Wellbutrin

[Punk3]

Went to see my Dr. yesterday and i asked her if she could give me something different for my depression. I also told her that i'm trying to come off pain pills. I was taking 15-20 daily. It's been day 8 and i'm down to 8x daily. So she prescribed me Wellbutrin. Does anybody know anything about the medication. I also take Cymbalta and Lamictal and Ambien.

[ZJILLIAN]

You are on quite a cocktail of meds. You don't say what pain pills you have been using or for how long, but the one thing I know for absolutely sure is that they interfere with the optimal functioning of the other meds you are taking. So if your depression did not seem reponsive to the Cymbalta that would be the first thing I would think about. Does your doctor know that you are also taking pain pills along with the psychoactive meds she is prescribing. She really should. I in no way want to sound harsh but I did the same thing and until I stopped the pain medicine I was not giving the other meds a fair trial.

As to Wellburtin, it is a good drug,an antidepressant that activates people. However you are taking lamictal  and I wonder if you have had past problems with hypomania? Wellbutrin can cause a hypomanic episode in some people so watch out for that.

I think you are doing great tapering your pain pills. That is extremely hard to do and it is good that you found this site. Keep posting and people here will help you through that withdrawal.

One other thought, based on lots of personal experience, the pain pills cause depression. Really, that is something I know for sure but it somehow didn't mean enough for me to stop using. So I continued on antidepressants for years while using and just thought that the antidepressants didn't help me. When I would stop using pain pills and get through the withdrawal....miracle of miracle the antidepressants started to actually have a chance and they started working.

I think once you are through your withdrawal and give yourself time to recuperate you will get a better sense of what your medications can do for you.

Keep posting. and GOOD WORK!!  

[SophieShine]

Hi and welcome to the forum!
Wellbutrin is an atypical AD and with them it's very personal, it really depends from one person to another. Give it the time to kick in tho, it takes a minimum of 2 weeks.
Best of luck to you.
sophie.