Wellbutrin giving me suicidal thoughts, clonazapem helping

[Amber98]

I just started wellbutrin for my depression and it made my anxiety sky rocket. Cant sleep and shaky hands. Im in a training program for a job and I was doing well, I have completed 4 weeks, i think clonazapem was keeping me going. I started wellbutrin and all of a sudden i got thoughts about being a failure, I will fail the training, I will get fired, I will be homeless. Then I started feeling suicidal. Its a long weekend so thank god Im not in the training but i feel I have to drop out now even though im half way through.

To combat the suicide thoughts I took clonazapem, Im at 1mg 3 times a day, and thankfully its taking away the suicidal thoughts. Should I stop taking the wellbutrin? Ive been on it for a week. I hear all this bad stuff about clonazpem but its the only thing keeping me going. Will clonazpem  stop working on me if I continue to take it 3 times a day. Please don't tell me clonazapem will lose its effectiveness. I don't care if I have to keep increasing my dose, my anxiety is really bad. Also, Ive tried these anti depressants with no help: pristiq, sertraline, effexor, noratriptlyne,

[nursegirl6572]

You may do well on one of the older, tri-cyclic antidepressants, like Elavil.  I agree with Paxiled that you've been put on mostly the more stimulating antidepressants.  

I would get in to talk to your doctor about this, and maybe ask about a better option than the Klonopin to combat the acute anxiety.  A shorter acting benzo to me would make more sense.  Whatever you do, don't throw in the towel on the training hon.  You've come very far, and worked very hard.  You KNEW going in that you would have to contend with your anxiety, you'll get through it.  How much longer is the training?  You've done SO great coming this far, it would be so unfortunate if you quit now.  

Pulling for you, keep us updated!

[Amber98]

I just realized Ive tried Cipralex too which I think is the same as Lexapro, im from Canada. So having tried Cipralex, sertraline, effexor, pristiq, wellbutrin, noratripytyline..what other non-stimulating anti depressant could i suggest to my doctor"?

[Paxiled]

Well, one of the most serious warnings about starting an antidepressant is they can cause aggressive and suicidal thoughts.  I doubt the clonazepam will stop working, but what it's doing is suppressing your anxiety about the thoughts, not the thoughts themselves, most likely, so to me at least it seems an odd choice to deal with that particular problem.  Wellbutrin is in the category of stimulating antidepressants, and as such can make anxiety worse, but any antidepressant can cause suicidal thoughts.  This will often go away over time but is also a big reason psychiatrists might stop a particular medication and try a different one.  It appears you've mostly been put on stimulating antidepressants -- pristiq and effexor are also very stimulating.  It appears you've only tried one ssri, Zoloft, which seems odd at least to me.  You've only been on this for a short time, so if you've got to get through this training you might want to see about stopping the wellbutrin at least until you've done that, as you say you were doing well.  Starting a new drug while doing something like that was probably going to be difficult no matter what drug it was.  As for continuing to increase the dose of clonazepam, if it's to deal with the side effects of another drug it sounds like a bad bargain -- clonazepam is addictive and at the rate you're taking it you'll have a hard time stopping it.  That's my take, anyway.