r/AuvelityMed

I really can’t decide if I should just stop auvelity. Im almost to 2 months on Auvelity. I definitely notice that I’m not in a deep depression hole everyday but I also wouldn’t say that I am happy.
However, the sexual side effects and my urinary hesitancy is the hardest part to deal with in a daily basis.
I feel like I don’t see enough of a difference to keep going through the rough side effects but I am also scared to go back to that deep depression state if I stop auvelity.

I have been diagnosed with PDD (dysthymia) and MDD. I have had strong negative thoughts and passive SI for as long as I can remember. I decided to take my mental health more seriously once I got a job/insurance after college and started therapy (CBT) 5 years or so ago, and started on the medication journey. I started taking Auvelity a couple weeks ago. Started once a day for a week, now up to two.

The first two or so days were amazing. That background chatter of intrusive thoughts were completely gone. The stronger, more focused negative thoughts were less 'sticky' and easier to distract myself from. I was feeling good, happy and had energy. Then, the happiness faded into 'even-ness'? It will pull me and help keep me out of the lows for a little bit (though I can still spiral), but I haven't felt that happiness high since. Like I am sitting at a 5/10. Just neutral for a bit, then start dropping again, as it wears off. Which it also doesn't feel like it lasts as long as it should? Maybe 5-6 hours after the dose I can feel it wearing off, leaving a few hour gap until the next dose.

The background chatter is still gone, and thoughts are still less 'sticky' most of the time, but the emotional highs are gone again. I still have the 'drug high' feeling, which makes me feel good, but doesn't make me FEEL good, if that makes sense.

Side effect wise, I have...

• tremors
• sexual dysfunction (delayed ejaculation and lower sensitivity)
• anxiety is stronger (more anxious thoughts) and it feels like I am stumbling over my words more
• jaw clenching
• muscle stiffness in my neck (probably from tensing up from the anxiety)
• tinitus has gotten noticably worse
• blood pressure and heart rate spiked when I started the second dose (already on meds for hypertension)
• I am still getting that 'drug high' feeling a week out from starting the second dose, though, not as strongly
• I feel like I have physical energy, but mentally exhausted and low motivation

I have tried Paxil, which made me disassociate, which I did not like. I have also tried Prozac, which helped the anxiety and raised the 'emotional floor' (lows felt like they couldn't get as low), but made me kind of zombified with brain fog. And now, I am afraid Auvelity might not be for me either.

I have been looking into TMS and Sprivato, which, unfortunately, the closest clinics are over an hour away from me, which makes them impractical. I thought about looking into SNT-TMS and taking a week off of work and staying in a hotel. But, with TMS, the idea of more directly effecting my brain kind of scares me.

I know I just started, but I am tired. I feel done. This trial and error of different medications and interventions that may or may not work is exhausting and is taking forever. I value my brain greatly and hate the idea of messing with it, but I can't do nothing. Please, tell me there is light at the end of the tunnel. That there is some relief, eventually. Give me some hope.

What I’m about to say isn’t unusual I know, but was anyone else just completely useless the first 12 hours after taking their dose until later in the evening? I’m on day 5 and yesterday felt ok, but then today I took it a little before i totally woke up for the day and it just made me so tired and i just started to feel depressed again. Food helps a lot but it feels almost IMPOSSIBLE to eat during most of the day on this. Idk if I can survive pushing through to at least the weekend. I’ve called into work 3 times already and I can’t afford to anymore. I really miss my trintellix now lol, i didn’t know how good I had it! Idk how much of this is withdrawal from that too. I thought it was getting better but it seems worse again. So tired and uselessly high 😖

I keep seeing discourse over whether or not it’s SR, IR, or XL and was curious as to what the actual answer is based off the prescription that actually gets handed out itself

Female here. I’ve been on once daily auvelity for a couple months and my lady bits feel…nothing. For anyone else who has experienced this, did it go away over time?

I've been in Auvelity for about 2 and a half months. The first 6 weeks were a hellscape of intense waves of nausea randomly around the clock. Then the headaches.

Now, my sense of smell and taste are off. I am finding that any food that has any kind of smell that is funky (triggered today by Swiss cheese, watermelon juice, and kim-chi) makes me incredibly nauseated. I'm trying to lose some weight but this is not how I wanted to do it.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I’ve been taking Prozac most of my adult life, but still struggled with depression symptoms that negatively impacted my day to day life. Low energy, low motivation, mood swings, some social anxiety, general malaise, etc. I was functioning barely.

The PA I see for my annual checkups recommended Auvelity on top of the Prozac. I’ve been on it about 6 weeks, and it has changed my entire life! All of the symptoms I previously described have been reversed. I feel better than I have in a long time.

If you’re struggling, I highly recommend you request to try Auvelity with your provider.

Hey all. On day 34 of taking the medication, just about at 5 weeks. I take 1 pill at 7 and 1 pill at 3 each day.

First week I had nights where I would wake up and feel incredible, like I had just gotten the most angelic sleep imaginable. Little bit later, about week 2-3, I started to have nights where my sleep started to get very thin, and I was waking up a ton.

My sleep started to become horrible, and even though the medication was clearly helping with depression, with my sleep being crap, there were some days where it was a net negative. I basically will sleep for 5 hours tops, and then get an hour or 2 of light sedation basically, not really even sleep.

Fast forward to now, I'm approaching week 6, where most side effects, specifically the insomnia, are supposed to be mostly gone. I even stopped caffeine completely, and am still waking up 5 hours in.

Did anybody have insomnia for this long, and if so, did it resolve eventually, or did you have to lower the dosage or take heavier sleeping meds?

Okay, so I took my first pill today so far everything is going well. I feel like today was a good day. Getting ready to take my second pill, a little nervous it's going to mess with my sleep, I tend to be an insomniac at times.
I took my last Wellbutrin XL 150mg pill yesterday morning. I was on that since last October at first I loved it but then lately I've had zero motivation, and depression has been creeping back in. So my psychiatrist recommended this since I also have gastroparesis and need to be careful about what I take. Some of these threads kinda scare me. I hope I won't have any side effects since I did okay on Wellbutrin for the most part.

I made a post about my first week on Auvelity a few months ago - albeit on another subreddit since I wasn't allowed to post here at the time - and I thought I would give an update. (A few people asked and I didn't respond, I'm sorry!)

I want to start by saying this is the only medication that has ever worked for me, after trying SO many medications over the course of 10 years. I talked in my first week review about how much energy it gave me, how I felt alive again, how I was cleaning my entire apartment. I don't completely feel that way anymore, and a lot of that energy sadly passed. About a month in, the energy started waning and I asked my psychiatrist if I could start taking two pills a day instead of one. I started feeling a LOT worse after trying that. More depressed, low energy, all motivation lost. I was really upset thinking that the medication just stopped working. I went back down to one pill a day, and after a week or so of forgetting to take it, finally went back on track. After that, I started feeling a bit better.

I'm still pretty low on energy, although not as bad as before. I have so much more motivation than I did before taking this medication, and I can actually get out of bed and do things! (Even if I feel fatigued.) I may not be cleaning my entire apartment and walking for an hour everyday anymore, but I feel much more resilient and happy.

It's hard not to feel discouraged when those amazing feelings simmer down, but I'm glad I've continued taking it. I've slowly been trying to do more and more things to bring happiness to my life, and I believe Auvelity has given me the ability to do that. I still have bad days, but they feel like just that: bad days. I don't immediately feel like I'm falling into a horrible depressive spiral.

I will say, with my long list of mental health issues, I am much lower functioning than the average person. That's something I will have to live with my entire life. But I at least feel like I can handle life more easily, and actually look forward to things now.

I'm so grateful I found Auvelity ❤️ I have hope now that things will continue to get better for me. My days feel lighter and my future feels brighter.

Sorry for all the ramblings! This isn't very well formatted because I just said everything that came to mind, but please comment or message me if you have any questions or want to know more about my story :)

I’m diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, treatment-resistant depression, and ADHD, along with a couple other diagnoses that aren’t relevant here. I’m stable on Haldol, Geodon, Wellbutrin, and Adderall and am additionally receiving therapeutic ketamine every three weeks for my depression.

My prescriber wants to trial Auvelity so that I can still take some Wellbutrin while stopping my ketamine treatments. He thinks the glutamatergic properties of the Auvelity will do the same thing to my brain that the ketamine is doing. My antipsychotics control my psychosis pretty well right now but I’ve had instances where it was nevertheless triggered by certain substances (not Adderall or Wellbutrin thankfully, but by weird things like Trileptal and Artane as well as psychedelic mushrooms and weed, and also ketamine when the psychosis was less well-controlled).

So in general I’m more prone to psychosis than the average person even with it being treated, and I’m just concerned that the hallucinogenic-like potential of Auvelity might do Bad Things™.

Is this possible and/or common? I’m seeing my psychiatrist next week to talk about starting Auvelity but in the meantime I’m trying to do as much research as I can on it.

Hi, I have GAD and depression, and I’m a little over a month into DIY Auvelity.

I currently take 90mg bupropion SR around 5-6 PM with 30mg DXM HBr, and another 30mg DXM before sleep. Before that, I was taking both in the morning, but I wasn’t able to function during the day because of the massive brain fog, dizziness, confusion and cognitive impairment, so I started taking them in the evening instead.

The brain fog and dizziness seem to have gotten better over time although my mind definitely doesn’t feel as sharp as before. The bigger problem is that I haven’t noticed any improvement in my anxiety (if anything it might actually be worse). My motivation and energy are basically nonexistent and I don’t really feel much benefit from this combination.

I’m also taking agomelatine which helps quite a lot with sleep and a little bit with anxiety and depression...but I was expecting much more from the bupropion/DXM combination.

My Dr. suggested increasing bupropion from 90mg to 160mg. I’m using a Contrave/Mysimba tablet which contains 90mg bupropion and 8mg naltrexone. I’m a bit hesitant because in the past I took bupropion XL 150mg and later 300mg, and both made my anxiety significantly worse although they did help with depression and motivation. At that time I wasn’t taking DXM.

For people who have been taking DIY or regular Auvelity for a while, is it worth continuing with DXM if there is still basically no benefit after a month? Did things get better later? And does taking it in the morning vs evening make any noticeable difference for you?

Thanks

 

 

hi all! i’m currently on day 6 of taking this medication just once a day. i’m not sure if i should stick it out, and my dr said it’s up to me, so i could really use some advice and opinions.

the first 2 days i didn’t do much and was kinda numb, then on day 3 i got really depressed and had a panic attack. day 4 i was feeling a little more like myself so i was hopeful and thought i was out of the woods. on day 5 i decided to try and nap, as ive not been sleeping well at all, but when i woke up i felt like i was losing my mind; very disoriented, shaking, teeth chattering. im also going to mention that when i try to sleep it takes forever, and its this weird trance state where i can’t tell ive been out for 2-3 hours, last night was the first night i had any dreams.

today on day 6 (today) i took it and my body decided that it was going to get me high. im aware that its the DXM, but i think its really strange that all the sudden 6 days in its only just having this effect on me.

i haven’t been feeling as depressed which is good, but im really nervous to stay on because i am going back to college in a week and a half and dont want to return feeling all out of it.
ive been on wellbutrin before and im wondering if maybe i should try that out again, and maybe the DXM component isn’t for me.

any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated :)
and i hope this post makes sense because i am geeked 😭😭

I’m about a week off Auvelity. The first 3-4 days, I felt great, thought I would have no issues coming off this. I’m a little over a week with no meds and it’s been hell. My whole body is numb. It’s hard to walk or drive. My chest hurts. I’ve had racing thoughts and restlessness. Rage. How long should I expect this to last?

I keep hearing/reading that Auvelity works very well for most in the beginning, but overtime it kind of stops working. Some reviews of the med also say that it not only stops being effective but the depression resurfaces stronger than before.
Anyone who’s experienced this? If yes, how long before it stopped working? Moreover, did the depression come back worse than before you started this med?
Thanks!

i know auvelity is a new drug, but i had to quit it after 4 days for a reason i haven’t even seen people talk about.

the first 3 days (taking one pill a day) i felt great, but i wasn’t all there. like a weird “trip” basically. fourth day was the day i was supposed to up the dose — one in the morning, one >8 hours later. i was feeling a bit weird, but took the second dose anyways

about 5 minutes later, i collapsed through my knees. i’m incredibly thankful to have been there with my family (who i live across the country from most of the year), because i was coming in and out of consciousness, and screaming hysterically and crying.

i spent about 2 hours puking all over myself, crying, feeling detached from the world. i felt like i was going insane. second day as well — completely out of it, panicking. i’m a grown woman, i had to sleep in my mom’s bed.

third and 4th day (today), the doctor had to call me in some valium because i couldn’t even get out of bed. i basically slept through the third day, and today i’ve felt completely out of it, like im not even a breathing person. when i focus too much on the fact that im alive, i begin to panic and cry.

it’s horrible. i’ve never seen an adverse reaction to this. it feels like a bad trip im begging to end. did anyone have even slightly the same symptoms as me?

I have only been on auvelity for 40 days. I only take one pill a day in the morning. I tried the recommended dosing, take two pills twice a day. I had to go back to 1 a day. I felt like I was drunk on two and it caused a lot of physical symptoms. I’ve had other medical things going on (er visit and then surgery), thought maybe the pain meds were mixing with auvelity and causing vision issues. However, the issues are still occurring and I’m 3 weeks post op. I noticed that my vision would go out of focus while reading, even with my glasses on. Then while driving my vision would get fuzzy. I just recently started getting headaches with my squinting and straining. I just had my glasses prescription updated months before I started the auvelity. I also will occasionally get a glowing type aura around certain objects, I thought that was my astigmatism but i have seen it with my glasses on.

I mentioned it to my prescriber at my 3 week appointment and then again this week. She advised me to stop taking it and see if my vision improved. In the meantime I’ve reached out my ophthalmologist to see if I need to be evaluated based on my symptoms and the correlation with Auvelity and its warning about glaucoma. I’m not seeing my psych provider until a week from today and am not looking forward to the physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms, I feel are imminent with a cold turkey stop. I hate that this is happening because it did help my mood improve but I don’t want to go blind. I’m very sensitive to psych meds. I tell every provider that but no one seems to acknowledge it.

Has anyone had any luck transitioning to another medication with similar attributes? I have tried almost all of the typical and atypical anti depressants. Just curious if anyone else had a similar reaction or transitioned to something else with success.

It's been 32 days i am taking Auvelity for the first 6 days i took 1 tab then jumped to 2, so for the last 26 days i am on full dose of Auvelity. I noticed some improvement on second week and then it wore off. Should i give it a couple of more weeks or ask my doc to shift me on pramipexole?

Please somebody help me i lost all my motivation and drive to do my job and make money.

does any one experience an overwhelming sense of emotion when you’re looking out in beautiful views or scenery? it’s like sadness but not sadness- like i want to cry but i can’t. is it me? please send some feedback.

fwiw, i’m on one pill a day and have been feeling much anhedonia aside from this overwhelming feeling, it’s not joy but it’s not sadness. it’s weird.

Was on twice daily for the past nine months. It felt like a miracle drug for the first couple of weeks, but after a while, it kind of plateaued. I was not enjoying the edginess I was feeling after taking my afternoon dose, and my sleep has never been worse.

Last Tuesday, 6 days ago, I completely stopped taking it cold turkey. I was ignorant and did not think I would have withdrawal symptoms just because I’ve seen people get off Wellbutrin without any issues. WELP, was I wrong! The past week I’ve pretty much felt like I’ve had the beginning stages of the flu, with headaches, body aches, chills, lethargy, not being able to stay asleep, and feeling warm and sweaty without a fever. Mix that with the psych side effects of being extremely depressed, not seeing much worth in anything, and being extremely agitated to the point where I’m having a hard time being around coworkers and my family. It hasn’t really let up much this whole week.

I felt a little hopeful today that I would be coming to the end of this hell, but I’m feeling quite discouraged after reading posts from people saying they felt this way for up to six months. Now I’m not sure what I should do. Part of me wants to just get it over with, but I can’t go through this for another couple of weeks.

Will anybody with experience getting off of it and having withdrawal symptoms either give me some hope that I should keep going and that it’ll get better, or tell me if you ended up going back on it and tapering instead? At this point, I’m just looking for some needed/wanted relief.