Anyone taking Wellbutrin?

[HeartlandHank]

Does anyone have experience taking Wellbutrin? What do you think?

I have fairly recently (almost 2 months) got out of an opioid dependence. I'm experiencing a little bit of depression. It's not an extreme case... no suicidal thoughts... It's more like, I'm trying to remember what it is that made me happy in the past. Nothing brings it to me like I experienced before becoming dependent on opiates. I lack enthusiasm in anything I do and generally feel kinda "down"... pretty much all the time.

I'm also really wanting to quit smoking. I've been a heavy nicotine user for about 10 years. I really want to quit, but I am worried that it is going to add to the depression I am already experiencing post opiate dependency.

So, I'm wondering what kind of experience you have had with Wellbutrin.. and what you think about it in general.

I know I need to talk about it with a doctor, but, from my experience in the past, I get more useful info from those who take the medication than I do from a doctor.

 

[HeadieNugz]

Terrible stuff.
Took it as a kid, worst insomnia of my adolescent life.
Mind you i did end up being VIOLENTLY allergic once i built a blood level... Full body hives.
So i might not be the most impartial of test groups. I hear they use it for smoking cessation now.

 

[TripleMindedGee5150]

Google "wellbutrin experience ". I took it when it first came out. 16 years ago. For depression. It made me not depressed. I stopped taking it a month after because I'm just not a pill person. I also experienced insomnia.

 

[racerboy71]

sounds to me hank that you're just going through the post with drawl symptoms.. everything you mention is very common for any recovering opiate user.. i like to call it the junk funk..
you get clean and than you miss the action of the world of active addiction.. that was my life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.. it's like breaking up with your best friend or gf.. of course you're going to be down.. it get's better in time though as you find other things to fill your time with, hobbies, girls, what ever floats your boat.. but it's important to find something to do with all this free time you know have and to get out of your own head for a bit..

i'm not big on anti depressants .. funny coming from an ex heroin addict, i know, but still, seen lots of bad things come out of them for sure.. i'd give it some time and see how you feel in a bit before jumping in, just my $.02, although i've never used any anti depressants .. maybe others will chime in with a different, and more positive experience using wellbutrin..
g/l no matter what road you take..

 

[direwolf71]

I took it for about a week, didn't like it. I felt like my mind was in fast forward, to the point where it was like a movie and it was skipping scenes at times. Weird, I know, hated that feeling. I have been on Cymbalta for a while now and it seems to work with a few side effects...I am also in recovery btw. For some reason my brain didn't like the wellbutrin, I know other people who love it though. Also Cymbalta was the fourth anti depressant I tried before I felt leveled out, it can take a while to find one that works for you...good luck!

 

[HeartlandHank]

Yeah, one of the few side affects that really worried me was the insomnia. I already have that problem.
That might be a deal breaker for me.

Racer, yeah, you're probably right. I should probably just give it some more time.

 

[HeartlandHank]

Very helpful, thank you. It kinda sounds like it's not the best choice.

I think I'll try stepping it up with the exercise thing. It really helped for a while there. I got lazy and the junk funk kinda came back.

Fuck it... shits not that bad.

 

[Ringsixty]

I tried it to quite smoking Cigs. Didn't work. Had some freaky nightmares on that stuff.

Tried Chantix also...same effects.

Next try. I'm going to chain myself in the basement for a few days.... Go cold turkey!!!!

 

[Orithil]

I tried it to quite smoking Cigs. Didn't work. Had some freaky nightmares on that stuff.

Tried Chantix also...same effects.

Next try. I'm going to chain myself in the basement for a few days.... Go cold turkey!!!!

Or you could get an e-cig style vaporizer, so you're not getting the cancer causing crap while slowly weaning yourself off of nicotine.

 

[curious2garden]

Does anyone have experience taking Wellbutrin? What do you think?

I have fairly recently (almost 2 months) got out of an opioid dependence. I'm experiencing a little bit of depression. It's not an extreme case... no suicidal thoughts... It's more like, I'm trying to remember what it is that made me happy in the past. Nothing brings it to me like I experienced before becoming dependent on opiates. I lack enthusiasm in anything I do and generally feel kinda "down"... pretty much all the time.

I'm also really wanting to quit smoking. I've been a heavy nicotine user for about 10 years. I really want to quit, but I am worried that it is going to add to the depression I am already experiencing post opiate dependency.

So, I'm wondering what kind of experience you have had with Wellbutrin.. and what you think about it in general.

I know I need to talk about it with a doctor, but, from my experience in the past, I get more useful info from those who take the medication than I do from a doctor.

I just came off 22 years of opiates. Suffice to say all your emotions are blunted and strange and you have to work out all those years. Drugs to help control that only slow your recovery. Next you need as much aerobic exercise as you can do in a day. You have to force your body to increase it's own opiate production. It's thinking if it screams loudly enough you'll swallow some so it doesn't have to work.

We are amazingly efficient machines. I'd really suggest you make an appointment with a board certified psychiatrist and discuss this.. Wellbutrin.... OMG... well.. let's just say don't freebase that shit, mmmmmm k? But I would not substitute one drug for another that path does not end well. Get 6 months down the road from your last opiate and then put down the nicotine. But be kind and patient with yourself.

 

[gioua]

I just came off 22 years of opiates. Suffice to say all your emotions are blunted and strange and you have to work out all those years. Drugs to help control that only slow your recovery. Next you need as much aerobic exercise as you can do in a day. You have to force your body to increase it's own opiate production. It's thinking if it screams loudly enough you'll swallow some so it doesn't have to work.

We are amazingly efficient machines. I'd really suggest you make an appointment with a board certified psychiatrist and discuss this.. Wellbutrin.... OMG... well.. let's just say don't freebase that shit, mmmmmm k? But I would not substitute one drug for another that path does not end well. Get 6 months down the road from your last opiate and then put down the nicotine. But be kind and patient with yourself.

22 years myself I was on wellbutrin for about 2 years.. I was not aware it was a stop smoking med and I smoked during the entire time I was on it..so...
during the time I was on it.. I was also on other narco's for pain.. 1 year + off all my rx's

It took me a good 4+ mo's after I was off all the meds and during that time I went thru a wide range of emotions (I recall crying over a dog food add.. ) it will take awhile mentally and physically to start get your chemistry back in it's normal path..



congrats on getting off the narco's dont rely on another rx that will mes with your normal healthy self..

 

[cannabineer]

I just came off 22 years of opiates. Suffice to say all your emotions are blunted and strange and you have to work out all those years. Drugs to help control that only slow your recovery. Next you need as much aerobic exercise as you can do in a day. You have to force your body to increase it's own opiate production. It's thinking if it screams loudly enough you'll swallow some so it doesn't have to work.

We are amazingly efficient machines. I'd really suggest you make an appointment with a board certified psychiatrist and discuss this.. Wellbutrin.... OMG... well.. let's just say don't freebase that shit, mmmmmm k? But I would not substitute one drug for another that path does not end well. Get 6 months down the road from your last opiate and then put down the nicotine. But be kind and patient with yourself.

NOW they tell me
I, um, <cough!> did freebase Wellbutrin.
For me it was Super Speed.
It did what the *ordinary* stimulants did not ... generate the Rush.
So my experience is biased, but for me it was not the thing to do.

I'm not sure what to think about this one. It could be a cynical pep pill being marketed because it gratifies instantly and generates lotsa repeat business while sidestepping the known dislike the FDA has for stimulants - by being called Something Else. It could also be a legit depression therapy ... for some. It has a Something Elsey component; it sure isn't pure speed. I tripped spiky balls. I've also done the opiate addiction boogie, and have a weakness now for drugs of escape. Wellbutrin isn't necessarily an escape, but if you depend on fake get-up-n-go, you might be renting more trouble than help. Dunno how relevant this all is.

 

[2rollingstoned]

Hi, I can't give advice about pills, they've never been my thing but I do know about quitting smoking. I smoked for 32 years. One day at work I noticed I had 2 cigs left in a pack and decided out of the blue that I was not going to buy anymore. I smoked those last two at lunch and break time. I went home and smoked twice as much weed but anytime I wanted a cig, I smoked a joint instead. This will sound nutty but it worked for me.... for the next few days when I was at work and couldn't smoke a joint I had to go without. Each time I craved a cig I would go to the bathroom, look myself in the eyes in the mirror and repeat WE DO NOT DO THAT ANYMORE. For the first month if I went out with friends to a bar and there was smoking I would bring a little good smelling cigar of some kind and I would take a puff or two off the cigar and lay it down. I don't inhale cigar smoke so just taking a drag or two while having some beers seemed to get me over that hump. After the first month I didn't even have cigars anymore. These days you can get one of those E-Cigs and wean yourself off or step down gradually.

I've been tobacco free 4.5 years now. Cold turkey after 32 years. It is truly mind over matter and crazy as it sounds I would just have to tell myself I was NOT going to smoke. I am also very stubborn so I also looked at it in this way: cigarettes controlled my life and I don't like anyone or anything controlling me. My days revolved around when I could smoke at work. If we traveled I tried to always find a smoking hotel room. Going to a movie was unbearable because I needed to smoke before the movie was over and I would miss out on all the good parts of the movie by spending it outside smoking. It had taken over my bank account and I would make cigs a part of the budget like groceries. Milk, bread, carton of cigs.....

I decided this shit was NOT going to rule me. The worst part of quitting smoking for me was the fact that I smelled like that all those years. I thrive on smelling good, nice perfume and what not and when I figured out how wretched that I, my house, my clothes, my car reeked with a foul stench it sealed the deal for me.

I am a rabid anti smoker now. I still believe folks have their right to smoke cigs but I ask they go out in the parking lot to do it outside a business instead of right beside the door where we have to walk thru clouds of it on our way in or out.

We were going to a new place near where we moved to have a cocktail and relax and soon as I walked in I had to leave. The cigarette stench literally made me want to be sick.

Its the only thing I dread about going back to Las Vegas is the smoking in the casinos. Yuck.

You can do this, its mind over matter. If you can give up your best friend drugs you can give up her stinky sister cigarettes. You have to really center yourself and concentrate on being stubborn and not letting cigs rule your life or give them a chance to kill you.

You got this. Decide to stop and just DO IT!!! We got your back and will encourage you!

*waves cheerleader pom poms*