I sent an ask to this effect to Luka on tumblr, but it occurred to me that I now have a large pool of people who might have experience! So: Two weeks ago, I switched from 300mg of Bupropion XL to 100mg twice a day of Bupropion SR. That was also the end of the semester. I timed it that way so I'd get through finals with the med I knew was efficacious, even if it did make me irritable sometimes. We made the switch because of the irritability: I was only taking a half-dose of it a couple times a week, because otherwise I got super irritable sometimes. On the lower dose, I am not irritable! Which, yay. But I have also been sleeping in a couple more hours, and being more sleepy in general. I also noted other stuff: feeling vague, having a hard time waking up harder to get more done: deep clean of the kitchen has taken 4 days so far to do, should have taken 2 at most during school no suicidal ideation - which is good! So it's at least a little effective was unable to calculate GPA in head: did not even notice an error of a third of a point in using a calculator wrong - this is bad! I am good at simple math. short term memory is a piece of shit: had to count pills to figure out how long I’d been taking the new meds Some of this is going to be decompression from a stressful semester. But it doesn't feel like all of it is - particularly the short term memory nonsense. And on June 17 I fly to Russia, where I will be taking 7 credits in 4 weeks. So I would . . . rather be on the ball. So, anyone who has taken Bupropion, did you have side effects like this? If you did, how long did they take to fade? These are not like the side effects I had when starting Bupropion XL, so I'm wondering how much is med adjustments and how much is fun exciting recurring depression.
I don't remember a lot of side effects at the beginning. I also don't remember the beginning at all, thanks to comforting brain fog that's obscuring memory of breakdown. However, I find that I have the exact opposite happen to me with my buproprion SR (same, 100mg 2xdaily). My afternoon dose literally is my second wind and takes the edge off any impending chemically-based brainweird. Of course it sounds like you're also switching from extended release (XR) to short release (SR) which might be a change in half-life problem but I'd want @Aya to weigh in on that particular issue, @Aya would know more than I do. IIRC buproprion/Wellbutrin is an atypical antidepressant, which basically means how it works. However, FWIW, this kind of sounds like to me you're having the ADHD reaction to caffeine: that something that peps up a lot of people does the exact opposite for your brain chemistry. I hope you don't get stuck in the psych meds do si do bullshit but this sounds like it might not be working for you. Pill sorters, too. They really help. Make me feel like a granny, because I do have one of those giant week-long four-times-daily organizers, but I double up and put two weeks' worth of meds in there at once. That way there's never a question of "did I take Thing?" because I already did the thinking about it when I filled the box. Of course, exfun means that sometimes I do not use the box.
I've been taking mine at noon and midnight, and not noticing anything immediate: I feel brain-foggy if I'm late by more than an hour, but have no problems falling asleep soon after my second dose. The higher dose acted more like it was expected to: the first couple weeks were full of tons of energy, very little sleep, and the feeling like I could do All Of The Projects before it leveled out and I was just a functional member of society (who got obscenely irritable once a week, but that also seemed like it was maybe mellowing around the 6-month mark). I also really don't want to get stuck on the psych meds do si do - SSRIs are not an option, and considering that I do creative work on contract in addition to university, extended periods of low function are also not an option. So if it looks like this is really just not working as opposed to being a trying adjustment period, I'm gonna just go back to the higher dosage and practice mindfulness so that I'm not horribly bitchy at anyone.
wellbutrin turned me into a happy marshmallow. i was content to just... do nothing. all the time. i had no motivation, no interest in anything, but i was fine with having no interest in anything. idk whether it was the wellbutrin or just that i'd been dealing with anxiety unmedicated for so long that when it lifted i just sort of needed to drift for a few months. anyhow, i was on it for quitting smoking, not for depression. (i did have depression, but was only treating it with therapy at the time.)
Yeah, I'm having trouble separating whether it's too low a dose and I'm slipping into lethargy or just the sudden lack of stress now that the semester's over. Like, the end of last semester was accompanied a much shorter and milder version of some of the same symptoms, but the end of last semester also involved like a third as many papers.
Wellbutrin made my partner seriously paranoid and gave her hives. It was quickly dropped! It seems to be one with a huge variance in how people respond it it.
