side effects of wellbutrin?

I keep getting stuck, I think I might have mild depression.  I have thought about going on wellbutrin xl.  What are others experiences with it?

Any weight gain or weight loss?  Tiredness?  Help your depression?

It's been a few years since I was on it. It did help lift my depression, but I took it in combination with adderall. Adderall (sp?) is actually an attention deficit disorder med, but it's also used to help with depression. Both of those meds are known to cause weight loss. I lost several pounds when I was on them, but was not at all overweight to begin with. I've heard others who were overweight say they also lost pounds.

i took it and it gave me anxiety, agitation, and made me very irritable with difficulty sleeping.  I stopped it after a short trial.

Wellbutrin XL didn't have any effect on my weight. However....I apologize, I am not trying to scare you, my sister is having good results with it and my mother was on it and didn't have the same side effects....it made me paranoid and dangerously suicidal.

I'm also on it.  I can tell when I miss a pill or two on accident and it takes two weeks to get back into shape mentally...

 

how terrible is that...but I havent had any side effects and its worked well for me... 

My fiance was on it for about 6 months to help him quit smoking, and it really killed his appetite. I think he lost like6 or7 lbs, but he wasn't exercising either, and he still ate cheeseburgers and pizza for almost every meal, just not as much. :|


He eats much better now that he's with me ;)

I'm on it right now and yes, it does have an effect on appetite for many people. 

Make sure you know which one you're being prescribed though.  If you're with an HMO, they might try to substitute a generic form, and they might substitute SR instead of XL, which for me had horrible side effect which others described here in this thread.  Agitation, difficulty sleeping, irritibility, unable to concentrate, it was very unpleasant.  The XL was much easier to tolerate, but still has a small effect on my sleep patterns.

I was on it for a little while and it was awful. I could take it at 6am in the morning and still not be able to sleep that night. It made me clench my jaw a lot which gave me headaches. It also made me feel nervous and uneasy and shakey most of the time. I gave it about a month to see if the side effects would wear off, but they didn't. I couldn't continue to live like that especially not being able to sleep, so I gave up on them. It didn't work for me, but thats why they make sooooo many diff drugs. It all affects people differently. I know some people that love it.

About a year ago, I started on Wellbutrin XL and did have some difficulty sleeping, although I did immediately feel better and have more energy.  Due to the sleep issue, my doctor switched me to SR, which I only take in the morning.  I was also taking Paxil at night and that combination did work well for me.  I didn't lose weight, but I know that Paxil can cause weightgain.  Over the last few months, my doctor has slowly decreased my Paxil dose and increased my Wellbutrin.  So, I am now taking what is considered the "average dose" of Wellbutrin, so we'll see what happens.  I have never had any negative side effects from it.  I have missed a dose and haven't noticed any problems, but I have a slow metabolism, so I would have to miss a couple days before I noticed anything.  I would say that Wellbutrin has greatly increased my quality of life.

I would suggest meeting with a psychiatrist to discuss your options.  There are so many pills out there that work in different ways.  Everybody experiences anxiety and depression a little differently, so your psychiatrist will help to match you with the appropriate drug.  They will also start you on a very small dose first. 

Hope that helps,

Leigh-Ann

Wellbutrin effects everyone differently. When I took it I had irregular heart palpitations while laying down at night and had to stop taking it. Also I felt like a zombie all day long but I have heard some other people say that it gave them lots of energy. I also had very bad headaches on it.

The advice given by Leigh-Ann, to meet with a psychiatrist, is very good advice. An internist may not have all the information you need. And, the very last reason to take a powerful med like Wellbutrin should be weight loss. A doctor convinced me to try XL a couple of years ago, and the only thing it did for me was make my blood pressure go up into the danger zone! 
I left that doctor, found another, and am off all meds, walking every day, watching sodium and eating soy nuts. My blood pressure (after an entire year!) is back in the safe range. Wellbutrin can really affect your system, many report blood pressure problems and worse.
While some anti-depressants have worked wonders for people with severe depression, those of us who have what is referred to as low-level depression respond much better to the "natural" cures of exercise, healthy diet, deep breathing, etc.
I am convinced this is the only way to go. If you're at a plateau, change your exercise routine. It's much more affective for both your mind and your body. After my experience, those drugs really scare me. You should be scared, too.

It gave me headaches, but I get headaches from everything.

But really, don't medicate yourself for weight loss. Medicating yourself is a big decision and if your only sign of depression is an inability to drop that last 5 pounds, it is not severe enough to merit medication, imo.

Have you tried getting one of those lamps that mimics real sunlight? I've known people who that helped with mild depression. Are you exercising? That is another way to relieve depression and burn calories at the same time. You could try meditation as well, or counseling.

I had a long period of depression/anxiety and in my experience, the side effects from medication gave me more problems than they helped. Plus the cost. And even though when I was on them I felt somewhat less crappy, my life was still lousy. It wasn't until I went off the meds and I couldn't medicate the unpleasantness away anymore that I really started to deal with life and learned how to either deal with things or change them. And putting yourself in a place where you can be really actually happy without medication feels great.

I've been on quite a few anti-depressants, I was on Prozac when I tried to commit suicide. After that, I got on Zoloft for about 10 years, and after awhile ( about 7 years ) it still worked, but I couldn't take being so tired all the time. So my doctor gave me Adderall, which the combination of the two worked perfectly. Then......  I didn't have health insurance any longer, and when I couldn't afford the $200 a month for Adderall, I got a coke habit..... now that I have insurance and was honest with my therapist, she will not give me Adderall any longer. I am kinda pissy about that, so anyway, I am now on a low dose of Zoloft, and take Wellbutrin in the mornings. This is my 2nd, 3rd month on Wellbutrin and I am having wicked suicidal thoughts..... I even was searching online for an urn for myself !!

I've tried wellbutrin in the past. I was on it for about 1 week. I was on paxil, and then effexor, and didn't like the side effects, so I tried wellbutrin. When I was taking this stuff, I would cry for no reason. I would cry just by watching commercials. I just wasn't myself.
I think the one antidepressant that worked the best for me was paxil, but I gained a lot of weight on it and the withdrawal is horrible.  I was also on lexapro for quite a while. I think that also caused some weight gain. I just got off of lexapro earlier this year, and I honestly feel the same way that I did while I was on it. :/

Honestly, I think your best bet would be to go to a psychiatrist. Many family doctors will give you whatever antidepressant you want to try, without doing any kind of psychological evaluation (at least that's my experience). It's almost as if they're using any antidepressant of their choice as a bandaid to fix the problem. Different drugs work on different neurotransmitters. If your depression is caused by a problem with a neurotransmitter(s), then finding a drug that specifically works on that neurotransmitter would be the most beneficial.  Unfortunately, this is usually done by trial and error which can take some time.

Hope this helps.. :]