Bad Experience At Dr. Today

[ArmyNPots]

Hey everyone!

I promise I wont vent tonight, as much as I would like to!

Long story short, I went to my cardiologist today (she isnt very educated on POTS) and she made me feel stupid and she literally sighed when I was talking about my symptoms. Thats all I will say of my experience because as I reread this, it sounds as if Im venting.

So she gave me WELBUTRIN to try and I just want to know what everyones opinion is. I have severe anxiety (no depression) and she says it will help anxiety and POTS. It is my personal belief that everyone here is more educated than most Doctors when it comes to POTS, so I would like some opinions on whether or not this would be a good medicine to try. Any personal experiences would be so welcome!!!!

Thank you everyone and God Bless!!!

Jaime

((ps. on a side note, for those who followed my pregnancy and childbirth, my son turns 1 years old in a week!))

[Beccapooh]

Well, I've been symptomatic for years, but, just now (almost) DX. So, (of course) I've been on every anti-depressant and anti-anxiety med known to man, including Wellbutrin. I'm very sensitive to meds, as are a lot of folks on here, but I can tell you that Wellbutrin seemed to help SOME at the beginning of taking it, but within a short period of time, it made me very ANXIOUS! Most meds make me MORE ANXIOUS as opposed to less. Again, that's just me.

Bec

PS - I believe that I have the hyper-adrenal form of POTS, so that does make a difference, too. We adrenal folks seem to have the adrenaline in spades!!!

Good luck on your journey and I hope that the med helps, you!!!

[worththewords]

My neuro told me that typically people who suffer from anxiety are not prescribed Wellbutrin because it can increase anxiety while you are adjusting to the dosage. Everyone is different though, especially those of us with POTS.

[lalalisa]

Dr. Grubb actually prescribed this for me a couple of months ago. He said that Wellbutrin has helped quite a few of his POTS patients to feel more "normal" because it can help your nervous system to function more properly.

I did try it and didn't have any side effects except that I noticed I wasn't sleeping as well...so I eventually went off of it.

The weird part about anti-depression or anti-anxiety meds is that everyone reacts completely different. I'm on Paxil CR - the lowest dosage - and it helps me with anxiety tremendously! But everyone is different and the frustrating part is that you can't really know how you'll react until you try it.

Take care and please let us know what you decide to do.

Lisa

[DSM3KIDZ]

I am currently on wellbutrin. It has helped somewhat with my anxiety and with the sad feelings I had as a result of this illness but as far as helping my autonomic system I don't notice any positives there. As everyone mentioned everybody is different so maybe it will help you.

At first it made my anxiety worse but after about two weeks it got better. I had horrible side effects from SSRI's but none from wellbutrin which is a plus for me. I don't think I'll stay on it much longer since it's not helping all that much but I hope you get some relief from it.

Happy Birthday to your little boy!!! Wow that year went fast

Dayna

[futurehope]

Wellbutrin made me more hyper and kept me from sleeping.

[AJVDK]

Wellbutrin was like speed to me. When I frist went on it I loved it i got much done. But then I would crash hard. In fact so bad ended up in hospital. I have a friend thought that it has worked great for depression. I am not sure about using it for antixy. I would talk to you doctor about the use of wellbutrin if you get an odd systems, or talk about the use if you are worried before you take it!

Happy b-day to you little one!

[BEE]

I second in that everyone is different...but Wellbutrin was prescribed and I totally denied it knowing it would make me more agitated. But the way they workj is it actually blanks out the overproduction of the adrenaline oyur already producing and keeps most at an even keel. Which unfortunately doesn't work for everyone and in some takes more than two weeks.

I reacted to SSRI's horribly so I gave that one a no-no. I hope if oyu try it it works for you...

The one thing is that some of us because of anti-cholergenic effects of these drugs it is harder on our bodies that is something medically documented.

Just be patient and if it doesn't work don't give up!!!

And a very happy birthday to your son!!!

[cmtaylor5]

I just had a conversation about this with a friend who is on Paxil for anxiety. She wanted to change her medication because she found she had trouble losing weight while on the Paxil. She had heard that it's easier to lose weight on Wellbutrin (we have a mutual friend who takes it) and asked her internist for a prescription at her last visit. He refused and told her that he will not prescribe Wellbutrin for anyone who's main symptom is anxiety. He does prescribe it for depression, though. He told her that since anxiety is her main problem, it would not help her.

Since this is your cardio doing the prescribing, maybe you should double check with your internist or GP. They are the docs who prescribe this medication more frequently.

By the way, I hope that you mentioned that you found the sighing offensive. That is very unprofessional behavior. Maybe she doesn't realize she's doing it. If she does, she needs to be told that you would like her to "use her words" to communicate with you (just like you'd tell a toddler) because you take your health seriously, and don't want to misinterpret her signals.

I'm sure she'd spend an awful lot of time sighing if she had to live with POTS, since she can't seem to even tolerate hearing about the symptoms!

You deserve better treatment.

Carolyn

[lthomas521]

I tried Wellbutrin, and it had exactly zero effect on me. But I had no anxiety complaints, just fatigue and hypovolemia-type symptoms and signs.