NicoleL: Wellbutrin 150 XL taper

[NicoleL]

Hello! My insurance will no longer pay for my Wellbutrin so I’m going to stop taking it. Can anyone tell me what type of withdrawal to expect? Is it as bad as Lexapro? I stopped taking that over a year ago and withdrawals were hell for almost 6 months. I’m hoping Wellbutrin won’t be as bad. My doc says there aren’t really any tapering options. 

Edited November 30, 2020 by manymoretodays
name added to title

[Gridley]

Welcome to SA, NicoleL.

 

To give members the best information, we ask them to summarize their medication history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly.

 

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Doctors are woefully ignorant about tapering.   There are numerous tapering options.

 

To start, we recommend tapering by no more than 10% of current dose every four weeks.

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Wellbutrin is one drug that, in some cases, can be tapered more quickly after seeing how you do for a couple of months tapering at 10%.  The following link is specifically about tapering Wellbutrin, including XL, as well as how to get the doses you'll need for your taper.  It is an excellent blueprint for a Wellbutrin taper.

 

Tips for tapering off buproprion (Wellbutrin, SR, XR, XL)

 

 

On 11/30/2020 at 2:46 PM, NicoleL said:

Can anyone tell me what type of withdrawal to expect? Is it as bad as Lexapro? I stopped taking that over a year ago and withdrawals were hell for almost 6 months.

 

Withdrawal varies from person to person and depends on a number of factors, including rate of taper.  There's no way to predict how yours will go except to advise you to go slowly, to listen to your body and to hold if symptoms become difficult.  Wellbutrin is not regarded as one of the more difficult psychiatric drugs to taper.

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system. 

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

Add in one at a time and at a low dose in case you do experience problems. Get supplements that are single ingredient (not mixed with other types of supplements).

 

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