Wellbutrin and negative side effects

I have been taking 150 mg Wellbutrin SR twice a day for about a month now. It has lifted and stabilized my mood to a lifesaving degree. I feel like I have "me" back and my life back after suffering through a very deep depression for approx. a year. My only negative side effects are a bit of cystic acne, which I haven't had since college (I am 45 now) and breast tenderness all month long rather than just before my cycle. I have started using Proactive for the acne and it is working well. I guess I'll just live with the breast tenderness if it means having my life back! I have also had a few positive side effects, namely, my libido which was completely dead has started to re-emerge, and I am eating less, although I haven't lost any weight yet. (I used to have a compulsive desire to binge and that has waned.) I have more energy but whether this is due to the Wellbutrin or just ot being in a fog of depression, I can't say. Overall, Wellbutrin has been a very positive medication for me. I have used Prozac and Zoloft in the past and they neither worked as well on my mood and also had many unbearable side effects (weight gain, loss of libido, inability to orgasm to name a few). I'm hoping once I have been stabilized for a while the doctor will allow me to lower my dose and perhaps then the breast tenderness will go away.

I am now weaning off of Wellbutrin after 4 months - I was taking it to quit smoking (I had just been through a very stressful divorce and I was smoking way more than normal.) I did not experience most of what has been discussed here (negative side effects) except for mild headaches. I am posting this simply to tell the few people who have experienced the headaches that I believe this will go away. I (like a dummy) told myself I'd only take 150mg a day rather than the whole 300mg my doctor had prescribed. This didn't work - I needed the whole 300mg, taken at 150mg doses at exactly 12 hour intervals (this makes a huge difference!) About two weeks after beginning this med, I experienced feelings of euphoria (which were quite pleasant!) but feel like I balanced out within a month. One other side effect was a change in menstrual cycle - I'm normally exactly 28 day-predictable, but missed every other month in the four months I've been on this (coincidence? Not sure...) I also drink beer nearly every night (2-4 bottles, sometimes none, sometimes more) and never had any type of seizures. Bottom line...this drug definitely helped me cut way back on smoking - I am a stress smoker and since this alleviated my stress, I didn't smoke hardly at all. Now that I'm weaning off (and yes, I did cut pills in half and have not experienced anything bad) I am curious to see if my desire to smoke will return.

Just wanted to post this out there for anyone who has had similar side effects. Overall, I have been very happy with this drug (but have never taken other Anti Depressants, so can't compare with others).

My son and I have both taken Welbutrin. I didn't really notice a lot of side effects. I know that it did not effect my sex drive which other meds did. I lost weight, lost interest in drinking alcohol, lost interest in smoking. Had more energy,
My son has had some different things happen to him. He gets real sharpe headache pains in the left top of his head. They come and go away within about 30 seconds. Has anyone ever had that problem? He tried getting off of the meds and experenced all these body pains. It drove him nuts so he went back on welbutrin. The body pains have gone away, but the head pains came back. The doctor said the head pains would go away if he took his meds regular.

I started taking Wellbutrin three weeks ago. I had been taking Zoloft for four years and it had been working fine except my insurance company tripled the cost and I was beginning to have to take more to get the same results. I thought Wellbutrin might be good alternative after doing some research and my doctor thought it would be good for me to try out. Well, since I have been taking Wellbutrin I have become emotional (wanting to cry at things I would never cry at before), more irritable, my husband says "I am not the same person", dizzy, two sips of a beer gave me a horriable headache which lasted until the next morning, I had to sit down on a bench at the mall because I felt like I was going to faint, and worse of all my brain became very "fuzzy" feeling. It was like my short term memory was damaged. I am taking a Spanish class and was doing well (A's). After I started taking Wellbutrin I could not concentrate enough in class to learn, even saying to my professor, "please skip me, I am not feeling well". It was humiliating. I have maintained a 4.0 in every class I have taken since 1999 and completed a masters degree last year. So, all in all-this was my experience. Maybe if I had taken it longer, it would have been different, but it was like torture for me. One positive note....I felt absolutely no internal depression after a week of taking it (other than being upset about the other symptoms). It worked really well in that area.....so, maybe if others do not have all the symptoms I experienced, it would be a very good drug to take for depression-just not for me!

I am severly depressed (no exaggeration) and my depression hasn't responded to Zoloft, Prozac, Celexa, Effexor or Buspar which is really very irritating. After being on so many meds I was close to giving up hope than I found Wellbutrin. I don't want to sound like an advertiser for it, but I have never been helped so incredibly much by a medication. My self confidence has returned, I am twice as productive as I used to be, I actually get out of bed and sex has been great. I am on 400 mg. , I take 200mg. SR twice a day. When it wears off I do notice I get tired, but thats not too bad I sleep well! When it kicks in it's great too, because I have trouble getting up and getting going in the morning and it really does help me get going. Ive cut way down on caffeine because my sensitivity to it has more than doubled. I've also cut down on cigarettes which is great. I do have a few negative side effects but I am willing to deal with them for the amount this med has helped depression. I have a racing pule and heartbeat, pretty bad headahches and nausea. Sometimes I feel almost too speedy, but it ok. I find that OTC sleep aid helps out when I need to calm down. I recommend this to anyone who has a depression marked by fatigue, overeating, cigarette problems etc.

I was on 100 mg twice a day and than 150 mg twice a day of bupropion generic for wellbutrin and I noticed no increase in mood elevation and only had negative side effects except for the 5 lb average of weight loss. I had itching and ear ringing in my left ear that has not gone away. I'm thinking of contacting a lawyer also like the other guy who wrote about the hearing loss. Heard about some hearing loss report on the news back in michigan but missed the report. Anyone else similar side effect?

If first you don't succeed, try again. I couldn't tolerate the wellbutrin XL (extended release version) but did very well on the regular wellbutrin at a low dose (75 mg once a day).

While taking a trial of wellbutrin XL, I felt unusually tired, but I had insomnia to the point I had to go to wallmart to purchase generic brand sleeping pills, which I'd never taken before. This did not go away even after several days. I felt like I did when I first popped a psuedoephedrine 24 hour release pill for allergies when I didn't fall asleep until a half hour before I was due to get up. Ever since then, I laugh about how fucked up psuedoephedrine 24 hour release is and how it make me feel as high as a kite. I didn't feel high on wellbutrin, but I tossed and turned uncomfortably even though I was more tired than usual and only wanted to catch some shut eye.

Furthermore, on wellbutrin XL, I felt anxious for no reason, a weird sort of amphetamine addict or drugged up shake that I couldn't tolerate. I never do well on extended release versions of medications, however, because I experience more side effects for whatever reason. I'm glad I decided to try a lower dose that isn't an extended or sustained release because it worked well.

I like wellbutrin in general. Other positive effects are feeling slightly less depressed (not overwhelmingly so though), and feeling more intelligent and consequently, more self-confident. I also have more energy to do daily tasks, and am much more organized. I also notice I'm more logical minded and less impulsive. I think my thoughts are clearer and consequently, I feel more stable, which is all good.

Negative side effects are, especially when I first started taking it, unusually greater hyperactivity. First, it effected me in such a way that I felt even manic and like an ADHD little kid who runs around before bedtime and acts silly and hyperactive. This diminished after taking a lower dose and also after several days after it had been in my system. Now, I'm not troubled by hyperactivity.

Also, when I added this to my prescribed zoloft, I feel like in a fog from hell. Especially this was true after I ran out of ritalin and had to rough it for two weeks on just wellbutrin and zoloft. For example, at the convenience store, I look like I'm a vicodin addict as simple choices becomes overwhelming and I'm inundated by a baffling array or options, such as whether to buy sunchips or pretzels and lollying and looking lost as I wander the isles to the point the salesclerk probably thought I was going to steal something. Especially after I dropped my purse on the ground and started rummaging around to see how much money I had, also increasing my options because I could buy alcohol too, only I couldn't decide which kind, the raspberry zodka or plain, or should I just buy a bottle or wine since all they had were 6 packs or smirnoff ice? Luckily, the salesclerk looked like she was stoned so she probably didn't notice, although when I said "and I'm the red car on that pump", I couldn't remember which number it was, she said, "so that's YOUR red car" as if there was a huge discussion amongst the two on who owned the red car parked at the pump for so long.

I decided not to take zoloft with wellbutrin and that wellbutrin is no substitute for ritalin. I like wellbutrin better than zoloft, however, because althought it doesn't help my OCD or anxiety, and I think makes them worse, it still makes me feel more capable simply because I do better at work and in life - organizing things and the like.

Lastly, since I'm more anxious on the wellbutrin/ritalin combination, I'm currently looking for a medication to go with the two to treat my anxiety and OCD without making me feel like I'm in a fog. However, I feel very pleased with wellbutrin because it helps my depression and ADD and the side effects are mild, and even less noticeable at a lower dose for me.