Hi,

I’m new here and I’m so glad I stumbled across this website; it’s been really helpful so far. Just a little about me, I’m a 24 year old female from Seattle WA. I have been suffering from depression and social anxiety for what seems like forever. I have tried multiple medications but I have yet to find one that has positives that outweigh the negatives (Weight Gain, not being able to orgasm) I went back to the Doctors yesterday and today I took my first Wellbutrin SR this morning. I was told to take one 150mg pill for 7 days, then after that start taking two of them a day.

My questions are:

1) Is it normal to have to start with such a lose dose? Do some people start with 300mg a day?
2) When I start taking two do I take them both at one time, or 1 in the am and 1 later?

I really hope this works for me. I want to be happy so desperatly.

Hi seekinghappiness,
welcome to DF. i've taken wellbutrin in the past and i started out taking 150mg once a day for a week and then went up to 300mg, taking one 150mg pill in the morning and one at night.

but that's just me, you should ask your doctor what to do specifically in your case. as far as i know it's normal to start someone off at a low dose to see how they react.

good luck with it. :)

Hey sweetie!!! i am also on wellbutrin & i started out at 300mg a day so it is normal, did ur dr say to take one at a time or both at the same time i would ask him cause i take 1 pill of 300mg a day so i would ask ur dr & see what he says. I think u will like this med i love it i have been on it a few yrs & its the only one that works for me. I hope it works for u!!! Keep us posted on how ur doing

Im no expert but I believe if you have the XL version you take 1 a day and if its the SR version you take 1, 150mg in morning and 1, 150mg at night reason for this is XL is extended release and the SR is slow release.

I am on the wellbutrin xl i take it once a day it just got upped to 450mg a day ea morning the sr u take twice a day, but like i told him he needs to talk to his dr to see what he says

Thanks everyone. I called my Docter and I am waiting for a call back from her today to ask if I should space out the pills. I didnt even think to ask when I was there.

Last night was weird, I was just falling asleep then I woke up panicked, I felt like I couldn’t breath and the room was closing in on me. And as fast as it came it was gone. But it was weird, every time I started to fall back asleep I would have vivid weird visions and then wake up in a panic. This happened about 6 times before I feel into a really good deep sleep. I have never had this before, is this normal? It really freaked me out...

Hi seekinghappiness,
i think that just about anything can be "normal" when starting and AD (aside from anything that you think is seriously endangering your mental or physical health, in that case talk to a doctor). We all react so differently to these drugs. It's unpredictable and I know how frustrated you must feel.
For example, my mom was on Paxil for three years and it worked wonders for her. I took it for two days and it literally made me vomit so I had to stop taking it.
Hopefully what you're going through is just a side effect that will pass.

SR dosages you want to take 6-8 hours apart. Taking the second dose right before bed is likely to keep you from sleeping, and since the medication mostly works through your system after 8ish hours, you're left without the activity of it late in the day if you take it all in the morning.
I was on 450mg SR and I took 300mg when I got up (around 7am) and took the other 150 around 2 or 3.

Thanks, Yeah I started taking one at 6am and one at 3pm. I have had no problems falling asleep, I kind of feel like they are helping with that actually...I've been sleeping great since taking WB.

HEY! I HAVE BEEN ON WB FOR 8 DAYS NOW IM TAKIN 2 XL 150MG 2 TIMES A DAY....I TAKEONE AT 6 AND 2 PM. I LOVE THIS MED. SO FAR ITS WORKIN GREAT...AT FIRST I DID HAVE SOME SA....BUT I WOERKED THRU THEM. I STILL HAVE THE RINGING EARS!....JUST WAIT FOR THE PILL I READ THAT THERE ARE GOOD SIDE AFFECTS ALSO I USED TO EAT ALOT NOW I RARELY EAT AND I HOPE TO LOSE WEIGHT LOL.....BUT JUST HANG IN THERE AND WAIT THROUGH ALL THE ROUGHNESS..ITS A GOOD FEELING