also

Hi, I take Wellbutrin also.. I started on it almost 10 yrs. ago.. The first time I tried it, it made me even more irritable,angry,nervous, shaky.. So I stopped taking it.. I guess about a year or so later I tried it again.. And it now works wonderfully for me.. (Oh, the first time I had taken it, it did help me to stop smoking. I no longer wanted a cigarette..) I take 300 mg. a day. 150mg.in the am. and 150mg. in the afternoon..
I wouldn't take it at night though.. It could make it hard for you to fall asleep.
I take Paxil also, all during this time.. For me, I think the Wellbutrin works better than the Paxil..
But everyone is different.. Our systems, that is.. What works for some, might not work for others..
God bless, and take care... Lanee...

Yesterday was better, maybe he realized that he was completely awful to me on Saturday. He will stay at the dose he is on now until Thursday when he sees the dr again. He's had this numbness around his mouth that has gotten worse. It is intermittant but the number of times and the area that it is affecting has increased. The dizziness seems to be better. Also right now he seems to be having some problems with his right hand and wrist which is probably carpal tunnel syndrome. He's trying to get some referrals for that for testing and a consult with a surgeon. I imagine that the pain and difficulties he's having from that problem aren't helping his mood. Never ends eh?

nope never ends.. the circle of life... :)

I just joined 3FC a few minutes ago and I was searching for a place to post a hello and found your question about Wellbutrin. I have an idea (if it is still a problem) to help with the dizziness. Wellbutrin seems to have a dehydrating effect, try adding several glasses of water a day and see if that helps. I had some horrible headaches at first, symptoms that were like a hangover, and starting drinking extra water and they are now gone.

I had sexual side effects with other antidepressants and nothing with the Wellbutrin.

thanks so much for that idea RS. My hubby hates drinking water so that wouldn't likely go over very well though he'd probably drink ice tea if I put extras in his lunch bag.

I am surprised noone has mentioned the terrible withdrawal symptoms some people experience when they stop taking SSRI's. I was on Paxil for over a year and even though my doctor tapered the dosage, I had really bad withdrawal symptoms, the worst of which were dizziness, an electrical shock feeling in my neck and head, difficulty sleeping and extreme agitation. Your husband could very well be suffering from the withdrawal rather than reacting to the Wellbutrin - or it could be a combination of two problems - a double whammy. I am surprised your husbands doctor didn't mention this, but some doctors deny that there is a problem. A few years ago I was taking Effexor and when I came off that I had the same problems only worse, and my doctor (different doc) kept telling me it was in my head. I have done quite a bit of research on this since and some people are very sensitive to withdrawal from SSRI's - apparently I am one of them. It can take well over a month for the symptoms to fade but they do get better (slowly) over time. The SSRI's also made me gain weight. I am taking Wellbutrin now and doing fairly well on it, although I do have some trouble sleeping. I have been losing weight - with much effort of course, but I am finding it easier to lose than when I was taking Paxil. I will never touch an SSRI again no matter how bad it gets.

I'm not exactly sure how long my husband was on the Paxil, several months anyway, I wouldn't say over a year. During that time he went up and down on the doses, started off with 1, then 1 1/2 then 2 tabs then back down to 1 1/2. He was trying to find a dose that would let him sleep but wouldn't be as bad with the side effects. Could have been withdrawal I suppose, anything is possible.

Hi, I have been on the Welbutron SR for a couple of years. WOrks well on the depression and panic attacks for me. When I have a hard time sleeping, I take 100 mg of Valerian root extract. You can find it in a health section. It works and I don't feel drowsy in the morning. Word of caution-- it has a strong smell. I spent an hour trying to find what smelled funny in the kitchen.