Posted by Dragon Black on December 12, 2007, at 19:50:49
In reply to Re: Wellbutrin: SR totally different than XL? » Dragon Black, posted by zenhussy on December 10, 2007, at 17:40:05
Hi! Thanks for your response - this thread went over like a lead balloon, I think b/c most people have probably only tried one version. I'm on day 14 and doing much better. I kind of love Wellbutrin SR, despite a few annoying side effects, but they seem to be getting better for the most part. SEs include dry mouth, anxiety : ( and sore jaw from clenching and maybe grinding my teeth in my sleep, not sure, plus kind of overconcentrating at times, and sometimes a touch of aphasia. Stomach seems to be adjusting. Activating aspect has been great, caffeine intake halved over night, cigarette consumption also halved overnight (soon to quit, again, hopefully), drinking way down. Lots of good things. And I'm getting back in shape faster than I think I ever have (I roller coaster from fit to fat, like a good bipolar should, and can get into and out of shape shockingly quickly).
I had a terrible lump in my throat all last Fri-Sat, one of my more obnoxious anxiety symptoms, but since I've noticed that my anxiety seems to be down, though I'm still having periods where I completely overreact to minor everyday threats [on this note, in the archives I read a post from someone who said that his mother was a shrink and that she had found this odd correlation, that people who are anxious with expressway driving seem to do really well on Buspar. I'm one of these, (un?)fortunately]. I'm currently at 25 mg/day (10, 5, 10). You said that you did well on high dose buspar - what dosage were you on?
Thanks! It's nice to hear that someone else did well on this combo, as I'm really hoping that this could be, along with EPA, my magic potion.
> >>>I'm now on day 8 with the SR version, 150 mg x 2/day. Maybe part of it is that I'm monitoring myself more, but I feel like I am on a DRUG. It's like being on a moderate dose of amphetamine minus the euphoria/pleasure aspect. I think overall I probably do feel better, but I also just feel weird. It's been a big help with focusing at work and getting stuff done. But there are also the annoying aspects of being on a stim, like just not feeling normal, focusing too much sometimes, stomach feeling weird, etc. <<<
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> the mechanisms of release of the active medication in WB SR and WB XL are different. they're designed to release the active ingredient at different rates. due to metabolic differences some ppl feel certain versions of a med. more readily than another version. personally the XL was the mildest in the stomach dept. versus the SR and older original WB (the 3-4x/daily one).
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> the SR was noticably activating along w/ the weird stomach feeling and lack of desire to eat. the XL didn't have as much appetite suppression as the SR nor quite the kick-in-the-stomach feeling as the SR.
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> >>>Strongly anorectic! Can't believe how strong, have to remind myself to eat, calories are way down. Don't remember noticing this on XL (except to the extent that my self-medicating via eating due to depression largely stopped). Also, sex drive has dropped to almost zero. XL was fairly prosexual, almost too much at times. In short, it feels like a totally different med to me. Started Buspar on the same day (I know, obscures the perception of the individual meds, but I was desperate, and never had any problem going on XL and knew what it felt like). So far haven't noticed anything. I think my anxiety is up from the Wellbutrin, though, so some sort of effect is sorely needed. Also on 1.5 grams of EPA/day.
> Anyone have a similar experience or know what the deal is? Shouldn't XL and SR "feel" the same?<<<
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> in theory they 'should' feel the same but due to how they're released and absorbed in the body they can differ widely for each perosn.
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> have personally found higher dose buspar to be very effective along w/ combo of wellbutrin xl and wellbutrin sr against long term depression and raging anxiety. has taken a long time w/ pdoc to arrive at this current cocktail that alleviates more symptoms than the annoying side effects that come along for the ride.
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> hope you can ride out the SR long enough to see if your body can adjust to it.
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> how's day 12 treating you?
poster:Dragon Black
thread:799182
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071204/msgs/800441.html