my new psychiatrist gradually took me off of ritalin+venlafaxin and introduced bupropion, first 150mg while cutting the venlafaxin dosage in half, and now 300mg of bup alone, completely removing venlafaxin
it’s been 4 days i think since this last update and it’s been fucking rough. i’m not sure if it’s just the venlafaxin withdrawal or if the bupropion is contributing to it, but i feel like shit, i’m getting constant brain zaps unless i remain completely still with as little stimulation as possible, been having nightmares every single day, am extremely irritable and im not even sure the bupropion is even helping at all
is anyone else under the same treatment? it feels like a fringe/experimental treatment, but id like to confirm this from other adhders
thanks
edit: thank you so much for all the answers! they helped me to calm down and reassured me a bit. the symptoms are starting to wear off, so that also halped.
very late update: the venlafaxin withdrawal waned off and now i’m feeling so much better than before. this is working way better than ritalin
I have been on both of those and I don’t think you’ll notice the bupropion helping until you’re out of the withdrawing stage. Venlafaxine is a really wicked one to quit, I’m a bit surprised your doctor didn’t do a longer taper off schedule.
For what it’s worth, I really loved buproprion, and it’s done wonders for my bff who also has adhd.
my venlafaxin dose was originally 75mg, so he planned to reduce it to 37,5mg for a month then take if off completely. reducing to 37,5 was fine so i thought taking it off would be too ig
fwiw not feeling that annoying ritalin anxiety anymore last month did indeed feel pretty good. your comment gave me a little bit of hope, so ty
Not what you asked and I don’t take bupropion, but I did come off of venlafaxine, and it was a horrorshow of brain zaps and nightmares until I went onto fluoxetine.
i knew venlafaxin withdrawals were nasty, but i didn’t know they could last so long. i thought id be fine after 2-3 days
my Dr said to expect a couple weeks when I go off it, if I ever do. and supposedly the all the way off is worse than just going down
Bupropion is the only antidepressant that works for my mood. The SSRIs and SNRIs make me feel numb and dumb, so I hate them. However, bupropion doesn’t have any noticeable impact on my adhd. I gotta take ritalin for that.
Bupropion was by far the most effective med I ever took, but I personally got really bad side effects and I had to stop really quickly. None of the side effects you got though. Just extreme tiredness and getting over emotional. I also might have had a mild seizure, but it’s not known if it was the bupropion that caused it. I was in the ER pumped with a load of other drugs that also could potentially cause it, but my psychiatrist took me off it anyway just to be safe.
My bupropion was jacking my blood pressure to the point where at an ER visit (for headaches from eye strain), the nurses were looking at me like I was the walking dead. I switched ultimately to a low dose of Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) which does the trick, without too awful sexual side effects. Also 20 mg Adderall ER.