Effexor ER and Wellbutrin - Feel worse before better? One week in.

[William29]

Im one week into effexor and wellbutrin and feel worse. I know it takes time but could they possible make me feel worse first? Can barely hold it together at work, have zero motivation, and for whatever reasons on the verge of tears. Good times...

[anxiouscat16]

Hang in there! It does tend to make you feel worse before you feel better.... when I tried to get back on my meds it took a few weeks to start feeling okay again. Then about 6 weeks to feel normal. But you got this! I hope you feel better soon...

[William29 in reply to anxiouscat16]

I appreciate your response. It sucks so bad. Im usually a more confident person but feel so vulnerable and down. I don't want to be around anyone unless I can trust talking to them. Thats not very many people.

[Hidden in reply to William29]

Hey how are you feeling? I just started effexor and i had taken it 5 pm each day started friday but wake up shaky everytime?

[William29 in reply to Hidden]

Much better. It was probably a week and a half I started feeling better. I take it when I go to bed and take wellbutrin in the morning. I wake up a lot at night but can always fall back asleep. Never woke up shaky but it did make me sweat in my sleep some. Let me know and I'll help any way I can!

[Hidden in reply to William29]

Thanks for the reply. Glad it’s starting to help u!!

[WiltedFlower]

hello, william. I too am on wellbutrin and I would agree that it got worse for me before it got better. Not all situations are the same. Please hold on, though. But if things get too rough, maybe you should talk about changing medications, maybe they just aren't the right choice.

[William29 in reply to WiltedFlower]

Thanks WiltedFlower. I'll stick with it hoping one of these days the meds will work their magic along with any changes I can make. It weighs on me like a heavy blanket.

[WiltedFlower in reply to William29]

maybe it could be the combination? have you been either one of those meds singularly?

[William29 in reply to WiltedFlower]

Used to be on Wellbutrin and Lexapro. Eventually weaned of the Lexapro and then the Wellbutrin. I recently started getting down, stressed, and struggling. Wanted to try something different and started these two meds at the same time.

[WiltedFlower in reply to William29]

well only time can tell how it goes, take care of yourself, please. stay safe!

[animalfanatic44]

I agree with anxiouscat16! Sometimes it takes time for it to get better so it might feel worse at first. I have taken Effexor in the past and it did not work well for me personally, but am now on Wellbutrin and love it. I do experience the verge of tears on my Wellbutrin but the pros outweigh that con! Hang in there and be gentle with yourself, it’s tough adjusting to Meds! Thinking of you ❤️

[animalfanatic44 in reply to animalfanatic44]

I would also say chat with your doctor! My psychiatrist was able to do genetic testing to figure out what medications work for my dna so I could skip the guessing game!

[wittsend0]

The number one thing I have found, for my metabolism over the last 40 years. (everybody is different) is they over prescribe the hell out of the drugs. I had suffered from what I called a sinking feeling of depression, that felt like a heavy weight sitting on my heart. (For lack of a better description)

I was on Wellbutrin years ago for a year. It was the third drug the doctors scripted, because the others had terrible side effect. Wellbutrin, I believe helped, but for me, was a limited difference. More later...

If they offer 2 pills 3 times a day. Don't, and let the doctor know why, so they are informed. Take one every other day for a week. See if it helps. If not take 2 pills, every other day, again for a few days. If that doesn’t help, work your way up to the dosage they suggested but slowly.

My first year I was taking 1 pill every other day, if it helped? And I'm still here, so, I have to assume it helped at some level. But nothing is a night and day difference. The sinking feeling of depression did subside after a couple weeks on the low dosage of the drug. I had also put myself in counseling, since death felt like the only choice for a very long time. Again, still here. So was it a combination of therapy and the drug? The drug? Will never know for certain. The doctor finally agreed I was past the placebo affect and was the lowest dosage he had ever seen work.

After a year I weaned off of it, and I believe it built up, or balanced which ever receptor it was affecting, because I was off the drug for many years, minus the sinking feeling of depression.

I am back on the drug prescribed for a different reason and again, they prescribed 2 pills, 3 times a day and again I worked my way up to 1.5 pills, (very low dosage), every other day and have been for a couple years at this point.

As a test, I decided to work the dosage up to see how I would fare (Depression). And low and behold the side affects started to kick in without any further benefit of the dosage increase.

In regards to mental illness, nothing happens over night.

It will take time.

Keep the doctors informed, if not, they wont have a fitting chance at helping.

Good Luck

(Now, if I could just get past my own crap, he says, while offering opinions to others)

[michellelogan]

Effexor was horrible for me..felt like I was full of mud up to my eyes....wellbutrin is so much better. No side effects .feeling "lighter"..... Everyone is different...but tell your Dr. It might be just the effexor.

[Crashinator]

It's been years since I started Effexor but from what I remember it did take a while to take full effect. Be patient. When Effexor works, it works really well.

[Houstongirl51]

I was on Effexor xr for a long time and just weaned off of it last year I couldn't take Wellbutrin and either could my sister so that may be the colbert making you feel worse. It made my sister feel crazy and it made me to tired. The effexor worked good for me

[Hidden in reply to Houstongirl51]

Was it hard weaning off of effexor? some people are telling me it’s very hard but I just started taking it but am worried now

[DeliaB54]

Hi. I have been on effexor for about 4 years. It does take about 3 weeks to feel better. I just had a dose increase and abour 2 weeks out I felt like I was getting worse. Give it some time if you can.

[William29 in reply to DeliaB54]

Hopefully it makes up for the downside. I need it...

[BrownEyesBlue]

Hang in there! I’m on Wellbutrin as well and this is the third pill my doctor has put me on to couple with it. I had bad side effects with the first two; hardly any with this one.

My advice is if you don’t feel well, no one knows you’re body better than you. It does take up to 6 weeks for a medication to work and like you with this new pill (it’s not the same as yours!) I’m finding I have little to no motivation and I could cry at a cat food commercial lol but it’s better than the previous side effects of high blood sugars (27 😳) and hallucinations.

Hope it all works out for you 🙂