Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

[D dog]

Ok, so I have read the warnings...the LAST thing I want is to have a seizure. I have stopped drinking for a couple weeks at a time before, and had no withdrawals or problems (I just eat more).

My current intake is a bottle of wine maybe 4-5 days a week (my "excuse" is that I live alone and get bored - we've all heard that one, right?)...the other days are AF (too tired or hungry to bother) with no withdrawals.

IF I stop drinking altogether now for a week, and start the Wellbutrin, is that better than just dropping my intake to a couple glasses instead of a bottle and continuing to drink a few days a week?

I'm confused - they say that stopping drinking can cause a seizure, and that drinking can cause a seizure! WTF?

Please help!

[Funny Girl]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

They say if you are a pretty heavy drinker not to stop suddenly or you may have a seizure. If you can drop it way down I would, otherwise, go AF for a few weeks & then start the drug? Maybe you should ask your doctor.

[craving]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

I have drank and I took Bupropion all the way - never had any problems with seizures.

There is a lower threshold on seizures - if you have no family history of seizures, it might not effect you that much.

In any way, DO NOT DRINK ON BUPROPION. It created my addiction - after just 2 years and some months on Bupropion + alcohol i already lost total control. I would consider my addiction as strong as for a 10-15 year long drinker! take very good care!!

[Funny Girl]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

Craving - they tell you though that if you've been a heavy drinker NOT to stop suddenly when you start taking it or you're subject to seizures . . . d dog should check with the doctor before suddently stopping altogether. Or just stop & then start the drug. I'm not suggesting drinking while on it (which is what I did too . . . not good)

[craving]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

WD symptoms depend heavily on the genetic setting of the person. for example only 5% of all heavy drinkers ever get delirium tremens - in that sense it is actually a rare withdrawal symptom.

[Mettaphorica]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

Hi D-dog
I can absolutely understand your terror--I went through the same thing. Drinking a bottle of wine a night (and I am tiny) and worried about buproprion and seizures. To top it off, I had a 3rd seizure risk factor--anorexia. So I had 3 risk factors and was terrified about what might happen to me. (somebody with AN shouldn't be given buproprion either, for the same reason as A/C). However, out of the 3, the AC was definitely the biggest problem. I tried to cut back slowly, but couldn't. In the end I did cold turkey, and although I had detox withdrawal, no seizures. But this was my experience, but I know your terror.
Incidentally, Cravings, I find the opposite with buproprion--it lessens my drinking. That said, if I push through, I can still drink a lot. I wonder if the reason it did it is because I find buproprion makes one more alert, and also it can cause anxiety, and that perhaps you were trying to drink over those feelings, trying to calm yourself done, hence ramping up the quantity? In other words, I'm wondering if it's not the drug itself that caused your addiction to a/c, but its side effects that you needed to mitigate? I know there's a thread here somewhere I"ve read before about buproprion causing the addiction, and I know I've read it, but I don't recall everything said there, so forgive me if I'm peeing in the wind, so to speak, and it's stuff you've already covered elsewhere. I found that although bupe gives me less cravings, its the corresponding alertness and slight edginess that I would try and quell with drink. Just a thought. Lovely to talk to you again, and thanks for visiting my thread...
sorry Dog, don't mean to hi-jack your thread, here...let us know what you decide
Metta

[Funny Girl]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

Talk to the doctor

[songbird]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

I used to be on wellebutrin before and went into detox under docs care and he took me off of it while detoxing. He did not reccomend it with detoxing. He wondered why doc gave it to me while drinking anyway 9because I lied). I think everyone is different. I usually am a mellow person low blood pressure, and wellebutrin was one of the ant-depressants that did not make me sleepy or dopey. I went off for a year....back to depression and on low dose of prozac...has a calming effect.

I can't give advice, just tell you my experience.

[craving]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

why not tell your doctor that you are drinking? I am sure he will give you something else.
I am looking for ways now to get off Wellbutrin!!

[songbird]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

HiCraving...I did get off when I went into detox for 5 days...I was taking Wellebutrin, xanax, drinking, painkillers, etc....yeah....lots of stuff. They took me off of everything in 5 miserable days. I slept 3 away.

Wellebutrin is an easier drug to get off of if you wean yourself off. I felt less depressed when day 5 was over. I had the luxory of being watched in a detox.

I used to be on effexor. A big dose and I had to wean myselff! of that and it was a nightmare.

I am on Prozac now...the easiest of all and low dose after not being on anything for 8 months. I do have bouts with depression sans the al. There is a good book on this and tells you all about titrating off of manti-depressants and what to expect. It is called "the Antidepressant Solution" A step-by-step guide to safely overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawl, dependence and addiction....by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D.

It helped me through a rough withdrawl. I was on too much and drinking and afraid to tell my doc that because as an alchoholic, I did not want to really quit at the time....so I lied and told him I drank "socially" whatever that is.

Good Luck. Let me know how you do.

[craving]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

I thought so too about Bupropion.

Simply take less and wait and less and wait etc.

First I changed to constant 2 pills a day - all great.

Then I changed to constant 1 pill a day - first all was great. But then after 1-2 weeks my panic/anxiety attacks started.

I am taking Bupropion since 3 years and 4 months. so a pretty long time!!

I will go to the doctor next week and ask him to help me get off it. I think he needs to give me an extra step in between - i.e. switching me to an another anti depressive that will help me get my anxiety/panic under control, and then weaning that off

[paulywogg]

Starting Wellbutrin in one week...stop drinking now?

scared of webutrin

i have wellbutrin,campral,zoloft in my medicine cabinet,im scared of it all.my dr knows im a heavy drinker,i was on the zoloft 3 years ago,i swear it made me crave alcohol more