Wellbutrin or "Zyban" User Experiences

[nicowolf]

I tried Wellbutrin back in the late 90s. I was on it for about 4 weeks when I broke out in hives. The warmer the area of my body, the worse the hives were. I spent about a week trying every over the counter solution I could think of. The hives just kept getting worse. When it got so bad that I couldn't put on undergarments, I went in to the Emergency Room. The doctor winced when she looked at the hives on my side. She said I was dangerously close to anaphylaxis. The only thing I changed was discontinuing the Wellbutrin, and the hives cleared up in about 3 days with the help of Benadryl and the initial shot of epinephrine.

The best part is that I continued to smoke through the whole time, even picked up a taste for pipe tobacco cigars.

[TheWrathOfSanity]

I was on Wellbutrin in late 2005/early 2006 because it was an anti-depressant safe for pregnant women, plus I (obviously) had to quit smoking.
I must say that during the pregnancy it was wonderful.
But, then I gave birth to my child and my hormones started to change and adjust back...
VIOLENT moodswings.

I had a cat who was not allowed to get in the windows if the blinds were down, she was trained.
I was in the kitchen making dinner, heard the cat get into the window, completely destroying my blinds in the process, and I snapped.
I flew out of the kitchen, across the living room and smashed the poor cat like a mosquito between the window and blinds. (not bad enough to hurt her aside from scaring the crap out of her and making her hide and sulk for two days, thank goodness)
I turned in a huff to find dropped jaws staring at me.
I promptly threw the pills away.

That was my last straw, but there were other moodswings.
I'd be fine and then snap. I'd punched walls and even people.
After the squished cat incident I started smoking again and struggled for 6 months finding another anti-depressant with no avail.
So I joined a bowling league.
(LOL! No lie.)

[virraszto]

I tried the generic wellbutrin last year. I was able to stay on it for 2 weeks. In that time, I cried at the drop of a hat. Stupid stuff made me cry. I'm not a cry baby--I very rarely ever cry, or get that emotional, and my hubby was freaking out.

The last crying episode was when I looked at my 18 yr old daughter, and broke down because I was feeling proud of her. I was bawling my eyes out. Now, I love my kids, but in the real world, stuff like that just doesn't happen.

Had to quit it.

Chantix made me sicker than a dog. I gave it two weeks and pulled the plug on it. I still smoked the whole time, and never lost my urge to smoke.

[craftmaker43]

I tried wellbutrin several years back. I was given this to help with my severe fatigue. I took 1 pill a day for 1 week. Made me a little sick to my stomach, but I tolerated it. I was willing to try anything! The second week, I was to take 2 pills a day. Once I started this, I was up all night. I was pacing, my heart was racing, almost like I was having panic attacks. When I called my doctor and explained the symptoms, I was told that the Wellbutrin shouldn't cause those symptoms. They pretty much made me feel like I was making it up. Needless to say, I stopped taking it, the symptoms went away and I changed doctors!!

[lvlninety9]

Seeing these stories of Wellbutrin brings back fond memories of trying to quit smoking. My doctor prescribed this heinous drug because of 2 problems that I was having. One I was depressed because I had a back injury and was out of work for 4 months. The other, and I don't know how true this is, is because he said that my smoking was impeding the healing process and thus making my back injury linger longer then it should have. Now I didn't have the nasty side effects or any effects at all from this lame excuse for a drug. I did cut down to 3 cigarettes a day, but I think it was because I had gotten so lazy from not being able to do anything that I just couldn't get myself up to smoke. It's sad but I stopped taking this pill shortly after. It didn't make quitting any easier and it damn sure didn't reduce any kind of anxiety, depression, or whatever other misguided notion my doctor thought it could fix. I did want to smoke just as much as I always did before I even took the pills, but the pain I was in and the fact that I had gotten lazy pretty much kept me from smoking as much as I used to.

[DangerMouse]

I was offered Zyban by my GP (if I went to a Smokers Anonymous type group... No ta!) but decided to stay well away from it after reading some of the stories of people who go absolutely loopy after taking it - it seemed just that little bit too common to have mental health issues as a result, and frankly I'd rather have had cancer than not be able to control my mind as normal.

[Nephthys]

I was on Wellbutrin for years for depression with anxiety. It was one of the only meds that worked without horrible side effects. I stopped smoking on accident when I first started taking it and I chalk that up to being too dehydrated to want to smoke.

It was about that time that they found that people taking Wellbutrin were quitting. It was a happy side effect.

Then the makers did something that was terribly irresponsible. They decided to market a serious antidepressant as a smoking cessation treatment. The misuse of antidepressants via improper dosing or incorrect diagnosis is very serious and here they were suggesting that SSRI should be passed out to people with perfectly normal brain chemisty. The symptoms of the OP sound like serotonin poisoning /serotonin storm which means that his dose was too high.

IMO, doctors without a detailed knowledge of SSRI/MAOIs are being extrememly irresponsible in using them to treat anything other than a competently diagnosed emotional/mental condition.

/off soapbox

[muldrick]

Tried Zyban years ago, did absolutely nothing. No side effects, no reduction in smoking...nothing.
Tried Chantix (which blocks nicotine to the brain?) It was only aggrivating because I still continued to smoke (less) but was aggrivated because I wasn't getting my nicotine.
Tried the e-cig, reduced my smoking to 3 (or less) cigs per day immediately!!

[rejoice]

This stuff made me so nervous. Like my insides was shaking. Could not sleep and still smoked. The cigs taste bad,but still wanted my nicotine. I took it for three weeks and could not stand any more.

[surbitonPete]

Originally Posted by rejoice

This stuff made me so nervous. Like my insides was shaking. Could not sleep and still smoked. The cigs taste bad,but still wanted my nicotine. I took it for three weeks and could not stand any more.

Hi rejoice......these drugs had been the last thing left for me to try but now I have been reading all these posts like yours ..I am so glad the e-cig came along before I had!!