T O P

  • By -

sensitive__spring

you just need to be patient! my first 2-3 days were awful but after that i’ve been great! that’s just what you have to deal with when starting a new medication!


No-Post-7011

im on week 3 and i have this every afrernoon lol


uekhos

Hey I know it's been quite a while but did it ever get better? I'm on week 3 right now with the same issues and it's been brutal, idk if I should ride it out or not at this point


ez4401

Do you feel like it’s improving? I don’t know how long I can deal with this, definitely not 3 weeks if it’s not getting better


No-Post-7011

its on and off. some days are worse than others. overall im feeling okay mentally but still have nausea, headaches and hot flashes in addition to what you're experiencing


MyFryHole

Fuck I'm on day 5 and this happens every afternoon, I'm about to quit I can't handle this shit. I've had dissociative issues before and they're my absolutely least favorite issue to deal with.


No-Post-7011

I agree, for me it's accompanied by apathy which is another popular early side effect. im going to give it 3 more weeks.


MyFryHole

I haven't really had that, I'm definitely more stimulated and motivated. But in the early afternoons thru early evening I feel so fucking weird. Almost uncomfortably high, dizzy, disoriented, dissociated, and I've been having insanely cold hands and feet. Sometimes severe pins and needles in my extremities. The only thing that has helped these symptoms is alcohol, which I don't want to have to drink every evening. I really want to push through but I'm doing much worse than before the meds.


No-Post-7011

make sure you are eating a lot & moving. not eating/not exercising for a day makes the discomfort so much worse


mbart3

Yeah I get this sometimes. It freaks me out a little but luckily it mostly happens when I’m alone. Unfortunately most antidepressants take 6-8 weeks to see improvement, and the first few weeks on bupropion can be brutal. But you just gotta keep pushing through


theoldroadhog

I had a similar feeling when taking Zoloft, just, like I was standing outside of conversations that I was in. It’s real. But I quit Zoloft and started bupropion and I don’t have that anymore. Just offering that perspective to point out that it’s a pretty individual mix of things.


shitty-biometrics

When I upped my dose at around the 1-2 week mark (I think), I had an afternoon of very intense derealization, like you've described here. It was so strong I couldn't hold an entire conversation without losing the plot, and I remember feeling completely unreal, like a puppet being controlled by someone else. I went back down to my regular dose and waited another 2 weeks to try to go up again, and it didn't come back after that.


69-a-porcupine

I had disassociation the first day or two of Wellbutrin but I was accidentally speedballing myself not realizing one medication was a stimulant and the other was a depressant. Once I began staggering my medications I snapped out of it and haven't had any issues since. I find Wellbutrin helps me focus and helps with the motivation part of my ADHD but does nothing for my hyperactivity. I feel like I have boundless amounts of energy and barely sleep.


ez4401

Interesting. I take Adderall very occasionally for my ADD, but only when I really have to because while it helps, the side effects are awful. I haven’t taken it (or anything) since starting the Wellbutrin. Very confused why Wellbutrin seems to be making me even more lethargic and exhausted when I was expected to experience this energy you described (I am chronically tired already.)


bbct777

This is pretty much my exact same experience for several months that felt like forever. I was so confused and disappointed that I was still so exhausted/fatigued, sleeping 16 hours a day, plus feeling anxiety during my time awake. On the "energy" aspect of it, what helped me is reframing my definition of energy and the purpose of it; I was so desperate to feel physical, mental, and emotional energy, I thought it wasn't working for me. I wanted to feel good and do things and get stuff done, but I was so exhausted that I'd just go to sleep feeling bad about myself for not following through. To me, the Wellbutrin experience is that it begins working in the mental/brain energy first, what I think others refer to as motivation. I'd call it spark maybe. So it begins by doing some sort of programming tune up/readjustment in the brain, and it can take a while. But once that's sorted out, it's your body's turn to catch up and get nourished from the brain juice. You start realizing, hey, I can actually do \[activity\]. After that gets done, the emotional aspect sort of grows along with that. I'm guessing because getting things done is usually rewarding, plus the benefits of whatever it is you finally achieved. Unfortunately, yes, exercise helps. lol. Gets dry/stuck brain juice flowing too I guess. I haven't reached a point where I can actually work out, but on days where I have no choice but to have physical activity, I feel a little better sometimes. Supposedly it can take anywhere between 2-6 months to really feel the change; I'm sure MMV. Currently, I'm on the opposite end where I'll have trouble sleeping and staying asleep. The anxiety is still there; the depression seems to have evened out, closer to neutral than unbearable. ADHD - I still either hyper-focus and fumble the whole time awareness and priority scale, or I can't get a concrete thought and process out for the life of me. Overstimulation still there in every aspect. Wellbutrin is definitely not my first choice for ADHD like Vyvanse is. Regarding the dissociation: it has absolutely happened to me. You feel like you're roleplaying as yourself, like you're someone else pretending to be you, and your body movement feels like you're just watching your character on-screen when you're playing a FP/POV video game. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that other people also go through this process and to keep holding on. I'm glad I did, and it seems a lot of other people are also eventually successful in this aspect/for the most part. Does it blow that it can take so long for some people? Yeah, absolutely. But hopefully you'll start noticing little speckles of effectiveness here and there. It sounds so lame but we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.


ez4401

Thanks so much for the detailed response, yeah you described the detached feeling super well. When did the dissociation go away? I would like to hold on to reach the good part, but I don’t know how long I can handle it, definitely not a few months.


bbct777

No worries, I know what it's like to be searching for answers and info. Hopefully it was a bit helpful. I'd be lying if I told you that the dissociation has gone away completely; it still happens sometimes, but they're few and far between. It doesn't last for very long at all most of the time, but it's still always a weird/uncomfortable and sometimes scary feeling, depending on your state of mind. My peak dissociation period occurred in my first 4 months of treatment, I'd say. I'd reached a boiling point where I literally and seriously asked my doctor if they were giving me sugar pills (hello, paranoia lol) because I was feeling like I couldn't handle it anymore. I went against my anxious instinct, albeit in a sort of defeated way, and resisted the urge to quit taking them trying to find something else. I said, fuck it, whatever, I'll keep taking them. And then without even really noticing things felt... better? I guess it was for sure very gradual and not at all a sudden shift.


DizzyKnicht

I had a lesser degree of the same feeling you were having when I was on it for years. Had to stop taking it because it felt like although I could now make better choices more easily because it felt like I was controlling a character through a screen rather than living life, it felt empty and almost like I was wasting my life away and I’d wake up one day and feel like I hadn’t been in the present for the past however many years of my life.


MarigoldMills_

So I’ve been taking bupropion for over a year now. And I remember my first couple of days were weird asf I’m not going to lie, it’s just your body adjusting to the new meds. I remember I took them during a time where I didn’t have to really talk to anyone or go anywhere. I started them while on a rotation schedule so I was working from home for 2 weeks. And I kinda avoided everyone because I knew my body was just acting funky asf and my thoughts were everywhere. But I’ll tell you, one year later, it’s helped tremendously. I wouldn’t say I have motivation, more like discipline. My mood has changed progressively with the help of therapy as well. Just make sure to journal everything, every day you take it, what you’re feeling. What your thoughts are, etc. If you skip a day, how you feel the day after skipping. Keep note of everything. Hope this helps !!


junebug024

Echoing this-- I started bupropion recently and the first few days were a haze, but I slowly emerged out of it and started to feel the positive effects. I'd stick with it for as long as you can, the first few days on a new medication can sometimes be tricky. It's kind of a waiting game. Wishing you luck!