Wellbutrin in Health Journey

I want to document how I feel and what happens as I work on feeling better....
So as many of you know, I’ve had a shit time, emotionally, since January. I’m in what I like to call a functional depression. I CAN act completely normal (to the outside eye), I can engage in conversation, I still do the very basic things that need to get done for life to continue - clean house, cook meals, run most errands and keep the household functioning – but at a super minimal level - certainly not up to my former standards. My focus is shit and my energy and drive is nonexistent. And when I am alone with my thoughts, I feel mostly very flat as if I’m watching someone else live my life and I just don’t care much, or very self - critical, or very sad. Physically, I am lethargic, my body hurts (joints, muscles, skin), or lack energy or the will to move about half the month (it seems to go with my cycle, as I’ve described elsewhere).

So therapy this spring, just a few sessions, and she was very concerned with my emotional state, wanted me on medication, I promised her I would make a doctor’s appt. I finally did see my general practicioner yesterday to talk about this issue and my cycle.

Results:
GP recommended Wellbutrin for a host of reasons: It has, in some patients, helped with ADD symptoms, like focus (which I have been diagnosed with), has helped with energy and weight loss (which is an issue for me), and also mainly helps with depression.
She gave me a prescription for the generic, Buproprion XL, 150 mg 1x a day. I filled the prescription and waited until I got home to take it as one of the side effects is dizziness and I was driving.
People seem to have a varied response to how this works – looks like overall, it works well for about 75% of the people who take it. Some people say they see/feel results right away. Some people said it took a month or so to see any changes.
Yesterday afternoon, I don’t know if I felt anything different, except a slight increase in energy levels. For example, all summer, I would mow the lawn (riding mower) and leave the extraneous stuff to Tim (raking, weed whipping, push mowing the ditch). I just couldn’t gather up enough energy to do/complete alllll those tasks at once this summer – where in past summers, I totally would have. This is an example of how I have been doing the bare minimum that looks like I’m functioning fine, but it’s not really me.
Yesterday I mowed, knowing we would be away for four days, and actually also raked up all the grass AND put it in the compost pile. I felt like I could handle that all without it being too overwhelming or too much exertion. I know that seems like a super little thing, but it’s been bothering me all summer that I’ve left the bulk of the heavy lifting/physical yard stuff up to him.

I’ll keep updating you all on how the medication is going.

I am at my highest weight ever. We talked about this – same basic message- you are healthy but fat. Morbidly Obese, actually. She wants me to exercise regularly. I want to exercise regularly, but even the thought of dragging myself to the gym or park or on my treadmill at home was exhausting – maybe with this medication, I will be more motivated to actually follow through on some exercise.

In other taking care of myself type things, my GP and I discussed my cycle. She is concerned that I may have fibroids and that I am probably anemic with all the heavy bleeding, or have other deficiencies (she attributed the bone/ joint/muscle pain to this, potentially). I am to have an appt. with the obgyn and get an ultrasound. I also need to go back and do a fasting blood draw shortly to get all my levels tested. She kind of blew off the idea that my hormones were out of whack and said we should start here.

And last piece of info, I also booked an appointment with a doctor of integrated health/functional medicine – trained in Western medical treatment but also a naturopath and not opposed to thinking outside the box. She was booked until November, so that’s when my appt. is. I have been working on filling out 16 pages of intake forms, basically my whole medical history. The first appointment is about 2 hours, she examines you and discusses the 3 main issues you want to work on. For me, I put: severe menstrual cycle irregularities, weight, mental health. Of course, this is not covered by insurance, so my HSA will be put to use.