i'm starting medication, and i am scared.

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Hallo.

I was prescribed medication for depression today by my psychiatrist and the nurse practitioner. it's apparently a very mild dosage of an antidepressant named Wellbutrin, but i am still afraid. i'm just hoping it will work and i won't feel so crushed anymore, but i think that in giving up my depressions, i may be giving up one of the only really powerful emotions that i feel i am very familiar with beyond excitement/anxiety, anger, and schadenfreude.

I'm afraid for a number of other reasons, but most of those reasons are most likely irrational.

i don't know if this will work, and i was on Prozac as a teen for a bit before i decided to start "cheeking" the meds. i hope i don't do that again... i would say it's unlikely though: given that i'm not 14 anymore and needing to "buck" oppressive authority of some kind. ...i can feel the little 14 year old rebel inside of me, kicking the walls about the place already, and the first pill hasn't yet alighted upon my tongue.

they are doing this particular medication because of my tendency to go up and down, and they don't want to elicit a negative reaction from me if i am truly bipolar, that is a potential hazard on other types of antidepressants. also, because i have a history of substance abuse (alcohol/marijuana) they are not willing to med me for my previously existing diagnosis of ADHD.

does anyone else here take WB? what are your experiences with the drug?

I'm a Prozac person myself, but I know folks on Wellbutrin and I don't think there's much to worry about. Wellbutrin seems to be the "aspirin" of the meds world. You seem to be well looked after - a doc and a nurse practitioner.

Let me tell you about my first Prozac. I was scared. I thought it might turn me into a lunatic. I didn't take it for a few days. Then I need to get some Robaxacet for my stiff muscles and I had to go to the bank. As I made a note of that, I decided to take the Prozac before going out. I swallowed it and sort of sat there and waited to explode or something, but nothing happened.
I went to the store and took out the note I had made, and it said "ROB BANK." lol?

Anyway I'm not going to tell you what to do but if it was me, I'd take one and wait and see. If anything is wrong, don't be shy to call your doc or nurse practitioner. Another one you can call is the pharmacist, who will be glad to answer any questions, the phone number is on the bottle.

Get back to us and let us know how you're getting along.

Lexapro here,20mg.I do have some mood swings on it,some bouts of depression and some hypomania.But I feel better than I have in a long time.I can't do mood stabilizers,every one I took gave me bad side effects.Weight gain,vertigo,high cholesterol,and even a boil!!Yuk!! !!
You may have side effects at first,mine were dry eyes and extreme sleepiness.They went away after a few months.Good luck.

it's funny that you called it the Asprin of antidepressants... my therapist described it that way, too! the reason i'm going on WB is that i may be bipolar, but they don't know for sure, and one of the more established antidepressants' side effects in bipolar type 2, which is what they suspect me of, could be hypomania. because i don't have severely manic episodes; the harder drugs could push me over into a dangerous place. there is already some suicidality in my thinking, so they don't want to risk a push to a more dangerous state. i am glad i came to these people for help.

I've been on Welbutrin off and on for close to ten years and I think it's great. I have taken it with Lexapro together when I've had much worse depression and when I could afford the Lexapro, but right now I'm on just Welbutrin.

What exactly are you afraid of? I haven't really read of any bad side effects from it. This is what I've had, that I get every time I start taking it, and they go away within a few days to two weeks.

Headaches - I'm prone to headaches anyway and after the first few days I get pretty bad headaches. I usually ask the doc for about 20 Lortab or Tramadol to keep on hand so I don't have to go to the ER so often, because Tylenol, Motrin, OTC stuff doesn't help. This lasts about two weeks. Headaches about every two or three days.

Insomnia - I have a horrible time falling asleep the first two weeks, and I never take a dose later than 3pm when I'm taking the twice a day med. I just get two weeks of Ambien from the doc when I start the Welbutrin along with the headache meds, and I take an Ambien every night. After that I have trouble sleeping off and on, but usually it's nothing that Benadryl or Doxylamine can't help.

Shakiness - I get jittery and I feel shakey for the first four or five days, but then that goes away. That, to me, is the scariest symptom I get. I don't know what causes it, but it goes away.

Sexual side effects - My sex drive is all but gone and there isn't much enjoyment when I do have it. I'm just not interested.

Cigs - I can't smoke cigs after the first couple of weeks because they taste horrible! It's like smoking with cotton mouth and I don't even enjoy it. That's the thing that makes people quit with it, and oddly enough I don't really even miss it all that much when I'm on it. If you don't want to quit smoking then just keep smoking as you can, and that symptom goes away after three or four weeks and you are back to normal.

Forgetfulness - I tend to forget things easier when I'm on it, and I write things down more often. Lists for the grocery store, things I need to remember to get done, etc. Not crazy bad forgetfulness, just a little.

I have pretty bad depression and sometimes when I have a severe episode of it I just end up crazy. That happened last winter and since I got on the meds, I'm much better. Back to my normal self. I'll take them for 6 or 8 months and when I can't afford them anymore, of can't afford to go back to the doc for a refill I'll go off them. That's how it always works.

However, Welbutrin rocks. I love it. I took Prozac in the past, and Paxil and several others, but none work like Welbutrin. It's just a matter of finding the right one for you. Just because you had a bad experience with one, or several, in the past does not mean that you won't find one that works for you. It just takes time, patience, and willingness to go through trying them.

i really can't place what i'm afraid of. it's a very indistinguishable gut-reaction made of many parts. the main idea behind this fear is that i was so focused on fighting it on my own for many years, it's a little like i am giving up. though, i wouldn't have sought help had i not felt that i was truly at the end of my abilities to cope. i've tried talking to a therapist, and i usually end up frustrated. this leaves me with little in the way of options.

honestly, there was a though pattern ping-ponging about my head for a time – that i should just take meds and be the good little boy everyone wants me to be because obviously, something is wrong and i cannot control it, and until it is under control, i cannot realize the life i want.

i don't know how much of this is true and how much of it is a distortion. i will say that when i get depressed, i get really depressed. to the point where i can't function and i don't leave my apartment for weeks unless i have to. i still communicate with people via online, but it's mostly in forums like this, and not with personal acquaintances like on facebook. i don't get manically high; i never really get "happy". i have the outward appearance of flat mood for the most part, and i have been told by other people that they interpret that as being "laid-back", when in fact i am a roiling cluster of frustration and negativity on the inside. i get very angry very quickly, and i frequently turn to drinking or pot to mollify my distress.

I haven't been smoking pot for a while now; i get bored of it, and i feel like i can't think when i use it. (that is a good and a bad thing) i did actually try it as a "med" for my depression, because i live in CA and that is legal here. I had to actually go into a cannabis doctor's office and report that i have insomnia, which i don't. then they prescribed it for me. i think "medical marijuana" caused more problems for me than it was purported to solve, and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.. ...not that i'm a doctor or anything, anyway.

It's funny that you mention gut-reaction. When I took my first Prozac, I had a gut-reaction within 20 minutes that it was the right thing. Nothing really physical, but I knew then. The physical stuff came as it was supposed to, side-effects that went away etc.

Have you taken one? Any thoughts?

giving up the familiarity of depression, eh...that's more common than you think. It's also one of the main reasons that people with mental health problems don't recover. Don't be afraid of the unknown. Just remember that your illness does NOT define you. You are so much more than that.

Well, most antidepressants seem to take a few weeks to kick in so you may not see changes straight away. I've heard that it affects your sex drive, don't know if that's going to be a problem or not

I have been on Prozac. when i was 14 i was prescribed it for depression, but after i decided that i didn't like the even more "flat" feeling i had from it, i started cheeking the meds, and eventually outwardly rebelled against taking them. if you were asking about my current meds, i just got home from seeing the psychiatrist and having a talk, and she is calling the meds in for me tomorrow.



i would imagine that the "giving up familiarity" is very common. the effect on my sex drive is of little concern for me. if i can blot it out, i feel like i would be a better person for it.

Yes, I meant your current meds. Glad you spoke to the doc. Keep us posted.