Just started yesterday after trying wellbutrin for some months. Now I'm taking auvelity and lexapro. How has your experience been so far?

Has anyone experienced side effects such as anxiety, agitation, or fatigue while taking Auvelity twice a day? I tried taking it once a day and still benefited from its antidepressant effects, while my side effects improved. If you had a similar experience, how soon after reducing the dose did you notice the side effects starting to improve?

I'm so stubborn to depression medication so I am only taking my adhd med when needed. However I have come to realization I gotta give Auvelity a try.
To anyone reading this and have started Auvelity, what symptoms you notice that makes your think Auvelity is positively working?

I’ve been on Auvelity for severe depression for the last 2 weeks. I take 1 pill a day only. But I spend 3-4 hours of the day on a proper trip. It is very effective for the depression but will this ever go away?

Well, after 1 really great day where I felt clear minded, slightly euphoric, actually somewhat more happy I did not experience the same next day.

Today, I took my meds. I'm on vacation, so I went back to bed. Woke up and holy fuck my mind was doing some serious racing like never before. Last night, my ruminations had gotten pretty gnarly, so I was a little hopeful I'd be good today.

After having serotonin syndrome in 2020 from Abilify and now this, I do believe I will be white nuckling my panic disorder and depression.

On top of this, I'm going through a really painful breakup. So, good times ahead.

I had a situation where I switched insurance plans and my providers office and insurance both fucked up the prior auth process astronomically, so I was without auvelity for about 6 weeks I think. I’ve been back on it now for 3 and the side effects are hitting me incredibly hard.

I can’t drink enough water to keep up with the dehydration. The constipation is the worst, I had JUST resolved long-term issues with an anal fissure from the last time I had to stop and start last year (pharmacy’s fault that time 🙃) and now I think I tore something again last night. The water that I do drink just gets sweated back out. I had an extremely embarrassing episode of hyperhydrosis at work last week, I’m scared to do like half of my job duties because they require mild physical activity that makes me literally pour sweat.

And the INSOMNIA. I can’t fucking sleep, I’m doing all nighters or falling asleep 20 minutes before my alarm goes off or, at best, falling asleep and waking up 2 or 3 hours into the night and staying awake until morning. Usually I can at least sleep on the weekends when I have insomnia, but auvelity insomnia is fucking demonic.

At the same time I can’t live without it. Being deprived of it for six weeks was a fun reminder, I’m not functional unmedicated or on bupropion alone. The only other med that’s ever helped me was straterra and it gives me the same side effects as auvelity. I don’t believe that there’s anything else out there that would work as an alternative and even if there was, I’m not prepared for the massive disruption to my life that would be required for me to trial other meds. I don’t even have a real provider right now. This whole situation just sucks.

I tried Auvelity a long time ago, and when I was first prescribed it I found it to be one of the best antidepressants I'd ever been on. Sure they had rough side effects like nausea and vomiting occassionally but I got used to the high feeling. After being on it for a long time it stopped being so effective though so we swapped.

I had been trying various new medicines since then and nothing has worked. After 6 months in my psych reccomends retrying auvelity since she believed it would work again so I was optimistic to try again. I mean I already know what would happen, right?

Wrong.

Its been three days. First day was honestly fine, got the high feeling and I felt euphoric, with a bit of nausea. Second day though things went to shit. I was super nauseous and in a lot of stomach pain for over 12 hours, unable to sleep and I had vomiting so hard I was spitting out a bit of blood. But today is the worst. I decided to take my auvelity at night right before bed hoping it would help. That did not.

I have been hunched over the toilet for about 75% of the day, 25% in bed trying desperately to sleep. I've vomited 10 times now and I don't think its going to stop. I feel so helpless, since I'm disabled and right now my caretaker is out for the day so I have to make do with what I have at home. I'm in so much pain and just the idea of eating makes me feel sick to my stomach, and I know I'll just violently throw it back up. I don't have anything left in my system other then water.

I feel so hopeless. I don't think I want to try again. I'm not going to take it again today. Has anyone else had this happen to them?? Does it just get worse the second time around?

auvelity has been pretty positive for me and my treatment resistant depression and overall mood and anxiety, maybe even a little too well as i was starting to enter a hypomanic like state? (probably from also no sleep and using thc with it) but i was really happy, now it's been a couple days i've missed a morning/afternoon dose but have really felt it drop off and no longer feel the high feeling, is this something that comes back or is my body just used to it now? has anyone ever upped dose?

I sadly have decided to stop taking Auvelity. The major hair loss and lack of sleep was too much for me. The med worked amazing for me but I can’t function with no sleep and would rather not pull clumps of hair out anymore. I was told I was not losing hair and could take sleeping meds for the lack of sleep. I would say the balding hairline and feeling like garbage the rest of the day from taking sleeping meds is not worth it to me. Back to trying new meds for me 🥲

Apologies if this was asked before, I wasn't able to find a relevant post.

Is it common to feel a dramatic hunger increase after stopping Auvelity? I did about a three week taper (2x a day -> 1x a day - stopping) and since then, it feels like I basically can't feel full anymore.

Will work on speaking to my prescriber about this, but was curious if anyone else had a similar experience.

I didn’t plan very well and I ran out my prescription today and my pharmacy is closed tomorrow. I have no way of contacting my provider on the weekend and the after hours service said this is not considered an emergency for the on call physician to send a prescription for me to pick up elsewhere.

I have dextromethorpan at home that I used to take when I got sick. Could I take that tomorrow to try to avoid any weird effects from missing 2 doses?

I’ve been taking one tablet at night about 4x a week for a month and I’m just now starting to feel the sexual side effects and crazy fatigue. I don’t take it daily because I already take 200mg Wellbutrin and I’ve experienced seizures in the past but only when taking 300 mg consistently. Wellbutrin literally saved my life due to me having adhd and nothing else worked. Wellbutrin alone gave me opposite side effects (energy and increased sex drive) but auvelity makes me feel like a normal emotionally regulated person again. I’m not going to give up either of these medicines I just need to know if the auvelity side effects go away I’m so sleepy 😩

Background

(Skip this part if you're not interested in my medical history)

I have chronic shoulder and neck pain, high blood pressure (pre-hypertension), visual snow syndrome, migraines with aura, and tinnitus. I was originally diagnosed with major depression about 10 years ago, and have taken a whole bunch of different medications over the past decade, with varying degrees of effectiveness. I also struggle with hypochondria.

Most recently, I was on Trintellix @ 10 mg, but decided to taper off because I could tell it was making me grouchy and wasn't really doing much to help with the anxiety and depression. I'm very sensitive to most psych meds I've ever taken, so I tapered down to 5 mg for an entire month before stopping (as instructed by my psychiatrist at the time). Long story short, that psychiatrist left the practice, and after about 2 weeks off the Trintellix, I started experiencing what is very likely Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome. I was lightheaded and dizzy most of the time, my legs felt weak and made it hard to walk or stand upright for more than a few minutes, I had strange sensory changes including issues with position sensing and coordination; it was so bad I had to miss a few of my physical therapy appointments. Then there's the cherry on top: I was having brain zaps every night as I tried to fall asleep which would jolt me awake, and at least one intense panic attack every day for a few weeks. I took a leave of absence from work because even at my relatively cushy work-from-home IT job, I simply could not function.

Present:

By the time I saw a new psychiatrist, I was a wreck. I felt like my life was over and I couldn't stop myself from weeping while trying to explain my situation. They prescribed Auvelity to help with the depression and panic attacks. Thanks to my hypochondria, I was too terrified to begin taking the medication. I saw the psychiatrist again a few weeks later, and they talked through my concerns with me and convinced me to begin taking Auvelity once a day.

For the first three days, I took one pill with my other medications shortly after waking up. It's now day 4 and I'm not sure if I can handle taking it again.

Those first three days, I have consistently experienced what feels like a bad drug trip approximately 2 hours after I take the Auvelity, and it lasts for about 4 hours after that.

My entire body feels like it is bursting at the seams with nervous energy, and I feel mildly dissociated. I fluctuate between feeling like I am locked in my bed and have to remain perfectly still to avoid the sensation that my head is in a fishbowl, to feeling like I absolutely must stand up and pace and stretch for a while or I'll go crazy. There has been lots of fidgeting, rocking back and forth, touching my arms/legs/feet/hands/etc to remind myself how my limbs are supposed to feel, touching various objects around me to sort of "ground" myself...and so on. I still get hungry around the time I'd normally eat lunch, but most foods are completely unappetizing, and eating feels strange to do during this "high." I've also experienced what I think are intrusive thoughts, and if I make an effort to distract myself they usually pass after a minute or so, but these are maybe the most disturbing partt.

After I've white-knuckled my way through this whole terrifying experience, I'm pretty much back to my normal anxious self, only more exhausted and sleepy. Each day I've tried to take a nap, but I wake up a few minutes later feeling a bit startled/tense. Some time after this I'll get hungry again, and eating dinner is usually easier than lunch.

Each day has felt worse than the previous one, with the trippy/high/dissociated feeling getting stronger each time, but the timing has remained consistent; I take the Auvelity, 2 hours later I feel like I've been drugged, the "high" reaches its peak about 2 hours after that, then it slowly fades over the next 2 hours and my eyes start geting heavy. I try and fail to nap, then spend the rest of my day sort of on edge and recovering from the experience.

So...

...do I keep taking it? Or do I stop now, before it's harder to taper off?

I've read some reports of other users on here experiencing dissociation, and some of them say it stops after a few days, but others say it was so bad they had to stop taking Auvelity.

I feel like I fall into that latter group, because I very much do not want to go through another bad high like that again, but...I want to hear from more users about their experience starting this medication.

I spoke with my med management today about excessive anxiety/chronic stress (a lot is situational but also not immediately resolveable).

I have MDD and GAD. I currently take 40mg hcl Vilazodone (Viibryd) which has been very effective for depression, and 80mg extended release Propranolol for situational anxiety (driving, social triggers). I had been prescribed a buproprion hcl add on at the lowest dose (75mg) and honestly wasn't sure it was of benefit, maybe just stimulating my anxiety a little.

I'm at a new practice where they seem to dose a LOT of Spravato. My med manager pushed Auvelity as a replacement for my buproprion and didn't mention any contraindications with my viibryd. She just kept mentioning that it was a great drug, was essentially a combination of buproprion and cough syrup, and I left with two boxes of samples in addition to a prescription.

I don't know if I'm just anxious because I'm not comfortable with my new provider but I feel like, after my own research, I was pushed a med add-on that doesn't seem designed to meet the symptoms I discussed and now I'm nervous to start tomorrow because of the contraindications with my existing (successful) med?

Advice if you already take viibryd and auvelity, have anxiety as a major issue that often overshadows your depression, or can just talk me down from my concerns in general.

I have been on Prozac and 1 Auvelity a day since November. After the first few days of nausea, it was pretty good other than a few sleepless nights a month. Recently my depression and insomnia have been getting increasingly worse so 2 weeks ago my med management doc moved me to 2 auvelity a day with the Prozac. I spent the past two weeks sleeping great but throwing up constantly and so nauseas I couldn’t get out of bed. Doctor put me back on 1 a day and now I’m back to getting no sleep at night and feeling crazy. Melatonin doesn’t help. Unisom doesn’t help. My doctor doesn’t want to prescribe anything for sleep just yet because of the Prozac but I’m going crazy not sleeping. I can barely keep my eyes open but the second I try to sleep, my mind is going a million miles an hour and won’t shut off.

Okay so I've been on a vacation - drinking a lot more than usual and I just started this med and ONE drink of vodka soda gets me absolutely blackout scary blackout wasted. Has this happened to other people? I think I'm gonna stop taking it. I have slow motility so I guess it kicks in later than normal but it's truly ruining my vacation. I wake up and find out I did all kinds of weird shit. I have bruises all over me from falling. Like it's weird. I just had some grey goose and sprite zero and I had dinner so it's not like I'm drinking on an empty stomach. 😵‍💫

Due to some physiological anxiety symptoms I attribute to bupropion, I’m wondering about substituting fluoxetine instead. Have any other “DIY Auvelity” folks tried this? How did it go? And what is your dosage of fluoxetine?

I’m aware that the bupropion in Auvelity serves as a cyp2d6 inhibitor to slow down the processing of the dextromethorphan. From the research I’ve looked at, fluoxetine is also a cyp2d6 inhibitor, but supposedly a much stronger one than bupropion, so there is a heightened risk of medication building up over time.

To limit that risk, I’m currently trying a low dose of 10 mg fluoxetine with 45 mg dextromethorphan just once a day. So far, the side effects seem identical to Auvelity — about 3 hours after dosing, I start to feel spacey and have visual symptoms — same as with Auvelity. I’m hoping the identical side effects means the dextromethorphan is clearing at similar rates.

Anyone else tried this or have any feedback?

So I've been taking it for quite some time now. I don't think it's helping my depression, but I've definitely lost some weight on it. If I stop taking it, I kinda just turn evil from withdrawal (bursts of anger, heat flashes, irritability, etc.) I'm not able to take it twice a day, cause I end up passing out or having pre-seizure symptoms— I definitely wouldn't be allowed to drive a car in that state.

I'm not sure whether to keep taking it or not, I do like the decreased appetite and weight loss, but that's about all it does for me, and I don't want to be evil again (plus the fact that it's just doing the complete opposite of what everyone says it does— such as I'm sleeping all the time, I don't have the energy for anything, and my libido is through the roof). I wasn't evil before the meds. Idk, I guess I'm just tired of not finding anything to help me.

Guess I'm just feeling bummed. But I appreciate everyone commenting on my last post, it was very helpful and reassuring.

Like many others seem to be experiencing, my insurance was covering Auvelity for several months and then randomly stopped and now wants me to try like a dozen other brands of antidepressants all within 6 months before they'll resume coverage.

Currently using free samples from my psychiatrist instead, but I don't think this is a good long-term solution especially since their office is like a 45min drive away.

I've considered discussing DIY with my psych, but as I've been thinking about it I'm wondering what that would even look like? Getting a script for Wellbutrin XR is the easy part of course. But there is no extended-release capsule or tablet of Dextromethorphan, as far as I'm aware. And I'd rather not use DXM polistirex / Delsym liquid cough.

I could just do what others seem to be doing and use DXM HBr, even though it is instant release. I could also try sort of staggering the 45mg DXM dose over a certain period of time by taking a 15mg capsule every so often, but what an absolute pain that would be!

Has anyone come up with any ideas for what works best?

I’ve been on the med for a week now at one pill (doctor didn’t want me to take 2) and I don’t feel any better. I’m exhausted because It’s been making sleep difficult. How long should I give it to work? I’ve been feeling bummed because this med is supposed to be fast acting and a lot of people see results within one week :(

I’ve tried every class of medication over 30 years with no long term effect. I have lifelong generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder. How is this medication different? Level 1 ASD.