Arshness: Wellbutrin Taper and a dilemma

[mattinsmom]

Good to see that you are remaining commuted to taking steps toward regulating your sleep. It will take time and practice. Baby steps and be proud of any success. This is a hard process.

 

You might have mentioned this but remind me what time do you take Wellbutrin? It is very activating and insomnia and agitation are common

[Arshness]

I started a program called The Linden Method for curing anxiety today. 

I was skeptical at first because, of course, due to anxiety, I was terrified I could not possibly break the cycle of anxiety with simple thought processes and anything in a book and mp3's would be incapable of curing such terrors. 

 

.... I am shocked and amazed. I listened to the introduction and interview, read the beginning of the book and felt "okay, this guy is smart. He has knowledge of zen and ta'i chi and qi kong... all good points in his favor... his book even has a couple classic koans in it. Wow. But how can anything he tells me actually change how I feel when nothing else has?"

 

.... floored. I listened to the visualization exercise next and at first I thought "This is just your standard self-hypnosis thing. I've done these a hundred times before. My mom taught me to do this when I was like 7. How can this break me free from all this misery?"

 

Absolutely amazed... I broke down into immensely powerful sobs at a point in the exercise and tears flowed so freely I was amazed at how much liquid came out of my eyes. The tears continued through the latter portion of the exercise until he reached a point where he asked me to simply remain relaxed and *feel* the warmth of the sun I'd been visualizing in a clear blue sky on my face... I felt it. My sobs turned into powerful laughter that rolled up out of me and at times could not be distinguished from further tears. My heart chakra cleared. I felt it untwist nervous energies that have been absolutely destroying its flow of chi. I let it all out... I released... and then when the exercise was over... I felt whole, happy, relaxed, incredible... like I haven't felt in two years. 

 

I almost have a buzz. It's insane. My body feels light and airy. I immediately went on to read the first section of the book (purposefully sectioned so you do one part a day for 9 days so you really learn what to do) and I feel I can do what was asked. I can, I am, and I will cure my anxiety and my panic attacks and my ridiculous phobias that I have never had until within the last two years when hormone imbalances lead to severe anemia and unwellness lead to pain, and trauma lead me to a doctor and medications that harmed me more than any of the other things I'd gone through ever did... I am releasing myself from this nightmare and I will hold myself accountable to my family and friends in this. I am no longer willing to live in this cycle of fear, pain, misery and further trauma. I will be whole again. I will be me again. I believe now that I have the power to do this. 

[Arshness]

Amy: I'm supposed to take my Wellbutrin 2x/day at least 8 hours apart. With me being on the bad schedule even tho I'm working on it, I can't say what time of day I'm taking it. I will take your point into consideration however and try to remember to take it a few hours before bedtime at least. That won't be the case tonight as I'm at 8am and still awake and haven't taken it yet. I'll go ahead and take it now as I'm feeling insanely relaxed... having just done the Linden visualization I mentioned in the last post. I think it will be fine even if I end up going to bed in another hour or two.How long before bed do you recommend taking the Wellbutrin? Since I'm currently taking Wellbutrin IR (Well it's bupropion but that's just the generic. I don't think that matters right?)  I am taking it 2x per day and it isn't sustained release so it has to be taken in the morning and then again at night so that it will be in my system all the waking hours or I risk feeling withdrawal. It's weird because I'm pretty sure you're supposed to take Wellbutrin IR 3xday so my dosage may not be optimal in this form. My doc has no idea what she's doing with Pdrugs tho so I'm not surprised. Right now, I don't care tho. I feel fantastic. I'm going to keep doing the Linden method and I am going to get better.

[Altostrata]

Where are you now with the Atarax?

[mattinsmom]

I take the SR so I don't know how the IR are supposed to be taken. Do try to take it at consistent times as much as you can. 

[Arshness]

Alto: I quit the atarax last week when you suggested it might be causing the paresthesia. I put that in an earlier post and asked if it needed to be tapered but I think that question was missed because I don't think anyone answered that part. (Not complaining, just explaining). I looked up info on Atarax and I have not read that it needs a taper, and my doc had said it could be started and stopped whenever.. not that I fully trust her opinion on it anymore. Anyway, I've felt better since I came off it. My wife also came off it and we're giving her Magnesium supplementation, first in the form of Mag Citrate and now in the form of Mag oil. She's had episodes... of ... mild psychosis not unlike her previous issues, but it hasn't been riddled with serious anxiety like it was before. I think she has underlying issues in her body that we can fix if we can figure them out. The Mag really does seem to calm down her anxiety and paranoia. I wish I could find the rest of what she needs so easily. Paranoia, social phobia, anxiety and depression and sometimes ... I don't know what to call this one. She just kinda gets a little crazy and I have no idea how to explain it. This last time she did things like asking me to tear off the crunchy parts from some fried chicken because she was afraid it was traitorous. After I removed it, she was fine. I also had to pour out an abandoned can of Dr. Pepper my roommate left on the sink because this is an uncommon behavior and she said I had to kill it so she'd be safe. This is the kind of thing she used to do a lot when her anxiety was off the wall and especially when her paranoia was up, but this is now clear of the anxiety portion which is awesome and she's feeling better overall. I think we can address her other issues some way other than Atarax. She's also already lost some weight and it's visible so it's really melting off the pounds the Atarax had obviously put on her. I'm so happy for her on that.As for today, We slept in big time because we can't seem to get to bed early or stay up late so we're just going to sleep long and late, get up  and stay up as long as we can, and repeat until our schedule wraps around to an appropriate one. I feel great tho. I am not anxious at all today. The Linden visualization did something magical to me. I feel truly amazing today.

[Arshness]

Since cutting Wellbutrin SR supposedly just loses the sustained effect, I'm using up my store of Sr's left over from earlier to extend my taper. I was taking 75mg 2/day. A 10% drop would be 67.5 but I have literally no idea how to measure that. I was figuring I could just do another quartering and do 37.5mg 2/day for a few weeks, then quarter them again to 18.75mg 2/day then cut them again for 9.375mg 2/day at which point I HOPE I could just come off them because I doubt I can cut them any finer with evenness.Should I do 37.5mg 2/day for 2 weeks or should I do it longer? And then each subsequent drop, how long should I stay on it? If I half the  SR's (which are 150mg) I get 75's so I have to half them again to get the 37.5 mg dose. So quarter of SR in the morning, half of IR in the evening is what I was going to do for now which equates to 37.5mg 2/day.  

Does that sound reasonable?

[Altostrata]

The tips for tapering Wellbutrin topic (mentioned above) describes how to make a liquid from Wellbutrin.

 

If you're going to use quarters of 75mg tablets (18.75mg), one way to gradually taper would be to take the daytime tablet (75mg) plus 3 quarters, then 2 quarters of the EVENING tablet. (Wellbutrin tends to be activating.)

 

Once you are taking only one quarter of the evening tablet, start reducing the daytime tablet by quarters until you are taking 1 quarter in the daytime, then 1 quarter in the evening.

 

Then drop the evening quarter, then drop the daytime quarter.

 

If you get withdrawal symptoms at any point, slow down.

[Arshness]

I am confused. Why would I take 75mg Plus 3 quarters in the morning then 2 quarters evening? That'd equate to more than I'm taking now... 5 quarters = 1.25x 75mg = 93.75mg plus the 75mg morning tablet = 150 which is 18.75 mg more than my last dose?

[Altostrata]

No, the first decrease would be to take the 75mg morning tablet plus 3/4 of the 75mg evening tablet for a total of 131.25mg per day.

 

The second decrease would be to take the 75mg morning tablet plus 2/4 of the 75mg evening tablet for a total of 112.5mg per day.

 

When you are down to 1/4 tablet in the evening, start decreasing the morning 75mg tablet by quarters.

[Arshness]

Ahh gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.I dropped to 37.5 and 37.5 yesterday and I accidentally forgot my evening dose! *Bad I know*  I hit bad rebound anxiety today so upping my dose back. I took the 37.5 this morning, but took 75mg tonight so hopefully it'll help even me back up. Going to take 75mg in the morning and reduce the evening tablet like you said by a quarter.

[Arshness]

I have had rebound anxiety for the past couple days after I dropped my dose from 75mg 2/day to 37.5mg 2/day but then forgot to take my second dose so only took 37.5mg on saturday in one dose. Sunday, I took 75mg in the morning then 3/4 of a 75 mg tablet that night. It still felt like my anxiety was really, really bad so I took the rest of the dose, bringing it back to normal. At this point I'm taking 75mg 2/day again for a few days hoping my body will level back out before I try again to make a  drop and next time I'm only dropping the evening dose by a quarter. I really, really, really wish this rebound anxiety wasn't happening. It isn't very responsive to my mental techniques, I think because it's chemically induced, but it's very uncomfortable.

[Arshness]

I have felt so weird the past couple of days. I had some rebound anxiety after the day I missed a dose and dropped by half doses... I went back to 75mg 2/day for now so my body can level back out so I can start reducing slowly. I have had this strange general "not well" feeling most of two days. The feeling radiates from my chest. It's not really palpitations, and it's not really shortness of breath, and it's not really chest tightness, but it feels like a ghost of all of those things. My heart rate is tangible a bit more than Iike, my breath is full and deep but feels vaguely.. hollow. My chest has felt a little tight or weird, or more, my stomach has felt "pinched" as if something was gripping my stomach inside me. It's been so weird. It's freaked me out repeatedly which has lead to bouts of anxiety. I have also lost my appetite. I can barely eat a small meal, usually not finishing it or sometimes even only taking a few bites because I can't bring myself to desire to eat more. When I'm hungry, nothing sounds appetizing. My body just doesn't want to eat. I don't know what's up with that.I have gotten to a 1am-9am schedule currently but my daughter woke me up early today so I didn't sleep 8 hours, just 6 which I usually don't do well with. I feel ... generalized fatigue and unwellness. I don't know what is going on. 

[mattinsmom]

Hi

 

Sorry that you are having some rebound issues. They are difficult for me because they feel so real and so big. But, they do pass. 

 

" it feels like a ghost of all of those things." is such a great way of explaining the feelings that you are having. I've been there, and I'm sure will visit many times, and that description says it all. It is hallow and haunting. 

 

I, too, have a really hard time with food. When it gets bad and my weight has dropped too far I head for McDonalds milkshakes. Nothing healthy about them but it gets calories in and requires no effort on my part to make. I remember reading that you deal with anemia. Remember that anemia causes heart palpitations and if you are not eating enough, getting enough iron, your stores will drop and you'll have racing heart and chest pressure. You'll also be extremely tired and fatigued, You'll find yourself very easily overwhelmed. I know eating is not fun when my body gets to that point, I'm guessing it is similar to what you describe. Sometimes I just have to force myself to eat. Usually once I start eating it becomes easier to eat.

 

And congrats on the sleep schedule. That is a great change from before. You'll be a bit extra tired tonight but you'll be ok. Try to get as close to 1 as you can before letting yourself fall to sleep and set an alarm to be up for 9 tomorrow. Keep up that good work!!!

 

 

[Altostrata]

You may be experiencing side effects from your inconsistency in dosage. It can take some time for the body to adjust to this.

[Arshness]

I am so miserable right now. Having another panic attack night. This one has already been going on for a few hours. It's 1am but I couldn't possibly sleep. My heart is terrifying me. I keep getting pinching feelings in my left arm that I figure I'm conjuring with fear but its still scary. I keep getting stinging pains in the center of my chest. I get cold chills and paresthesia and just overall feeling of dread and misery. I want so badly for this to be over. This one started due to fear. I had a few funny feelings and again began being terrified I'm going to have a heart attack and die. The thing is, I don't have any reassurance that there's nothing wrong with my heart. My blood pressure has always been good but that doesn't mean there could be nothing wrong does it? I haven't had a chest MRI or anything like that to confirm that I'm healthy and my heart is functioning properly. I wish I could afford to just get that done so I wouldn't have to be terrified all the time. Right now it's just it's so hard to let go of the fear. What if I really WAS having a heart attack and needed to get immediate medical attention. Then ignoring this problem would mean I was killing myself.But if it's nothing and I'm letting it effect me, I'm putting myself through this misery. Either option really, really sucks. Right now, my head is sleepy and I keep closing my eyes involuntarily and my head drops, but my chest is NOT feeling good and I know if I lay down I'll freak the hell out. Have been taking the full 75mg 2xday dose again for a couple days but still this is REALLY bad tonight. I hope it will be better tomorrow. 

[Arshness]

This sucks. It took me until 3am to get to sleep, maybe later. I was having so much trouble. I finally started passing out in my chair so I went and laid down. I was still having panic and it sucked. I laid there until I finally passed out (tho with several "sit back up because I can't take the feeling of my heart anymore" episodes along the way)I woke up this morning at 9am (Guess I'm getting into the rhythm of it anyway) and my heart was *still* racing. It seems to have calmed down a little since I got up but its just worrying me so much. I can't stop thinking what if I really have a heart condition and need actual emergency medical attention? I mean, My GD did blood work and all, but it's not like I've ever had imaging done to make sure my heart looks good. It COULD be something bad... so I don't know what to do. I just want to be able to rest and be at peace again. I thought I'd gotten past this but omg... the one day I missed a dose and tried to drop too quick seems to have really taken its toll on me. I am so miserable. I am so angry that my doctor has caused me to go through all this by giving me incorrect medication. I just want to cry.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Hi Arshness,

 

Sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time, it is the same kind of thing I have been going through myself. The anxiety and lack of sleep. Mine is slowly getting better. I have been using the techniques from the 'symptoms and self care forum', specifically the magnesium citrate powder (dissolved in water) that I sip whenever I wake at night and also taking high quality omega 3 about every 6 hours. It's pretty rough but you will get through it, it sounds like you are having withdrawal symptoms. Of course you must be the judge if you need to visit your doctor.

 

Wishing you peace!

[Arshness]

Thank you. I just wish I knew for sure my heart wasn't giving out on me or something so I could just write it off to anxiety. I'm only 28 but I'm obese (lots of medical conditions brought me here. I don't overeat.) and pretty sedentary due to constant health concerns. I am afraid.  I don't want to die. I hope it's withdrawal symptoms but if so, now that I've taken my pills normal again for 3 days should it be going away?

[Altostrata]

Is there any relationship between the symptoms and when you take Wellbutrin?

 

You may wish to reduce the evening dose.

 

Although it may be difficult given the terrain, getting out for short walks will help your body re-regulate itself. Moving around is important for this.

[Arshness]

The symptoms definitely get worse toward the end of a period of time between doses. I mean I'm taking 75mg IR 2/day. As I understand, IR is supposed to be taken 3/day to maintain even dosage, right?  I don't know how I could do that... I guess since it's 150mg total if I could do 50mg 3/day tht'd be it, but no idea how to cut my tablets to make that. c_cI have more issues than one at play on the walking thing. I have anemia which makes me incredibly weak, I'm obese and have a bad back, asthma and thus lungs get agitated with too much activity, and I'm largely sedentary for the past year due to major medical concerns so currently very out of shape. I'm trying to do some Yoga and stuff to start building some endurance back, but going out walking is not an option for me at this time. 

[mattinsmom]

I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling so much with this. I think at thins point you might want to get everything stable and then just pick one small thing to tackle at a time. Maybe getting your body used to a bedtime or in a habit of yoga would be a good thing. Starting those little routines and getting them to where they are more standards of the day could help when you make a med dose adjustment. I've always been told try to work on one thing at a time and right now it seems like you are in- between many changes.

 

I do hope that things settle down for you. A racing heart is scary. I know that medical care is difficult for you to obtain. Please reach out to a doctor if you really feel your heart health is in danger.  

[Arshness]

Thank you Amy. Today my stomach has felt weird all day and it's really been messing with me. I wish everything I felt that was weird didn't terrify me these days. I wasn't like this a year ago. I wasn't like this half a year ago. 

[Meimeiquest]

I don't know if this would help at all, but we had to transition our little ones adopted in China to US sleep-wake patterns several years ago. The prevailing idea at that time was to let as much light into the room as possible when they slept in the daytime, that the light helped even if they were sleeping. For what it's worth...

 

A racing heartbeat, and even chest pain, is common with the autonomic dysregulation that comes with withdrawal. That doesn't mean anyone can promise you it's not serious but I have it often before my benzo dose and had it a lot coming off Wellbutrin. Hope you feel better soon!

[Arshness]

Thank you. I couldn't sleep with the curtains open. I'm sensitive to light. I did get through yesterday and I feel better today. I still have the pinchy feeling in the left side of my chest about where my pectoral is. But I don't think it's anything beyond sore muscles. Thank you all for reassuring me yesterday. It was a hard day.

[Arshness]

Today was blessedly symptom free all the way until bedtime. Now within 30 minutes of bed I started having pinching feelings in my left shoulder, little jabs of pain in various areas, dizziness, light-headedness, disconnected feelings, some heart racing and chest feeling weird... I don't know. Just lots of weird stuff that sets my cardiophobia off. Hopefully I'll pass out quickly tonight. Hopefully. Hopefully.

[Arshness]

What a night. :c Everytime I've laid down, heart races and palpitations like mad. I had scary scary feelings and dreadful thoughts. Finally sat up, propped up against pillows and tried to sleep sitting up. No go. My back pressing against the pillows still caused me to feel heart racing and palps. Had to get up. Did some research online and found that I have all the symptoms of hyperthyroidism. I am going to get checked for that and diabetes to make sure one of those things isn't a factor in these heart issues. I AM on hormonal medicine and hormone changes can effect the thyroid so I need to rule that out. My head also feels weirdly pressured, disconnected, floaty, heavy in the center but light around the edges, so hard to explain. It's like my head is full of helium but has a rock inside it. That is really bothering me but I think it's more sleep deprivation than anything. I've not gotten 8 solid hours in several days due to trouble staying asleep in the mornings and now I was ready to pass out at 12:30 and couldn't sleep due to the palps and heart racing so now it's 4am and I'm so exhausted. I want to rest so badly but the palps finally calmed down a little and my heart is quiet and I'm scared that if I lay down it'll come right back. I have such weird feelings in my body right now. I am so thirsty and can't seem to drink enough. I want to cry from how frustrating and exhausting all this is. I have finally gotten back onto a decent schedule and now it is going straight to ruin due to inability to sleep. I think my nerves are definitely agitated. I need something to help them. I've put on mag already and it's not settled me down today. I don't know. 

[Arshness]

So last night I was in the ER. 

I started feeling a crushing pressure in my chest and if I laid down I couldn't breathe. I thought my heart was failing. I went to make sure I was okay. I had a way better experience than usual with WBMHS and they were quick. I was not made to wait for a second. The Nurse got me in a wheelchair from my car and took me straight to EKG.

The good news: MY EKG is clear. I have good blood pressure still and my pulse was fine even tho I was under duress. They gave me a breathing treatment and the pressure released. Weird because it didn't feel like my asthma acting up at all... but I think it also had a lot of oxygen in it and made me calm down. I was so tired. I'd tried to go to bed at 1am and couldn't lay down and then wasn't able to sleep all night. Went to the ER at 4am without a moment of sleep. They drew blood, told me it was just anxiety because everything came back clean and then took an Xray and did a cardio workup with my blood just to be sure there were not any bad signs. Nothing. I was surprised and relieved. The nurses were really sweet even if my second one left me with a huge knot of bruise on my right arm because she didn't know they had butterfly needles and collapsed two veins trying to get blood before that. 

I got a shot of Ativan to help calm me down and honestly, I fell asleep pretty easily on the bed with my heated blanket after that. I woke up some time later as they told me I was all clear and they were sending me home with a prescription for Xanax to help me deal with times when anxiety is that bad. 

I haven't had as much anxiety as I come down off Wellbutrin but when it's bad, it can be really really bad. Thank goddess I'm not going to have to deal with heart failure tho. I was so upset. It really made me think tho... I spent more time holding and cuddling Rune last night and this morning. Thinking you're dying is an amazing way to remember you're living.

[Arshness]

Since the ER trip I've been much better about not being afraid I'm going to die from heart attack. Of course, anxiety always finds a way. So today I wake up with little sore pains in my legs and I think I've got half a dozen blood clots suddenly from the Nuva Ring. :c So now I'm terrified of that and afraid I'm going to die of pulmonary embolism or stroke. Guh. Fear of dying is really rough and it needs to stop.That said, since I leveled my dose back out, I am having way way way less anxiety over all. Just phobia/fear, but not anxiety attacks so much. I had palps laying down last night but was able to just go to sleep despite them without cold feelings and dread. Just slept. It was good to find out my heart is healthy. I need to reinforce those thoughts. But I'm scared about the blood clots. Since I was bleeding so much, they did need to stop my bleeding, but stopping the bleeding means hormones which means it can make clots and... I'm just so scared of that :c I mean, one of the spots feels like a sore muscle and I think a year ago I'd never have been afraid of this. Then again, a year ago I didn't know the warning signs for blood clots... so there ya go. :/Anyway, I have a freaking MASSIVE bruise on my arm from where the nurse in the ER didn't listen to me about using a smaller needle and dug around in my arm looking for a vein in... vain.. She really messed up my arm. It's seriously like a 4"x2" bruise. :cI have put my meds in my am/pm pillcase and set alarms on my phone every day for 10am and 10pm and now I'm taking my meds on those times instead of just randomly when I get up and before bed. It's helped so much with reducing the anxiety. I'm holding still before reducing from 75 and 75 because I wanted to level out again from where I messed up before I tried to drop. I'm going to drop very, very slowly. I'm terrified of rebound anxiety at this point. I can't handle feeling like that everynight. It's been such a nightmare. And my sleep schedule has been 1-9 and 2-10 depending on what I have going on that night. This is a huge, huge improvement over dawn+-whenever. I doubt I'll go back further than that because we're still night owls... but it's at least sleep during night time for the most part.

[Meimeiquest]

I don't know if you can get the info, but I did a chest pain ER run several years ago (I know now it was the dysautonomia from Cymbalta), and one of the blood tests was for the chemical that determines whether you have the genetic potential to make pulmonary blood clots. IF you got the full protocol AND they didn't do a chest CT, you don't have that chemical. However, that was 2006, and medical practice may have changed by now. I'm glad you were OK.

[Altostrata]

Good to hear that taking the Wellbutrin more regularly is helping those symptoms.

[Arshness]

I guess 4 days is a good number before another anxiety night. I have been fine for the past few days. Since I got the cardio checked at the ER I'm not afraid I'm going to die of a heart attack all the time. I even don't get scared at twinges and pains in my chest. Today, a pinching feeling started in my inner upper arm. It was similar to the pinching feeling I'd had in the pectoral area just between my chest and shoulder before... felt like that pain had migrated. Of course blood clot fear strikes me again but I looked up symptoms and it seems its more likely a pinched nerve. I dont know how to fix that and it hurts... I guess if it's not one thing it's another. :c

 

Anyway... just updating. I'm still here. I wish my symptoms were over so badly. I'm growing so weary of these anxious, sleepless nights. I've held onto my schedule so hard, and already it's slipping because I can't sleep on time due to anxiety on nights like this and each night like this pushes me back another half hour or hour... I've been getting up at 9am anyway but I can't do that on and on... I'm building sleep debt :c Then I got up at 10am then 11am... Well my pills then moved back to about an hour after waking each time. Still taking second one at 10pm to maintain as much stability as possible. If I could just lay down and go to sleep it'd be fine but I never can. I have to lay there and TRY to sleep. Insomnia is a terrible companion to the rest of these issues.

[Meimeiquest]

It sounds like you're making slow, painful progress. Everyone is different, but when I took Wellbutrin SR, I needed to take the second dose 8 hrs. Before bedtime to be able to sleep. I was a 7am, 2 pm doser for a good long time. Maybe you've already tried this? Actually, could you do 150 XL once a day? I think it would be the smoothest dose for most people.

[mattinsmom]

Its good to hear that things are calming down for you. I know you are still in the thick of it, but I can see progress from your first posts. Keep working on your sleep patterns as much as you can. You've put a lot of effort into it. It will come back.

[Arshness]

Meimeiquest: I'm not sure that'd be good... I need to taper down. XL's would be harder to divide... I could consider taking it a little earlier. I guess I'm just scared of it wearing off while I'm asleep and maybe waking me up. I've been taking it about 10pm every night... and last few nights I've been going to bed 2am-3am... so 4-5 hours after taking it and I'm still having anxiety bouts some nights. Last night I couldn't sleep when I laid down at 2:30 and had to get back up. I was up till a bit after 3 because I couldn't help it then fell asleep in my chair watching a vid which helped a lot because I was otherwise feeling like I was losing it. After that, moved to the bed when my wife woke me and fell asleep pretty easily, tho still with some jittering and fretting. Just at that point I was too tired to keep myself up easily.Today I started the taper back after holding for a week at last known good dose. I had cut my XR's in half before and then cut a half in half and tried to take 3/4 of a 75mg tablet for the night dose. (with a 75 mg tablet in the morning, an SR cut in half). But I am scared of dropping a whole quarter tablet. So I cut my quarter tablets in half and now I'm going to take 75mg in the morning SR then at night I'll be taking 1/2+1/4+1/8 of an XR 75mg. I suck at math, but it means rather than dropping a quarter tablet I'll be dropping an eighth. Google calculator says that's 9.375 mg dropped which is nice because 10% is 7.something mg so I'm not far from 10% drop at this point. It's not perfectly accurate... pill splitter is the best I can do, but better to drop a tiny bit with a little tiny fluctuation than to try dropping 20% at once I would think. Right?So wish me luck. I don't want to go into fits again.When I was in the ER the other night, the doc prescribed me Xanax. I haven't gone to pick them up yet. I don't want another benzo acting on my system... but I'm beginning to wish I had something to shut me back down if I get too worked up because tapering off of Wellbutrin is hard enough without also being incapable of sleeping and staying on my proper sleep schedule.Which the worse I get off my schedule, the worse it gets. I can't fall asleep without anxiety if I try to lay down not sleepy. If I woke up later, going to bed on time becomes near-impossible because I'm not tired. It's a vicious cycle that is only fixed by me getting up with less than 8 hours sleep. I don't function well on less than 8. Hell, I don't function well on less than 9. So waking up on 7 or 6 hours sleep to get up on time is ... difficult. Then I may not even make it to my bed time without a nap... :c

[mattinsmom]

I'm not a doctor, this is only my opinion :do not take the xanax. I've heard it is one of the hardest benzos to get off of. Find something, get creative, I know you are stuck at home and in a vicious cycle of sleep deprivation but you were doing better with sleep for awhile. It will come back. This is a bump in the road. Run from adding benzos. Hang in there!