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Comment by thearn4 | Hacker News Reader

I had the same issues coming off of Lexapro. Weird brain shocks. Bupropion (Wellbutrin) has been better for me all around, but I worry about what it will be like coming down off of it too. The good news is that I'm overall in a good place and feel like I probably don't need it anymore.

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For what it's worth, from my anecdotal experience, Bupropion is much, much milder in terms of withdrawal, and the symptoms are more in the realm of energy than paresthesia - groggy and listless, but not vertiginous and electrified.

I had no problems stopping Wellbutrin after 3.5 years. More or less went cold turkey when I ran out of prescription.

Bupropion is marketed as Zyban as a smoking cessation aid meaning that people are coming down on it when they quit Zyban, after they quit smoking. I've done this, twice. I've also used Ritalin in the past. It works similar, and from my memory the coming down is also similar.

I tried Zyban years ago. After 7 days I stopped smoking and then had this weird time slowing down effect. I guess most people don't have that effect but I wonder how many do.

I had the same thing. I was so used to time flying by, it was going slower, which I consider a great thing :).

Same thing happened to me going off of Lexapro. I called it "the zaps".

That's exactly how I felt getting off of Effexor. I stopped taking them completely one day and after trying to push past the zaps for two weeks I got back on them. I had to get of them gradually by splitting the pills open and splitting up the little balls instead.

Okay, this is way too much information, but I googled furiously to try to discover what awful parasite had laid its eggs in my intestinal track when I started noticing those tiny white balls in the toilet.

Glad you are in a better place than before, hope the process will go well!

I wonder if there is a form of research that could done by following patients who are receiving this treatment, and track how they wean themselves off of it.

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