I know I know your not suppose to cold turkey any meds....I UNDERSTAND THAT. I have been on wellbutrin for about 2.5 years. Well around when TOM comes I become forgetful and forget the meds. Well sometimes i take it off and on for about two weeks but when I take it consistant for 2 days I become so MEAN and NASTY I am awful with the kids. I flip on the husband. Its really bad so I cannot afford to just wean down off it because taking it is worse. It is almost 2 weeks out of not having it...I am just wondering if anyone else has went with out and how did it go??? As you can see its is 3 am and i am not tired....which is a partial symptom of withdrawl!

ok any advice is welcome...just dont lecture me about stopping cold turkey I get it I shouldnt but I didnt really have any options!

I think you should talk to your prescribing physician. I don't take any meds but I work with kids who do. There are some that skipping a day here and there has less effect than Wellbutrin. That's one we always taper both on start up and when we take a kid off the med. I suspect cold turkey is much harder on your system with Wellbutrin than it is for many meds. And the on/off routine sounds really hard on you (and your family). Your doctor should be able to help you find an anti-depressant that might be better for you schedule.

Alternately, you can work on systems that help you not forget during your TOM. I know I'm a totally ninny those days (fixed the typo where I had months... see what I mean about being a ninny. Although sometimes it sure does feel like months.....) I can hardly do simple math and I forget all kinds of routine things so I totally hear you. I have a co-worker who has an alarm set on her cell phone that goes off when it's time for her meds. It is a loud alarm and it doesn't stop. If it goes off at work whoever is near the office finds her so she shuts it up. Perhaps an alarm system with a reward for the kid who tracks you down when the alarm goes off?

Meds are supposed to make our lives better and right now yours isn't. No antidepressant is perfect but one sure might be better for you. Please check in with your doctor. You deserve to not go through this!

If you've been on it this long it has obviously been doing something RIGHT for you. Otherwise your doc would have already changed you to something else. Going back on it for two days in a row is no indication of how it is going to work in the long run. When I first started taking mine I cried for like 3 days straight for no reason.

My point is, I think like the above poster said, you should work on methods to remind yourself to take it consistently and live through the initial side effects, or make an emergency appointment with your pdoc.

My husband had issues with anger and meanness when he tried to take Wellbutrin while he was deployed to help him quit smoking. My doctor actually said that's a common side effect for men. Clearly, it can be a side effect for women as well. My husband had to stop taking the medication because of the anger. My suggestion would be to see your doctor about trying a different anti depressant.

I took Wellbutrin for 2 years. I came off of it just a few months ago and it took me a couple weeks to adjust to being off of it. I felt agitated during that time. The worse side effect for me coming off has been weight gain. Very frustrating.

Good Luck and I hope you can get it all sorted out!

I would check with your doc. For some, Wellbutrin can cause and agitation. Perhaps this is the case with you. Usually, the recommended way to stop Wellbutrin is to reduce your dosage by 100 mg. every week. However, if you were already only taking it once every 2 or 3 days, that might change things. There is also the theory that once you stop certain drugs and start them again, they aren't as effective as the first time, just like certain drugs can just stop working after a while.
I am one of those stupid people who tends to stop drugs (not all) cold turkey, but it doesn't seem to bother. I even stopped Effexor cold turkey (my blood pressure was through the roof and I was actually worried about having a stroke. I have heard so many people say that stopping Effexor was one of the most horrible things in their life. I stopped cold turkey and had NO side effects. I guess I'm just weird that way. Now, please don't take that advise from me. That's not what I'm trying to say. Please talk to your doctor. Only he or she can make the call right now as to what you should do.
Best of luck.

Hi mom
I'm doing something similar. (and yes, I know we should talk to our doctors first, but....) Not because I had irritation or anything. The drug worked fine, but every spring my doc would ask if I want to continue and since I was very sporadic at taking it I just stopped. Its been almost two weeks since I had the wellbutrin or the cetalopram. I'm doing not to bad, but thankfully I haven't had any major upheavals to put it to the test. I'm also learning a lot of coping skills through my counseling which is giving me the courage to give this a try.

Anyway good luck to you with whatever route you go, no meds, different meds, wellbutrin. I hope you feel better soon.
Take care,
K

I went off Wellbutrin a few years ago cold turkey (I'm back on it now), and I didn't feel a thing. Quitting Paxil, even with tapering down the dose, was a nightmare, though.

i accidently went off cold turkey, cause i havent remembered to take them in about 2 months! oops who knows what my withdraw symptoms were/ are cause im never sure of my mood anyways. i hide the truth too well from myself!
Actually got it out today to try it again since it can help with weight loss. Guess well see. Hope it gets better for you though. OH and it only helped when I took a combo of two kinds of antidepressants. maybe that would help.

Every drug is different, and every person is different. I was on Cymbalta, and I had to stop taking it because it was making me too dizzy to drive. I only took it 5 days, and then took it every other day for 4 days.. what a nightmare. I think those were some of the worst days of my life. I'm on Wellbutrin now, and am not looking forward to stopping that one.

Since a lot of you are Wellbutrin users, I was wondering if you found a difference between the SR and XL versions?

ditto this question... I'm curious as well.

I've only taken the sustained release. My doctor said that, since my insurance only covers name brand when generic is available, she recommended the SR, as there have been a lot of reports of the generic XL not working well at all.

Or, wait. I can't remember which is which - having a brain fart. The one I take is twice a day. The one she didn't recommend is 1x a day.

Wow thank you guys I forgot I put this on here and have been busy and didnt come check stuff. I was on the SR which is twice a day. When I first went on this I stopped all the night food cravings and lost some weight but last summer my weight has just continued to climb so I think maybe the meds just kinda quit. Cause even when I was taking it regularly i was irritable and mean and hungry. So I dont know. But I am only like a lil over 3 weeks out and only had like one really bad insomnia night where it was 7 in the morning and I still couldnt sleep and if I dosed off i woke up every 15 minutes....but right now I have been sick today my stomach is just not good at all and immodium isnt helping a whole lot when it always has worked for me so I am wondering if its the withdrawl of the meds? cause thats one sign of it....Doesnt sound like a lot of people had withdrawls from it but if anyone has when have they started?
Thanks!!

I've just quit cod turkey wellburtrin and lexapro. So far I've noticed noting, but I've done this before and may start feeling down again. My problem is not wnting to continue since I've been on them for 3 years..and to a certain extent feel somewhat "flat" (wish that was the issue with my stomach) ......for now I'm starting to look into herbal remedies.

I just quit taking lexapro and wellbutrin as well, since I was on them for 2.5 years and I still wasn't getting all my issues resolved, and my weight has continued to increase. I decided I would stop taking them. Its been about a month since and I feel ok - a little edgy but nothing breathing and counting to 10 can't help!