# 3 months into Wellbutrin + Lexapro



## shell (Feb 18, 2009)

After getting over the icky side effects, I am feeling really great! I take 150 mg of WXL and 20 mgs of Lex each morning. I am feeling more confident and socially less nervous in places I normally would...eg in a crowded grocery store, talking to a super hot doctor in a clinic a few days ago, superiors at work, etc. I have lost 20 lbs, which has been amazing. I had about 15 lbs to lose before I was at my pre-pregnancy weight, and now I'm 5 below that and looking quite much like a yummy mummy lol. I know that really helps my self confidence too. I've been doing CBT with a therapist and using a work book (The Feel Good Handbook by Burns). Mainly I'm trying to refocus my nervous thoughts--which tend to be about others noticing if I'm nervous (like a huge one for me is "Am I blushing?"). So, I find I'm starting to switch some of the negative talk and anticipatory worry into positive talk, and in general I'm not caring as much about what others think. It's quite refreshing! I still struggle with some anxiety I won't lie, but I am feeling so much better than back in January. I still have sleep problems and take benadryl to sleep but other than that any negative side effects associated with starting up the meds are completely gone now. It's a good thing--I thought I was going to go crazy the first few weeks I felt so crappy!


----------



## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

shell said:


> After getting over the icky side effects, I am feeling really great! I take 150 mg of WXL and 20 mgs of Lex each morning. I am feeling more confident and socially less nervous in places I normally would...


Hell yeah, that med combo is awesome! If you consider that a large portion of ecstasy's effects are due to increasing intrasynaptic serotonin and dopamine, it's not surprising that such a combo is so pro-social.


----------



## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

And tesofensine will pretty much do the same as a Bupropion + SSRI combo: block 5-HT, DA and NE reuptake, therefor the weightloss. 20lbs is pretty cool if you keep in mind that your Wellbutrin dose is not very high.


----------



## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

WHAT, they're just trialling it for weight-loss, nothing else? What the hell is wrong with them!? I'm fairly sure weight-loss is due to noradrenaline increase, not dopamine or serotonin. What a dumb idea; waste a great drug on fat people who just need to put down the fries, get the **** up and do some exercise.


----------



## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

It's a very big market and tesofensine could be about twice as effective as existing medication, rimonabant is gone. If it's all about Norepinephrine, why are Reboxetine and Atomoxetine no slimming drugs? Tesofensine is being studied for Parkinson too btw.


----------



## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

Medline said:


> It's a very big market and tesofensine could be about twice as effective as existing medication, rimonabant is gone. If it's all about Norepinephrine, why are Reboxetine and Atomoxetine no slimming drugs?


My guess is, it's because they are quite unpleasant to take. Reboxetine I know can cause weight-loss related to its appetite-suppressant effect and increase in metabolism due to NA:

http://www.reboxetine.com/weight-loss.html

I know not exactly compelling evidence but I'm sure there are more reports. Plus, beta-blockers can cause weight-gain so logically the opposite would happen here.

I think maybe the serotonin and dopamine action is there to increase patients' willingness to continue treatment.

Desoxypipradrol, for example, was reported to cause only minimal appetite-suppressing effects on one forum, and it's a pretty selective DRI. SSRIs can cause weight-gain too.

As for rimbonabant, that was doomed from its inception. It doesn't take a genius to figure out cannabis gives (mostly) pleasurable effects, so the polar opposite isn't gonna be fun.


----------



## Thomas Paine (Mar 29, 2008)

.


----------



## korey (Apr 25, 2006)

I think desoxypipradol is unregulated in the US, but does that necessarily mean that it's legal to use? There are lots of drugs that aren't regulated in the sense of FDA approval but are still illegal to possess/use (I think?), but supplements are unregulated by the FDA and are a-OK to use at discretion. Is desoxypipradol like that (i.e. could a person order it and use it as they choose)? If so, I wonder where a person could obtain some... ;-)


----------



## shell (Feb 18, 2009)

Ya I'm stoked about the weight loss, I never thought I was going to have my slim figure back post-baby but here it is! I am just much more satisfied with much less food, and do not crave snacks. Although being slender is a confidence booster for me, it is bringing more attention from males, like guys randomly trying to chat me up in the grocery store or while I'm buying a bottle of wine, etc. And in a way that ups my social anxiety, I just clam up and get nervous (and then worry, "oh my god do I look nervous???")--and there's no reason to be worried as I'm obviously married with a big diamond on my left hand and am not looking for someone to pick me up. Does anyone else get especially anxious with the opposite sex? ugh, that does it for me. It's a miracle I'm married lol.

I was surprised at how much I lost with the WXL on just 150 mgs. For about 5 weeks I upped myself to 300mgs but just couldn't handle the side effects, I literally could not shut my brain off and I was singing songs in my head all day and night long. I know it sounds like a weird side effect and not too bothersome, but it was totally a compulsive thing that I could not stop doing and it was driving me f^cking nuts. Now, I only sometimes have that happen. Also, I was on 30 mgs of Lex for a few weeks (not at the same time as experimenting with the WXL), and then tapered back down to 20 (again, my own experiment, seeing if 30 caused more side effects/helped me more, or what the result would be). I stayed at 30 for about a month, and then over the course of 4 days tapered to 25, then waited a week, and then tapered back to 20. I had zero side effects (eg no brain zaps) from the tapering down but I had more troubles sleeping on the higher dose so that is a large part of why I tapered down.

I really like this combo. It makes me feel like I can be a much more accomplished person, career wise. Also, it is helping with my generalized anxiety as I'm worrying about a zillion possible things that could go awry. Any problems with taking benadryl long term to handle sleeplessness though? Sometimes I cycle meds: take a zopiclone 1 night, a nitrazepam 1 night (never more than twice a wk), gravol tabs 1 night, benadryl a few nights, etc.


----------



## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

> My guess is, it's because they are quite unpleasant to take. Reboxetine I know can cause weight-loss related to its appetite-suppressant effect and increase in metabolism due to NA


Appetite is controlled via several mechanisms, NE, 5-HT, DA and lots more. If Reboxetine/Atomoxetine were good weight loss drugs there would be patents and trials, but there aren't.



> As for rimbonabant, that was doomed from its inception. It doesn't take a genius to figure out cannabis gives (mostly) pleasurable effects, so the polar opposite isn't gonna be fun.


Overeaters and smokers often selfmedicate eg. their underlying depression, if a drug like rimonabant takes the food and the tobacco, depression and sometimes suicidality emerge. That's another point of view. Heroine is also fun, but Naltrexone does not cause depression, how's that possible?


----------

