Wellbutrin did not work for me either but I was put on it because I was in a state likely similar to yours. I had depression and they wanted that to go away but at the same time they could not put me on Zoloft or any other SSRi because they kne that when I came out of the depression I would become manic with the assistance of the SSRIs.
SSRIs are good for people with chronic depression or some with bipolar 2. They can also be used on us 1s but it has to be administered in the crisis mode of depression and used until just before we come out of it. That is when an anti depressent like Wellbutrin comes in.
In a lot of cases Wellbutrin will not work in crisis mode and SSRIs are too powerful for mild to acute states.
That is some very good advice. When I was first diagnosed with mental problems I cried for days. I did not want to be like my mother and sister. I always have been the one to take care of everyone. Anyway everytime they gave me medicine I would take it for a few days have a side effect and then stop. I did that in 2010-2012. I just completely stopped from from May 2013 to May 2014 because I said I was cured. Then I started crashing and going through the medicine cabinet trying to get anything refilled until I could find a doctor. Now I give my meds three weeks, if the side effects are still there then I tell the doctor and we come up with something else. I need everything I am on now, but I am figuring out what I should take with what because even though the doctor knows I need them she doesn't know how they are going to work for me. So she gave me permission to take them in the order that best helps me, as long as I take them. Well I slipped because of my birthday, only for two days and now I am so manic that I am scared. So I guess we will be trying something else. The only thing I don't understand is why she insists that I take Wellbutrin when I told here it does nothing for me. Maybe she knows something I don't.
Medication is a very complex thing. I have wondered that question before and here is what I come up with.
When a person gets on medication it is usually because they are imbalanced. Some say the medication stops working. This can be true and false.
The medicines that we take no matter if it is for pysical or emotional problems does not force its way into our systems (most of the time). Rather our systems take what they need from the medicines. I may start out with a certain medicine for extreme mood swings then drop to one that is less intense if I do the work required to be able to do that. At the same time I may start out with a medicine and progress through increases in that medicine till it does not work anymore then have to go to a more intense medicine.
The point is that yes if you are on a medicine it is usually necessary to take it everyday but if a certain side effect is to intense it is necessary for a medication change. It has to do with the half life of the medicine. If it stays in your system for 24 hours that means that it is gone in 24 hours. The halflife of the medicine is 12 hours. That means that it peaks at 12 hours and is gone in 24. If you wait until it is completely gone you run the risk of becoming more unstable and then you might as well not take the medicines at all.
I do encourage everyone to ask questions like this and learn about your medicines. Be an advocate for yourself but trust your dr at the same time.