I just lost a week of my life...

[The Procrastinatrix]

For more than two years, I've been working on managing my depression. I have a wonderful therapist, and a great psychiatrist. My husband is very, very supportive and so is the rest of my family, in-laws too. My son is a joy to be around. I really am very lucky to have so much support in my struggle.

Recently I started switching my meds from Celexa (citalopram) to Wellbutrin. I was looking for a drug that didn't completely suppress my libido. After starting Wellbutrin on 1/6/07 and got up to my current dosage on 1/20/07. During that time and the time since, I've been decreasing my Citalopram and as of last week was done with it completely.

Throughout the med changeover, I experienced minor dizzy spells, but chalked it up to my body getting used to the lower doses of Citalopram. Last Monday, though was much, much worse. The dizzy spells weren't even spells anymore. It was constant. I couldn't walk or go up stairs without feeling light headed and having to hang on to something. Obviously, I couldn't drive. I spoke with my psychiatrist the next day, and we decided I would start taking the Wellbutrin every other day, instead of every day. It stays in your system for a long time, though, so she cautioned me it would take a week or more for things to balance out.

As the week went on, I was still dizzy all the time, and I felt more and more out of control of my emotions. I'm generally not much of a crier, but last week, I would start crying at the drop of a hat. Plus I was angry and confrontational with my husband. Every conversation turned into an argument (very, very, very unlike us) or would start me crying. It was a horrible week.

Through all this I still had my business to run, and my child to care for. My therapist told me it was like being physically sick. You just have to stop worrying about all the work and things you can't do, and try to rest and get well. I found it very frustrating that I was losing days and days of work that needed to be done. You can't very well tell your clients, sorry I screwed up, but was too dizzy to walk. I mean you can of course, but after a while they start finding someone who CAN do the job.

Today is Monday, and even though I still feel very dizzy, I do feel more in control of my emotions. I'm cautiously optimistic that my medicine is starting to balance out and that soon I'll feel better.

I'm an emotional eater and in the past would have abandoned my new WOE. Curiously, my diet was the one thing I felt like I had control over. I stuck with our planned meals and even managed to make it to the gym once (the treadmill with your head spinning is a real treat ). I am so surprised that I didn't revert to my old ways of eating. And happy. It would have been so much worse had I lost all those days of work, plus all the time I'd already put in on this WOL.

It was such a horrible time, and I'm not sure I'm out of the woods yet. I just wanted to tell someone. Thanks for reading.

[Lyssie]

Congratulations on making it through and sticking to Atkins while doing it. If you're strong enough to make it through that, the next step is taking over the world, right??

As a side note, wellbutrin totally didn't interfere with my libido (though, I think DBF sometimes wishes it would).

[The Procrastinatrix]

Yeah! Look out world. I'll take over, then fall over in a dizzy spell.

I was hoping the Wellbutrin would improve libido. That darn Citalopram had completely taken it away. I haven't noticed much improvement in that area, but with all the crying fits and dizzy spells, who could tell?

[Lyssie]

Yeah, I went on it from zoloft... but I've always had high libido... then again, I never experienced the dizziness either. I did have the crying spells when I switched, but I had been having them with the zoloft anyway, and they went away when everything evened out - about 2/2.5 weeks or so...

[The Procrastinatrix]

I cannot even say how happy I will be if I get past all this crying...

I had finally gotten the depression under control enuf that I could start catching up on all the stuff I let slide when I was really far gone. It was feeling so awesome to cross things off my to-do list. I was nearly 6 months behind on sending invoices to my clients and still paying my employees. It doesn't take an MBA from Princeton to see that is not a good business model I was going full steam ahead on those invoices, getting and keeping my house clean, actively enjoying my child, shopping and cooking for our new WOE, exercising, socializing and just plain feeling normal. Then it all came to a screeching halt last Monday.

Today seems to be going a little bit better... It's very encouraging to hear that things evened out for you. I'm crossing my fingers, toes, legs and double chin hoping it will for me, too.

[Lyssie]

I hope it works out for you too.

[BeccaBoo]

It sounds more like withdrawal from your old meds than the Wellbutrin. Wellbutrin is very very subtle and generally has few side effects. I have heard of people taking Wellbutrin concurrently with other antidepressants to improve libido, that may be an option for you. My libido definitely went up a couple of notches after a month on, as well as the quality of the whole experience .

Hope you get it sorted out soon...I so know what you mean about losing a week of your life...I lost about 3 weeks once when I tried Glucophage before the Atkins WOE. Ick. Never again.

EDIT

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