Prior to taking the wellbutrin I had pretty good cognition and pretty good adhd symptom control while just on my stims. The entire reason I'm on wellbutrin is to help with the moodiness I get from rebound of my stim meds , that and I seem to get irritable while taking concerta but the fact remains that it helps me focus...... My issue is that I take wellbutrin daily in the afternoon and every morning that I wake up I seem to be doing great, good focus and I'm not procrastinating and surfing the net at work, but my issue is right when I take the wellbutrin I feel so relaxed that my sharp thinking and attention that my stims help me with is blunted.... I'm on week 2.5 of wellbutrin 300. Will this subside, this mental sluggishness that I'm experiencing. Prior to wellbutrin when I got home I'd help out and run my dog and do all that I could now after I workout I just lay on the couch... It sucks-, but my mood is better. Will this go away . Been on wellbutrin for 4 weeks , two weeks 150xl and 1.5 weeks 300

Maybe you could take it a little later, like after taking the dog out, etc?

I don't know for sure, but I'd say it will probably get better as you get more adjusted to the higher dose.

Were you tired after the Concerta wore off, before you started the Welbutrin?
Coming off of stims tends to make me tired and more spacey.

There's a good chance it'll get better once you have been on it a bit longer.
If not, I'd say just weigh the pros and cons... Sounds like a trade-off that would we worth it to me to be a little tired at the end of the day in exchange for improved mood and the ability to take the Concerta.


I took Welbutrin a few years ago and never noticed it making me tired. I wasn't on stims yet though.

to answer your question regarding the stimulant rebound. No I found that I had good focus all the way to about 10pm. I usually take an evening ir dose of ritalin and that helps me out alot, but recently just when I've went to 300 it's as if the evening dose of ritalin does nothing for me . so I don't think it's the stimulant wearing off or atleast it wasn't before?

Odd.
Has this happened the whole time you've been taking Welbutrin, or just since you went up to 300?

If you get such crappy results from concerta, you might consider using the wellbutrin alone. It sounds like you are a good responder to it, the overrelaxed sensation should go away as you get more used to it, and possibly just when you stop the cocerta - keep in mind when you take wellbutrin that drugs and alcohol will hit you twice as hard so you may be getting the effect of concerta overload. Irritation and anxiety are something no one should have to deal with. At the least there's plenty of other stims out there which are not so harsh. Adderal and especially dexedrine are much less likely to make you anxious.

I feel I got lucky the addy works so well for me, but it would be even better if I got the result out of wellbutrin alone.

You'll have to experiment, but I think you are getting the 'good' response to wellbutrin as far as focus goes since you are so relaxed on it. I just think you're getting hit too hard, either due to not being used to it or its potentiation of the concerta.

I don't think switching to just Wellbutrin is the best option in this case.

I do, however, agree with the suggestion of a different stimulant.
Have you tried others besides Concerta? If you haven't tried a few others I'd suggest it might be a good idea to do so. Maybe something else can still help you focus but won't give you the awful rebound. I got that with Concerta and Adderall, but not with Dexedrine.

captain,

eliminating my stimulant would be a massively terrible idea. I've done so well in college on concerta and had such great success that it literally helped me focus and allowed me to make normal life decisions all the way to I got my masters degree. It has always been an issue for me focusing all day long though and the stress from work really has been the link that has caused the haze in my road to success. Using wellbutrin as a standalone makes me smile and laugh, it would do absolutely nothing for me, I have and will always require stimulant medications as my primary agent for adhd. I guess what I meant was that often the long release meds have up and down curbs and I'm a broker ....its very detail oriented all day long sitting for long hours, then I hit the gym. I presume that is why I get frustrated not having a flexible schedule. Since hitting the 300mg on wellbutrin thats when I felt really blunted and tired, who knows , maybe this could be too much with the concerta at that dose. I tried 150 today and felt so much better. I'm going to trial adderall with the wellbutrin and see if I have better results. I'm sorry I was unclear concerta and or ritalin has been great for me but sometimes finding the dose has been difficult as I've always been a high dose responder . I seem to metabolize fine though, and adderall has worked as well it just takes time to adjust to the medication.. So never wellbutrin alone , has never been even a thought in my mind. The overly relaxed feeling I should add just has me mentally sluggish for a few hours per day. I hate going to the gym taking wellbutrin 300 its as if it's become boring working out. Back to 150 and feeling better. Did I ever say that I had negative results to concerta? If anything it's been great but at times has it's setbacks.

Well, the rebound being bad enough that you were put on another med for it might be seen as a negative result. For some, this is the solution, and that's fine. It just sounded like your rebound on Concerta is particularly harsh. If that's cool with you, then cool.

Personally, harsh rebound is something that caused me to investigate alternatives, which led me to a med that works but doesn't have those negative side effects. If it came down to the only thing that works being something with a harsh rebound, I'd no doubt take it and take something else to deal with it. I just think that if there are options to be explored, they're worth exploring.

If not, then there's nothing wrong with sticking with what works.
Is the 150 still taking care of the rebound? Glad to hear you're feeling better. You may just not need that much Wellbutrin.

One other reason I would think that maybe something other than Concerta would be good is because of how hard it is to fine tune a Concerta dose. I personally like meds that are more customizable. But again, whatever you like, more power to ya.


Most psych meds come with some sort of trade-off. It's just a matter of experimenting and finding what works best for you. :)

I have read a few posts where people moved up to a certain doseage level with Wellbutrin then backed down for a while and then moved up again later.

You'll need to give it time, but some adjustments like the one you just made seem reasonable, even if temporary.

I've been taking focalin and have just added Wellbutrin (the 8 hour SR, 100mg only once per day) this week. I'm just two days on it so far.

I'm surprised that they don't offer it in smaller dosages so we can transition a bit more easily. I'd rather take 50mg 2x and then move to 75mg 2x and so on.

Right now I feel that the focalin may "mask" the effects of the Wellbutrin to some degree - it makes it tougher to recognize, as apart from the stimulant effects.

I'll probably back my focalin down, just a bit, as I feel a slight bit over-stimulated on both at once.

I also do drink a modest amount of coffee - that may be an issue too.

So, that's my brief set of experiences. Good luck.

meriellyn-

I think I'm doing much better with the wellbutrin, I guess maybe I am taking the wellbutrin for job stress and that may be the real reason as to why I'm taking it. I think it's helping. Well regarding concerta , the truth is that it has always worked but I have used supplemental ritalin ir to fine tune the dose of concerta accordingly. I do agree that it is difficult to see how the concerta will hit you and whether or not it's the release, the milligrams or the dosage with concerta that needs to be adjusted. Who knows, maybe it's just the concerta dosage that's been off , but I agree that fine tuning concerta although it is a good drug is more than annoying. If you have any suggestions on meds that are time released that are better at fine tuning I would appreciate your input. I'm thinking that time released meds are best in the meds that release half initially and half several hours later.

Yeah, I think two doses in one is about as far as time released does well.

That's the way Adderall XR is.

I generally stick to IR myself because I like to have control of when and what I take.

Concerta was like a nasty rollercoaster from hell for me. That *poof* every few hours sucked, especially if I forgot it was coming then suddenly felt different. Not cool. If it was a constant release it'd be one thing but yikes. I promptly ditched that one. Realized methylphenidate probably wasn't for me in general as well because I find it to be harsh.

I don't have much firsthand experience with other long acting stims for reasons mentioned above.

I've taken Adderall IR and am now on Dexedrine IR. It's easy for me to prevent lapses in doses by fine tuning when I take the next one, so there's none of that low/high/low stuff all day. I can also taper it off at the end of the day and lessen rebound that way. And if I do wait longer between doses, at least I'm steering my own rollercoaster. Lol.

Really, the only rebound I get from Dex is I tend to get a little goofy sometimes when the last dose wears off but that's not really a big deal. Adderall gave me headaches and such, which is why I switched.

I think Vyvanse is theoretically supposed to be a sustained release rather than two or three doses on one like Adderall XR or Concerta, but I'm not 100% sure on that.


I'm glad the Wellbutrin is working for you. I think it's a pretty good med, myself. As I said, I haven't taken it with stims but I did take it for quite a while, a few years back, and liked it a lot.
I've considered adding it to my current cocktail for a few months to combat seasonal affective disorder but I haven't decided yet. Tweaked my Dex a little and am doing better so I may not need to do that. I would take it again though, if it came down to it.

Yeah I think I may go back to ir meds or if I go with a time release I'll just do the meds that release twice. Now that I think about it , I never had an issue on ritalin, it's when I switched to concerta that the guessing game of dosing began.

Lol, yeah sometimes newer isn't necessarily better. And longer acting isn't always better.

I make my own long acting medication. Lol. Works better for me than any time released stuff could. I just release it in my own time. I may have to set a timer on my phone to remember when that is, but it works. ;)

You should be able to tell in just one day without concerta if it's working or not. If you are still sleepy and also unfocused with just wellbutrin, then just toss the wellbutrin. If you are not sleepy and somewhat more focused you might go with it alone or as part of your regimen.

When someone has been taking a med like Concerta everyday for a while, it's normal to feel tired, unfocused, and out of it even more than usual if they stop taking it so I don't think one day without Concerta would prove much.

I'm not tossing the concerta, if anything I'd switch to adderall. I've been taking ritalin for 11 years, and concerta for 5. I think I am well aware of the big time consequences of not taking my stimulant. I'm classic adhd and wellbutrin alone wouldn't stand a chance of doing much of anything. Again the wellbutrin is being used for stress and work related issues that by and large I never experienced during high school or college. Captain, dropping the stimulant is a bad idea, the stims have done so much for my adhd why in the world would I do that, not considering it . I do take time off every couple of days a month, but thats it. If I go without my stims I just walk around acting silly and cracking jokes all day. Nothing gets done, so thats not an option.