Wellbutrin and meds

I have been taking Wellbutrin 300 xl ( i believe - here comes the "Brain Farts" i attribute to Wellbutrin ) for seven years. I can tell you that i have noticed a small very very small amount of hair loss compared to most people but as i read thru these posts it appeared to me that MOST of them stated generic Wellbutrin. I will say i have had more hair than i am comfortable with appearing in my shower and bathroom floor and sink from drying my hair BUT i have NOT had the scary experiences that i have read here. I came to this site because i had to quit taking my Wellbutrin cold turkey because of some changes in the law in my state i have to drive 50 miles away to see my N.P. and because the office i was going to and the one she works in act like they have to send fire signals to each other instead of email and i am out of meds! so i was searching for side effects i could expect until i can get my meds back. i will tell you it is nice to see that i am not alone but i think it sucks that any of us have to decide if taking the medication and side effects are worth it! i also have problems with memory, spelling,speech, following thru with my thoughts much less getting them out of my head and making sense to someone else. did that make sense? ! ? i personally didn't notice any weight loss. my husband says i have the patience of a flea and really dislike " hate" a lot of things. i don't notice this but go back a couple of sentences and you will understand :)
After being here and reading all that i have i am afraid to continue taking this medication so i think i will just let it go and see what happens. i am also taking lamictal and seroquel and xanax and i am pretty sure i would be just as afraid of them if i went and looked them up but i have the choice as i am sure most of you do ...... do you take the meds and deal or go off the meds and well ... die?

I'm a 33 yr old stay at home mom suffering from depression for almost 5 yrs now. I've been taking Wellbutrin for a month and a half now and have noticed that my hair is very oily. I use to have pretty dry hair, but now it looks like I haven't washed my hair in a week! I've also noticed the itchy scalp as well. I don't know what to do anymore. I've been on just about every anti-depressant medication there is, all with some kind of side effect that just seem to be worth taking the meds at all. Is there anything that actually works out there for those of us suffering from this terrible disease???!!!!

I am taking the generic Bupropion at 300mg per day. I went up in dosage to 300 last month, I'm about 1 week in to my 2nd refill on the 300mg. I am having TERRIBLE side affects right now. At this moment I'm at work trying to concentrate on even saying the right words on the phone - I have no sick time left so I can't go home - my hearing is jacked up. Things fade out and then come back so loud. I feel as if I'm drifting off to sleep and things get quiet and then WHAM someone will say something to me and it's so loud like someone woke me up from a nap. My vision is a little blurry, and I can't remember things. Fortunately I can get away with this for another day at my job, I started feeling like this yesterday, just today started thinking it was my med. I'm not on any other meds. I'm dizzy too. The worst part is I can't remember conversations. At the time of, I know what I'm saying though slower, but if I'm having a lengthy conversation I will probably forget what you said at the beginning. The confusion is what makes me the most upset. Things that I know, little things like someones phone extension, I can't remember and have to look up. The weird thing is all these symptoms come in waves. I'll have a moment of 'normalness' and then right back into the symptoms. I'm even having trouble typing right now. - I'm not hungry and after reading this site I now know why I'm itching all over.

I got on this website looking for a 'quick fix' like eating a big meal, but see I'm going to have to rough it out another day here in la la land. Wellbutrin was working for me in the beginning, 150 mg for 2 months, increased energy, good attitude etc, then wore off a little so we uped it to 300mg. I'm going to go dwn in dosage, try taking the 150mg tomorrow and see how I feel. I hope this wears off!! I am curious to know if you can cut the dosage of 300mg pill Buproprion to 150 by cutting it in half? I just got that refill so I was wondering. Today is going to be so rough! I went straight to bed yesterday after work and guess I will be doing the same tonight. Oh great, my coworker just asked if I was "ok" because I'm being so quiet. Yikes. I've read this email about 5 times to make sure I don't repeat myself since I can't remember!

I too have had a great deal of hair loss, deep depression and sadness.
I can't seem to remember anything, feeling very loopy...
I have just stopped taking the xl 300mg after reading all of the posts today!!! I'm going to try all natural ( B12, fish oil, st.johns wort) after being
on meds for over 13 years. the hair loss was the, well ... hair that broke the camels back. I hope it grows back.

I have been taking Wellbutrin XL 300MG for 18 months now. It definitely cured my depression but since last couple of months I noticed my hair falling at an alarming rate. I can now see my scalp in several places. It is discouraging. I am going to lower the dose to 150MG and then stop after some time.

this post is for dmbfreak, who asked for incidences of positive experiences with wellbutrin. First off, it's really, really important to remember that a site like this is going to have posts ONLY from people who have had bad side effects... who might be only one-half of 1% of all that particular medication's takers, for all you know. People who aren't having side effects aren't even coming on this site...why would they? So these posts are good for enlightening you when you have a side effect and are trying to match it to a medication, or for enlightening you as to what to watch out for, but it does not mean any or all of the side effects are common, and is NOT at ALL good for deciding whether to take or not take a certain medication without trying it yourself.
That said, i got here because i wondered what was causing me to wake up somewhat sweaty on occasion. Turns out that i am taking three different meds that can cause this, including wellbutrin, a blood pressure med, and my birth control pill.
But otherwise, i have been taking Wellbutrin for three years and the benefits have far outweighed minor side effects, which for me have only been the occasional sweats (usually associated with my period, so hormonal component too.. might even have nothing to do with WB) and i can get jittery if i take too much - in my case, 450mg a day is too much. I simply went back to 300mg and was fine. This medication also has some GOOD side effects for me, such as weight loss/control, and it doesn't affect my sexual functions at all... which every other antidepressant i tried did. I had far more severe side effects from other antidepressants, and am very sensitive to drugs in general, so i was very happy to finally find one i could tolerate so well. My doc says people who don't tolerate the SSRIs often do very well on WB, it's a very different formula (and other people who don't do well on WB can do well on SSRIs- it's all individual). He says WB is not usually the top medication choice for my particular issue (PTSD) but it's the one i'll actually TAKE, which does make it the best one for me (any of the others, i'd just stop taking because of side effects).
So folks, don't condemn a particular medication outright based just on anecdotal posting sites like this. This site should be used only by people who are already taking it, having problems, and comparing notes. You can't tell from the posts if the problems are with a very small % of takers or not. Sometimes, you can't even know that a particular individual's problem is actually from the drug being discussed (look only for ones that are repeated among many users). We're all different and react to things differently. If you decide not to take a med based just on anecdotal posts like this, you could do yourself out of what could be a very beneficial med for YOU, and that might well not have any side effects for you at all.
I'm not a doc and definitely not pro-pharmaceutical, and am very critical of the medical establishment in general... but i'm very pro using rationality and perspective when dealing with such things.

I am definitely having severe shortness of breath and also have the shakes. I used to have anxiety before being treated for my depression but now its back because of the meds. It is very scary to feel like you cant breath. I feel like I am intoxicated at time, nausea, stuttering and being forgetful. I feel light head from feeling like I can't breath. I also lost about 20 lbs in 2 weeks. These should be stressed as serious warnings by doctors before taking this medicine.

I have been on the generic version of Wellbutrin Xl since January 09. About 6 weeks ago I noticed a lot of hair loss. A week or so ago it increased and my thick hair is thinning so quickly I am panicked. I contacted my doctor on Monday morning and he advised I stop taking it right away. 150 mg a day. I have noticed my scalp is very itchy and today the hair has not stopped coming out. My doctor told me the hair will grow back but I don't know I believe him at this point. He wants me to go med free for 2 weeks until I see him. A little nervous about withdrawal and how I will feel med free since the depression was intolerable. Has anyone had significant hair loss with this drug and seen it come back after quitting the meds?

I have been taking welbutrin for about 4 years now. I am going to tell my exact dose and type since I am trying to figure out from other peoples comments if there is a difference in side effect in SR vs XL . I have taken 150 XL and the went down to 75 mg Sr because i was trying to decrease the dosage and come off entirely eventually. I have suffered with acne all the four years but thought it was stress (Daughter became type i diabetic and can't ever get her blood sugar stable and the my son developed a bone tumor not long after she was diagnosed). Anyway we finally got his problem resolved with good results but hers is a blood sugar nightmare everyday. So you can see why I thought the acne was from stress . Never even crossed my mind it could be wellbutrin. I noticed my skin was better for a while when my dose was just 75 mg sr. But alas the bone tumor came back again for my son and had to go back to 150xl. Skin has hundreds of little white tiny tiny white heads. Is this the type of acne other people are experiencing?

I was prescribed Wellbutrin by my Ob/Gyn for S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder). The actual prescription allowed for generic and I started out taking 150mg of Bupropion a day. I felt like this was too much as during the day I was fine, but at night I would get very jittery and almost manic. So I called to find out about cutting it down to 75 mg, just once a day instead of twice. I was fine but noticed in the last few days my neck and chin started itching really badly. Yesterday I made the connection that the hives appeared approximately one to two hours after I took my one dose. I took my meds at around 1:00 p.m. and by 5:30 I noticed fairly predominant hives on my neck and chin. I treated it with hydrocortisone cream and it went away. Today I did not take any meds at all and I have no hives or itching of any kind. I am sure it is from the meds because absolutely nothing else has changed in my life (soap, foods, etc.). If there is anything else that gives the same desired results for S.A.D. but without all the crazy side effects please let me know so I can ask my doctor. Thanks.

I'm on Wellbutrin since August and I've been loosing lots of hair lately. At the beginning of the loss I didn't give it much importance until about a week ago when pulling my hair back in my usual ponytail I notice that my hairline moved back noticeably, and that my already thin hair was barely covering my scalp...I thought it was stress or something, but I've never seen my hair weak and little like that. Then I thought at the meds I'm taking and googled "wellbutrin and hair loss". A super long list of web pages (including this) were talking about this side effect of Wellbutrin. Now I'm worried not just for my hair loss, but to the process of adaptation of my body to a potential change of medicinal. What should I do? My doctor is in Italy and cannot check on me personally.
Thanks for sharing
M.

My teenage daughter was taking generic Wellbutrin (manufactured by Watson pharmaceuticals) 150 mg. daily for about 3 weeks or so and started having serious hair loss on the top of her head. The prescribing psychiatrist told her to stop the medication and after about 2 weeks, the hair loss has stopped almost completely. I have read a number of blogs including this one that indicate that hair loss is a side effect yet the Wellbutrin trials only listed hair loss as a side effect for less than 1% of patients. Given the U.S. Supreme court ruling today that says that even if the FDA has approved a medication, a pharmaceutical company is still responsible for fully reporting side effects and can in fact be sued in individual states if they do not provide sufficient warning, I would be interested in hearing ideas of how we can put more pressure on the manufacturers of Wellbutrin and its generic equivalent so that they give better warning of this side effect.

I am so glad I found this site!! I think I've found the culprit of my rashes/welts. It started about 2 or 3 days after starting 100 mg of the generic of Wellbutrin SR but I had taken it before without any side effects (I had taken the brand name med) so I didn't think it would be this. It started with massive itching on the back of my head which turned into welts that ran down my neck. I also had swollen lymph nodes on the back and sides of my neck. Then wherever I itched, I would develop hives and the scratch mark would show up about 2 minutes later and be raised. I still have this problem and I have been taking Wellbutrin SR for about 3-4 weeks. I am so disappointed because it was working for me. I was taking 10 mg of Lexapro but the sexual side effects (or lack thereof) prompted me to ask for an alternative. He prescribed this alongside Lexapro. Even though you're supposed to do what your doctor says, I refuse to add another pharmaceutical to my list of meds so I stopped the Lexapro and started the Wellbutrin (after weening off of Lexapro of course). Anyway, the libido is back but it doesn't work too well if you're itching all over!

I am noticing hair loss. I was on 150mg of XL for a year and then I was on 300mg for 6 months to deal with situational depression that my 150mg dose was not enough for. I lost more weight (because I had no appetite at all) but then slowly got used to the new dose. I have been confused sometimes and fuzzy brained. Often someone can say something to me and I don't even hear them. I have significant memory loss and trouble focusing on 2 things at once. If a radio or TV is on, I can't carry a conversation... even if i am looking directly at the person I am talking to. I have reduced back to 150mg but I am still having these side effects. I just thought I was getting loopy from having been on so many different drugs continually for 6 years. I do love having energy with Welbutrin and losing all excess weight I had but I can't stand losing my hair.

Jan. 4th, 2009
4:35 am
I have been on wellbutrin 150 for several month's now and I have extreme dry mouth, sometime's unable to swallow without taking a drink. Itching, strong urine odor, hand's shake badly when drinking and sometime's eating, headache's, dizziness, lightheaded, balance is bad, nausea, depression seem's to be returning, weight gain, short term memory, leg cramp's bad enough that I have to get out of bed and walk them off, burning spot's on my lower leg's. Including the wellbutrin 150, I take about 27 or 28 pill's a day and it seem's like every time I go the doctor they add more pill's. I now also have nighttime incontinence and barely make it to the bathroom in time, but still have leakage or worse going to the bathroom, having trouble getting to sleep and if I get awakened it sometime's take's 2 or 3 hour's to get back to sleep.
--By floridapeach / Reply / Private Message Me

I started Wellbutrin in the beginning of December. Someone very close to me passed away and I developed severe anxiety with some depression. I took some control of it with simply taking Ativan, but the doctor insisted I get on something for depression as well. I didn't really understand why I need to take a pill when I was just fine before this event.... but ok, I agreed.

I was prescribed Wellbutrin XL 150 mg. I was optimistic about it. She said it might improve my focus, give me some energy back, had no sexual side effects.

I took it in the morning, and usually with at least something in my stomach. The first 3 days of taking it, I was severely unstable. I think if I didn't have my boyfriend, I would be dead right now. I would cry uncontrollably, for no reason, pace, have terrible anxiety... I remember going through my closet, throwing things around, looking for a belt, throwing a few on the bed and taking one and tightening it around my neck.. I then walked around and was looking for a place to hang myself.. Luckily my boyfriend got home because he had a bad feeling about what was happening with me... otherwise I, to this day, do not know what I would have done.

After the first 3 days... things sort of calmed down... sometimes I would feel "better" in little spurts the first week.

I also had my sex drive for the first 2 weeks and it was good. I still wasn't "happy" but the medication wasn't doing any significant harm.

In the 3rd week, I lost interest in nearly everything. I didn't want to step foot outside. I stopped talking to my family, stopped answering my phone, I would lay in bed for hours, thinking of depressive things. I began eating, a lot. Constantly. Which shocked me since it is supposedly supposed to suppress appetite. I stopped going to school.

In the 4th week, and last, things gradually, and then quite suddenly just went downhill. It started with me becoming very agitated, snapping at everyone. My mental clarity was out the window. When someone said something, it took me a long time to register it, if I ever did. Sometimes my boyfriend would look at me after saying something and I would realize, oh my god, he said something... I really didn't hear/listen anymore. I was brain dead to everything except these horrible thoughts of just wanting to die. As the days progressed in the 4th week, I became more and more depressed. If I had to describe it, I would say it was a mental breakdown. I would cry hysterically over nothing. Absolutely nothing. I couldn't think of a single reason. I would start to cry while brushing my hair, while eating, sitting, watching a movie... I would cry 20 or more times a day. I really wanted to die because I could not bear it anymore. I felt like this was the end and it was going to end.. I wanted to inflict injury on myself, but focused my thoughts on more "permanent" damage -- suicide. I became obsessed with buying a gun. I swear if I had one, I would not be here. I would hit myself, all over my legs, while sobbing uncontrollably on the floor. Days later my boyfriend would ask where the bruises came from because it would be in such a weird area that there was no way i walked into something... and I would tell him I had no idea, and I didn't..... until later I realized it was me, hitting myself.... I felt very depersonalized. I felt unpredictable and I felt that I was not sure what I was going to do next, I was afraid of myself and very paranoid. I lost my appetite and never wanted to eat, thinking of food made me nauseous. I felt sick to my stomach. My anxiety was through the roof. My mind wouldn't stop spinning with thoughts, repetitive... until eventually it lead to another breakdown.

With my luck, it reached it's worst around the new year when everything was closed and I couldn't get a hold of anybody. I desperately called mental emergency facilities but all they said they could do was commit me for at least 72 hours and I didn't want that. I just wanted this to end, NOW, not be trapped in another hell hole. My mental doctor was closed so I tried to see my primary care and he was too afraid to mess with anything and told me to double my ativan dosage (WHAT! Because of Wellbutrin, I went from taking .5 or less mg of ativan a day to taking 2mg or more and still, it barely did anything!), so I went to the ER, and they did nothing, except tell me that the only way to help me would be if I went to a hospital for 72 hours. I said NO. It is ridiculous to allow someone to get this bad, and to not help them immediately, instead leave it up to them, to either be placed in some state run down mental facility or kill themselves that day.

I got a hold of my doctor the next day and she switched it immediately.

I have been asked about my Wellbutrin experience by another member and want to post my answer to the group in case it is helpful to others. I originally posted some of this information earlier in the year. Here is my answer.......

It is the most difficult drug reaction I have ever faced but slowly the hair started growing back. It may not be quite as it was before (I have always had fine thin hair but I did have hair!!!) but it is so much better than when I finally realized what was happening to me while I was on the meds. The top of my head and temples had thinned alarmingly. I have been off of Wellbutrin since March 2008 and the regrowth started within a few months time. It is a slow process but at least you can feel hopeful when it begins.

Be sure to take the Biotin available from health food stores and shampoo and condition with Nioxin products and use the foam treatment every day no matter how tiresome it seems. I went with the starter kit. See description for products at http://www.folica.com/brands/nioxin_183.html

And to help you right now, I can offer this advice. While I was waiting for the regrowth, I used a hairpiece which helped to heal my spirit a little faster. There is also a scalp make-up product called ShaBo that helps to disguise bald spots amazingly well and Bonnie, the inventor, will personally work with you to get just the right color. Check the website for more information.
http://www.shabocosmetics.com/

Best of luck and yes it will get better!

I took Wellbutrin 300 mg for two years before to quit smoking and for mild depression. After the initial (weeks 2-4) side effects of nausea, dizziness and headaches - I felt great. Not drugged and not overly emotional. I had been crying all the time and felt hopeless. I felt much better (and didn't want to smoke at all). I quit it for about 2 years and now I am back on Wellbutrin for the last 7 months. I started with Cymbalta - but hated the loss of sex drive (not able to orgasm - so who wants to have sex, right?) and felt drugged. So Wellbutrin was a welcome "old friend" I didn't have bad side effects with switching and have been pretty happy. EXCEPT for the one very scary side effect that I have experienced just a handful of times - but I really am curious if anyone else has had this HEAD TRIP WHILE DRIVING: It has happened when I'm on the interstate and/or bridge when I am driving at fast speeds, and my head feels whoozie all of the sudden and my brain seems to shift sideways - like on a roller-coaster, up and down, sideways - and I am amazed that my hands don't go with it and drive me into the wall! It takes intense concentration and wheel gripping to get myself where I can pull off the road. What the?? I don't want to ever experience this again - but it is so OCCASIONAL. The only variable I can think of is that I have not been faithfully taking the WB at the same time everyday (I'm more and more forgetful) and have skipped a day. Has ANYONE ELSE had a similar experience???

During the three weeks I was using 150 mg. Wellbutrin, ringing in the ears gradually increased, mild headaches on top of my head, occasional light spasms around my mouth, constipation, and bladder problems. My sleep was unaffected, and my depression did not lift. My dose was increased to 300 mg, and by the fourth day, I was having serious facial spasms, intense headaches, louder and constant ringing in the ears, almost 'round-the-clock wakefulness, anxiety, difficulty thinking and completing sentences, pounding heart, amplification of sounds, jitters and quaking. I felt like a car, perpetually idling so roughly that all my parts were about to rattle right off the chassis. On the fifth day I took nothing. I've had some chills, a little nausea, headache, neck-ache (Isn't that weird?!) and some ringing, but at a lower volume that's hardly noticeable. This is the fourth day with no Wellbutrin, and I haven't had facial spasms at all in the past couple of days, have less nausea, and the very funky smell produced in my urine from the second week I was on the meds has calmed down. If I'm still in a depression it's been overshadowed by the most awful side effects I could have imagined. It felt like the spector of death was overtaking my body by day four of that 300 mg. dose. I had been on a hefty dose of Zoloft daily for almost ten years and never experienced anything unpleasant other than weight gain, my reason for trying to switch meds because I couldn't quit putting on weight no matter what. I am going to try SAM-e, and suggest that anyone looking for a natural alternative, with the prospect of few and insignificant side effects, do an online search. Whether I find success with the SAM-e, or if it falls short of what I need, I'll post here to let you know what happens. A month ago I thought the depression was the end of the world; I think the cure was worse than the disease.

I've been on Welbutrin for about six months, along with Zoloft. I had tried it because of the lack of motivation and the lithergy I was feeling (I suspect) as a result of the Zoloft. I came across this site after a search for memory loss connected with Welbutrin. I believe I'm having that problem. I don't seem to have the quick grasp of words I did. In a phone conversation today, I could not remember a certain medical term that I have been using rather frequently over the past six months. There are some other cases, but that incident put me on the trail of memory loss research. I actually suspected that it was the Ambien I had been taking for sleep (I have not completely ruled that drug out). But all the posts here seem to indicate that the welbutrin could be at fault.

I'm on 150mg, twice daily. However, in the morning, I will actually take one and a half pills (225mg) to get me going. I have noticed CONSIDERABLE jitters, hand tremors, enough that if I'm doing delicate work of some type, I have difficulty continuing ti complete the task. At the 225mg, I do seem to become over amped a bit, but it improves my motivation. A St. Johns Wart capsule will usually calm that, but you see the problem of one drug, helping one problem, but causing another, so you take a third! I have tried numerous other antidepressants and they all caused more side effects than they were worth.
Celexa cause an eventual complete lack of ANY motivation! Plus SERIOUS sexual side effects. Zoloft has been the best with the least side effects and I have always returned to it. But the sleepiness can just be extreme with me.

I have run out of Welbutrin and the result is return of the lithergy. I also believe that the Welbutrin may be causing my occasional up tick in anger. Possibly spreading the dosage will help. Not mixing it with caffiene may also help because caffiene can make me explosive if I don't limit my intake to about a cup of coffee. Most of you know that Zoloft, Prozac and the like increase the available seritonin in your brain, a calming neurotransmitter. Welbutrin increases the available norepinephrine, a stimulating neurotransmitter, akin to adrenalin. (Research for yourselves those facts, remember, I posting this because of a problem with MEMORY! :) So it makes perfect sense that people can become overstimulated with Welbutrin. The memory aspects of it, I don't yet understand. I'm going to experiment with dosage reduction and possibly replacing the Welbutrin with the amino acid L-phenylalanine. I hope this little post can help some of you as much as the other posts here have helped me!

Burt

My hair loss actually started 10 years ago with the advent of menopause. It was less an issue of hair loss but that my hair started to grow in baby fine. With that came a depression. A hormone implant helped. Later, celexa and then lexapro helped particularly with the symptoms of irritable bladder. Other symptoms that started 10 years ago included a slowing pulse rate, lower body temp, lost my eyebrows on the sides, etc. I was bounced between cardiologists and endocrinologists -- blaming a marginally low thyroid. An MD, alternative doctor, blamed mercury which did not abate with two separate rounds of IV chelation. Finally, my heart slowed into the 30s and the exhaustion was extreme. Got a pacemaker which helped but did not cure the exhaustion. Sleep apnea study showed a sleep disorder but no apnea. I am on thyroid meds (125 mg.), mycardis, and .75 patch of estrogen. Wellbutrin 150 mg was added about 6 months ago and that helped tremendously with the tiredness. It was great but I finally noticed that I could see my scalp -- my hair had thinned that much with that low dose. I went to various doctors (including a dermatologist) who never mentioned the connection with any of my meds. They could not tug hair out of my head and suggested a genetic problem (the women in my family have big heads of hair until they die in their 90s). Finally a physician friend in Florida suggested that Wellbutrin might be the problem. I am off of it and tired. Too soon to see if the hair loss is getting better. I just want the loss to stop and to start regrowing my hair. Suggestions? A new doc recommended Provigil for exhaustion but there is some hair loss with that noted on the blogs. I have been taking a b complex, biotin, minerals, a vitamin for hair, zinc, D, MSM -- a handful of supplements. I need something for energy (I am a college professor of graduate students) but will not put my hair at risk. I am lost in all the information about how to stop hair loss and help my hair grow out.

I am taking Wellbutrin and it has helped my depression and desire for drugs every day. I have bad ringing in my ears all the time but I can deal with that compared to the good it has done.. The problem is I'm a engineer which requires a lot of concentration that I have lost since I've been on Wellbutrin. I also have memory loss. I can't remember peoples names 2 minutes after they told me. I am a support engineer so I have to tallk to many people every day as well as typing cause and solution. I find myself having to read everything I type over again because I leave out words and sometimes what I type makes no sense at all. Wellbutrin has helped me so much but I think I will have to stop or lose my job. What a choice. Before I started taking Wellbutrin I never felt like I was in tune with the world. Smoking pot worked for me but we all know what the long term effect of that is. Codine also made me feel like I fit in. So Wellbutrin has fixed all those needs and feelings but I just hate the loss of memory, concentration, and ringing in my ears.

Took Wellbutrin XL 150's for 7 days and the dizziness and vertigo was only getting worse day after day. Been off it for 4 days and STILL have dizzy and vertigo feelings. I was doing 100 times better with no meds!! I just wish I knew how long before I can expect this to get out of my system. It cannot be good for you at all.

I am a 34 year old female and have been on wellbutrin for 3 yrs. taking 300mg a day. I have lost a bunch of hair. Half of my hair is gone and that is no exaggeration!!!!!! But the worst part of it is that I had no clue that my medication could be causing it. My mom is a hairdresser and she has been really concerned about my hair loss. We thought maybe we were just frying it with all of the chemicals we put on it---BUT after talking about it we ruled that out because we have ALWAYS done it. It wasn't until after LUCK of stumbling across this info on the net that we put 2 and 2 together. UUHHGG!!! I am sooo mad at my Dr. I even discussed my hair loss with her a YEAR AGO. She had bloodwork done for my thyroid and it came back normal. I have a check-up today concerning my meds. I'm going off it ASAP. Dont want to just stop completely because i heard it can be dangerous. But i recommend to anyone taking wellbutrin that likes having a full head of hair to stop taking it!!! The Dr.'s will tell you that it is not a side effect but believe me---IT IS!!! I can only hope now that mine will grow back.!!!!!

I stopped taking wellbutrin xl 150 mg and lamictal 200 mg 3 days ago cold turkey because there is no way to cut thewelbutrin tablet in half and take it safely. The first day wasn't bad at all. I felt better than I have felt in years and years. Then yesterday I felt okay, but not as good as I did on the first day. Today I woke up feeling like I have the flu. Every single bone, joint and muscle in my body aches. I feel fine one minute and the next minute the room feels like it's spinning and the body aches return. My psychiatrist started me on all of this poison,,, oops, I mean, medications 2 years ago. I had lost a child and had gone into a deep depression which led to severe anorrhexia. He started me out on Lamictal and Lexapro and after a year of awful side effects from the lexapro(especially sexual side effects=no desire at all) he finally switched me to the wellbutrin xl and told me that it would help better than the lexapro. At my last appointment, 1 week ago, I asked him when and if I would ever be able to go off of these meds. And he told me that I am probably a "lifer". He refused to hear anything about my stopping or weaning off of these meds. So, after my 3 minute office visit and prescription refills written out I left the office. I did not take the prescription to the pharmacy because I decided then and there that the only reason he and a lot of other psychs put people on these outrageously priced prescriptions(the lamictal is $140 a month and the wellbutrin xl is $170 and that is for the generic per moth) is because they get HUGE incentives from the pharmaceutical companies to keep us on them. I will not go back on the meds ever again. I am tired of living in a drugged up state. I want to feel alive again like I felt before I ever started taking this crap.