Wellbutrin for irritability?

[jelise]

I am ten weeks into tx and my mood swings are getting really bad.  I really expected to get depressed because I have suffered from severe depression in the past, but actually I am just really irritable.  I have never been like this before -  I actually go into rages and I don't like it at all.  It is not me.

I really didn't want to get on anything as I got off of the anti-depressants two years ago and want it to stay that way.  I don't feel they ever really did anything to help, but I have to try something.  

Does anyone know if wellbutrin helps irritability?  I am trying to quit smoking anyway and took it for a while about ten years ago for depression with no bad side effects.  I know SSRIs are probably better for anxiety, but I hate the sexual side effects.

I also considered ativan, but since my mood swings are so intermittent and short-lived, I don't know if they would kick in in time to help.  I also worry I might abuse any benzos the way I am feeling lately :(

[jelise]

Thank you for the input.  

I am going to see my general practitioner next week and will see what she thinks.  I spoke with a bipolar friend today, and she said Wellbutrin helped her anger issues a lot.  Maybe the hyperactivity goes away after a couple of weeks.....

I have been trying to quit smoking to help tx, but have started having some sort of allergic reaction to the patches.  It is a shame, because the patches were really helping, but now they make me break out in hives after a few hours.  It must be something with tx because they never bothered me before.  Oh well.  Back to the drawing board.  Maybe I should try hypnosis  :)

[newleaf09]

I tried it and could not take it because it hyped me up too much.  No sleep for nearly 2 weeks while I was on it.  Talk about crazy.  Funny, I tried it's sister drug to help quit smoking years before and had to stop it because I reacted exactly the same way.  Should have known. It is good for sex but that was not a good trade-off with sleep.  I ended up on an SSRI and just accepted lousy sex.

[Kathy73]

I know how you feel about the irritability and anger. My doctor prescribed Celexa and it seemed to work well. I used Wellbutrin before to quit smoking and, while it helped, it changed my personality and my husband didn't like it. Neither did I. I know alot of people try different ADs until they find one that works for them without the side effects. On the notion of quitting smoking while doing tx, I started up smoking again when I was really stressed (no excuse) and my doctor thought it would be a good idea to quit after finishing tx. I just finished tx, but am waiting a little while before quiting smoking.
Don't know if this helps...Kathy