DOSE:	150 - 300 mg	oral	Pharms - Bupropion	(daily)
	40 mg	oral	Pharms - Paroxetine	(daily)
	60 mg	oral	Pharms - Buspirone
	2 mg	oral	Pharms - Clonazepam

BODY WEIGHT:

200 lb

Wellbutrin Leading to Suicidal Ideation

I have been suffering from Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder for over 5 years. Paxil (paroxetine) has been a constant in my treatment and has never caused me trouble beyond the initial side effects. My doctor added Buspar (Buspirone) and Klonopin (clonazepam) for my increasing anxiety over a year ago and things had been going fairly well.

Recently I've experienced some setbacks and my depression became much worse rather quickly. I explained my issues to my psychiatrist and we discussed the addition of Wellbutrin (Bupropion) to my constellation of medications. I agreed as he explained it is often used in SSRI treatment-resistant depression.

The first week I took it along with my other meds as directed. 150mg for the first three days, then up to 300mg (150mg 2x/day). When the dosage increased I experienced flu-like symptoms for about three days - sore throat, muscle aches, general malaise. These were listed as possible side effects so I suffered through them and they went away within a week.

Fast forward three weeks into my treatment with Wellbutrin and I was a mental wreck. More depressed than ever, agitated, angry, jumpy. I constantly felt like I was going to pop right out of my own skin. Then came the dreams. I'm not normally a person who remembers dreams, so these were a big surprise. Very vivid and sometimes even lucid dreams ALL night, and they were all about the terrible things that have occurred in my life and made me depressed in the first place. I was waking up miserable because I'd spent my sleeping hours ruminating on awful events.

I am an admitted self-harm patient and my doctor keeps a close eye on me regarding those tendencies. After the three weeks of treatment, I had more cuts than ever before because it was all I could do to make myself NOT want to curl up and die.

Finally the worst day came. I spent the day laying in bed in the dark, sobbing. I made a complete plan for my suicide, including when, where, how, even the letter I would write. Luckily my husband came home, talked to me, then took me straight to my doctor.

He immediately discontinued my use of Bupropion and told me that it is clearly not a medication that works with my particular biology. We're sticking with just the three meds I was on before for at least a month to let the Bupropion wash out of my system completely.

I can definitively say that I will never take this drug again. For me, it not only worsened my depression and anxiety symptoms, but also nearly pushed me over the edge with them. I know all antidepressants carry warnings about suicide, but this one by far brought me the closest. I want to get better. I want to function again. And I do not want to be within 100 feet of Wellbutrin/Bupropion ever again in order to do it.

Meds work differently on everyone, but when taking this one PLEASE pay attention to your state of mind and agitation level. If you find it changing for the worse, tell your doctor ASAP. Don't wait until you've made a plan to kill yourself. You (and I) deserve to live a happy, healthy life.

Exp Year: 2013	ExpID: 101035
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 32
Published: Jan 30, 2026	Views: Not Supported
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Pharms - Bupropion (87) : Combinations (3), Retrospective / Summary (11), Medical Use (47), Depression (15), Health Problems (27), Various (28)