What’s It Like to Take Wellbutrin for Depression?
Key takeaways:
Wellbutrin — a brand name for bupropion — is an antidepressant that treats depression and seasonal affective disorder.
It usually takes several weeks for people to start feeling changes after starting it.
Some who take Wellbutrin say it “takes the edge off of things.”
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Wellbutrin (bupropion) is a prescription medication approved to treat depression and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Bupropion can also help people stop smoking by reducing the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.
Wellbutrin is considered an atypical antidepressant because instead of increasing serotonin levels in the brain, it primarily helps boost dopamine and norepinephrine. This leads to positive changes in mood and thinking.
Three people who take Wellbutrin tell GoodRx it has greatly improved their mood and clarity.
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Feeling ‘like a cloud had lifted’
Something in Cynthia White’s world was “off.” A 62-year-old life coach, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate, Cynthia has spent years teaching others how to rest and rebuild and how to be in touch with their emotions.
A few months ago, however, she sensed something different, yet familiar, in herself.
“I started realizing that I had this sadness that I just couldn’t shake,” she says. “To look at me, I didn’t look like that. But I knew.”
Cynthia, who was already taking an antidepressant, met with her psychiatrist, who decided to switch her to Wellbutrin. After just 3 weeks, Cynthia began noticing a shift.
“I could feel things leveling, and I could feel like a cloud had lifted.” One significant change? Tears. With other antidepressants, Cynthia found that when she wanted to cry, she couldn’t. She can with Wellbutrin. “So I feel like my body is reacting well to it. I don’t feel overmedicated with it.”
Her only side effect was slight nausea for the first few days. “I was expecting to feel really, really loopy,” she says. Instead, she felt balanced. Leveled. “It’s a lot like when you’re flying in an airplane: You get to the altitude, and the plane starts cruising. That’s how I feel.”
Cynthia spends her days working from her home in Cary, North Carolina, assisting clients with success strategies and counseling them about protecting their mental health while also chasing her own dreams. As the saying goes: She doesn’t look like what she’s been through.
“Typically, with any kind of mental health disorder, there are always some comorbidities, right? For me, anxiety is one, but I don’t feel like I struggle with that as much,” she says. Her attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is another, and Cynthia suggests Wellbutrin helps her with that, too, though that isn’t one of its officially approved uses. She recommends that people give it a try.
“Medication has its place, but you also need to be willing to make some cognitive behavioral changes as well,” she says. Wellbutrin isn’t some type of panacea, she adds. “It just kind of takes the edge off of things so that you can function better, and you can operate really in your best mind.”
Lifestyle changes are important as well, she says. “I would say, absolutely try to become a better student of yourself, and take notes of what you’re feeling and when you’re feeling it.” She keeps a journal and shares her feelings with her doctor.
Sad little cloud no more
Hair stylist Katy Fitzgerald Suttle was trimming her husband’s hair at their home in Woodstock, Georgia, one day when he asked her when her next menstrual cycle would start.
“I said, ‘Next week, why?’ And he said, ‘I was just wondering.’ I know exactly why he asked,” Katy says, laughing. “A week before my period, I’m normally not the nicest person in the world. But since I started the Wellbutrin, it’s really brought me back into healing. I feel more like myself.”
For 2 years, Katy’s doctor recommended she try Wellbutrin to counteract some of the side effects of her other antidepressant, Lexapro (escitalopram), which included fatigue, lack of motivation, and low libido. But Katy resisted.
“I really am scared to take medicine,” she says. “Finally, I hit my point where, you know what? What’s the worst that could happen?” Before she started taking Wellbutrin, Katy shared her decision with close friends and family members and asked them to let her know if she began “acting weird.” But soon after starting to take Wellbutrin, Katy’s reaction was “I really am loving it,” she says.
“I used to tell my mom, ‘I feel like a sad little cloud.’ And now, since I started Wellbutrin, I was feeding my daughter and I felt like, ‘Now I feel like a sunny cloud today. I feel like the sun has popped out from behind my gray cloud.’”
Katy, who is 29, says Wellbutrin works well for her, but it hasn’t been as helpful for some of her friends who have tried it. “Medications like that aren’t one-size-fits-all,” she says. She also suspects some of her friends ignored warnings about alcohol use while taking the medication. “Since I started Wellbutrin, I have not had one sip of alcohol. I want to give the medicine a full chance to work.”
It helps her manage her emotions
For much of her young life, 21-year-old McKenna Welly has dealt with mental health issues.
“I experienced mania. I am impulsive. I have really bad mood swings. I have really high highs and really low lows,” she says.
The psychiatrist she saw initially diagnosed her with major depressive disorder (depression). But after experiencing manic behavior and seeking treatment, she was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her provider prescribed lamotrigine (Lamictal) to stabilize her mood, and later Wellbutrin for the depression.
“Wellbutrin is working for me pretty good so far,” McKenna says. “I’ve been able to manage my emotions. I’ll have mood swings here and there, but it’s not as overwhelming as it has been before.”
During her first week of Wellbutrin, McKenna experienced several of the medication’s common side effects (such as trouble sleeping and dizziness) and uncommon side effects (such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, and dissociation).
“It was rough at first, but after those first few days, my body got adjusted to it,” she says.
She still struggles with dissociation — short periods when she feels detached from her identity or environment. McKenna says she’s experienced dissociation in the past, but it never happened daily until she started Wellbutrin. Her episodes last about an hour, and she plans to ask her doctor about them at her next visit. In the meantime, she’s avoiding alcohol and other substances that might trigger this side effect.
McKenna is also leaving the townhome she shares with roommates and moving back in with her parents — for stability and for her mental health. She’s keeping her job as a social media manager. “I actually went back to it for the betterment of mental health, because it’s just a relaxed job where I can just sit and do my little stuff on my little computer.”
She says she hopes her doctor will keep her on Wellbutrin. “I do think Wellbutrin is working very well for me so far.”
What does the pharmacist say?
Joshua Murdock, PharmD, BCBBS
Pharmacy Editor
Wellbutrin is an oral, prescription-only medication that’s FDA approved to treat depression. If you’re taking Wellbutrin, you may recognize it by the generic name you see on the pharmacy label — bupropion. Brand-name Wellbutrin is no longer available in the U.S.
Wellbutrin is a type of atypical antidepressant. It is thought to elevate dopamine and norepinephrine levels in your brain. When it’s taken daily as directed by your healthcare provider, it can support a brighter mood and enhance wellbeing. Other antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), affect different brain hormones.
Some people take bupropion as a first-choice medication. Others turn to it when other antidepressants aren’t effective or cause bothersome side effects. For instance, compared to SSRIs, Wellbutrin is less likely to cause sexual side effects and weight gain. But when you start taking it, it’s important to be patient. It typically takes a few weeks to fully kick in.
Wellbutrin also has its own side effects to keep in mind. It can cause headache, dry mouth, and sleeping problems. More serious side effects, like blood pressure changes and seizures, have also been reported. Your provider can tell you more about side effects you might experience.
It’s also worth noting that Wellbutrin is only one version of bupropion. Longer-acting formulations of bupropion — called Wellbutrin XL, Wellbutrin SR, and Forfivo XL — also exist. Aplenzin (bupropion hydrobromide) and Wellbutrin XL are also approved to treat seasonal affective disorder, while Zyban (bupropion) can help you quit smoking. Bupropion combination products are available, too.
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