Pills Wearing Off or No

[guldensme]

I am on 10 mg. Cipralex, 150 mg. Wellbutrin XL, and 50 mg. Trazadone.  Until recently, they have worked quite well, but for the past 3 weeks it's been downhill and I just feel more negative and isolated. Reasons are: my close cousin committed suicide, my boyfriend has been away for almost a month and won't return for another week, I am recently unemployed and trying to find a well paying job.

Should I assume my stress level has made my pills not as effective and try a change or perhaps having the Wellbutrin increased?

Appreciate any info.

[nursegirl6572]

Well, you've had a lot of life stresses lately, so it isn't unusual to see a change in your mood.  That being said, after some time, it IS common to need the occasional dosage increase of your meds to maintain the same level of effectiveness.

If you aren't already, I strongly recommend getting in therapy (or if you already are...increasding your sessions).  That's the perfect place to deal with these issues you have going on....and the perfect place to learn coping techniques.  If after addressing this in therapy for a while, you're still not feeling better, then I think it's reasonable to talk with your doctor about some med adjustments.  Your Cipralex dose is on the lower end...it may be as simple as bumping that up a bit..but again, I would work on the stressors with a therapist first.

While the meds are an important part of treatment, it's also important to recognize that when "life happens", we will not feel as great as we're accustomed to...and we need to be okay with that, it's normal.

[Bubulous]

That is what I would say.  My meds work wonderfully, when I am taking them, but if tragedy strikes I have to do the work to come out of it.  If you would like to learn how to cognitively work on it check out:

Fighting depression
Fighting depression part 2
Fighting depression part 3
Fighting depression part 4
Fighting impatience, stress, and fear

These can be found on this forum
If you want to up your meds or try something different talk to your dr but I would work on the cognitive stuff first before I would try to mess with the meds.