Wellbutrin for adrenal fatigue? by amber1921 Blog entry

Blog: Adrenal fatigue, stimulants and benzos
by amber1921

Wellbutrin for adrenal fatigue?

I used to take Ritalin and Xanax for many years which caused my body to enter a state of complete Adrenal Exhaustion. I knew that one day it would happen to me because combining those two drugs is a really bad idea. Either of them is a bad idea but alongside each other this combo virtually guarantees the HPA axis destruction.

Date: 5/24/2013 8:11:46 AM ( 11 y ) ... viewed 13720 times

Ok. I' m now taking Wellbutrin again 75 mg a day in the morning. I really didn't want to do this but my symptoms were getting so much worse that I think it's justified at this point.

I stopped taking Ritalin and Wellbutrin for a few months hoping that my body will start to get back to normal. It didn't .
I thought that after the initial crash from stopping both medications at high doses I will slowly regain my capacity to do things naturally without stimulants but it never happened.
Instead of getting better I was getting only worse.

I used to take Ritalin and Xanax for many years which caused my body to enter a state of complete Adrenal Exhaustion. I knew that one day it would happen to me because combining those two drugs is a really bad idea. Either of them is a bad idea but alongside each other this combo virtually guarantees the HPA axis destruction.

Wellbutrin was added into the mix after my suicide attempt in 2011. I was a real mess! I had absolutely no energy left and felt like the life was just sucked out of me. I started to abuse other drugs like Dilaudid and alcohol because I really didn't want to continue anymore. I thought my life was over, I was very sick and waking up every day caused me nothing but pain and misery.

My old friend saved my life by introducing me to yoga. I didn't want to do it, I didn't believe in any benefits of yoga especially in my case. But I did it anyway because I had nothing to lose. After a few months of taking private classes I noticed some changes in my perception of reality. I felt happy for the first time in my life. It also coincided with my husband and I moving to Florida. The ocean air and yoga brought me back to life and I felt like a totally different person. I was no longer depressed. That's when I decided to quit all my meds....

The worst drug of all that I know exists is Xanax or any benzo. It truly ruined my health like nothing else I ever encountered. This also happens to be the only drug that I took without doing any prior research. It was prescribed for anxiety that I had when I was working on my second degree.
By the time I realized what I was taking it was too late. I ended up being dependent on it for years.

Now I'm trying to taper off it slowly according to the Ashton Method. I hope to be benzo free by the end of this year.

As for the Ritalin I decided that I have to let it go. I love the way it makes me feel - strong and confident but now I have Adrenal Fatigue and Ritalin caused it for the most part. If I want to recover from it I need to let my adrenals rest. So it's been 3 months since my last Ritalin pill.

Now back to Wellbutrin. I didn't realize all that time that it was holding my body together as a glue. I thought it was only helping my depression and if I'm no longer depressed I shouldn't be taking it. I started to fall apart without it physically. Absolutely no motivation or interest to do anything at all. Felt really horrible as if my adrenal fatigue all of a sudden got so much worse. No blood pressure, very slow pulse, joint and muscle ache, asthma-like symptoms, indigestion and general feeling of having the worst flu.
It got so bad that I think my symptoms of stimulant withdrawal started to override even the symptoms of my benzo withdrawal. I waited for 2 months to see if there is any improvement but something appears to be very wrong.
I think I got off the stimulants way too fast and my body has very hard time adjusting to this low energy level. It seems like my heart is not beating right either.
All the symptoms of meds withdrawal started to overlap each other and I have no idea now what's causing what and what I should do about it.

For now I decided to get on Wellbutrin low dose and see if it improves. Taking stimulants while recovering from AF and benzo dependence doesn't make much sense if you think about it logically but my situation is somewhat different so I think I'm doing the right thing.