I recently interacted with a person who is depressed (I’ve had a lot of exposure to people with depression over the years but I want to write about one in particular). This person was a pleasant person but a bit dysthymic in general; this person came across as somewhat down and depressed. Recently he started taking bupropion (Wellbutrin) for depression. It’s made a world of difference. Now he appears euthymic and quite animated – it’s a good change. I know that anti-depressant medications are not effective for everyone (and I am fairly critical of psychotropic medications in general and don’t think any should be taken lightly) but in this case, the improvement was marked. It was like night and day. Wellbutrin, incidentally, is also an effective medication for helping people stop smoking (trademark name of Zyban). I have no affiliation with GlaxoSmithKline, who makes the drug (it’s also available as a generic), I just recently witnessed its effectiveness.
Hi. Thanks for posting to my blog. How did you find it, by the way?
Regarding depression, I feel it’s dangerous not to treat depression. Not only because untreated depression affects the quality of one’s relationships, but the amygdala and hippocampus can actually become damaged and go through structural change. Memory depends on the cooperative participation of assemblies of neurons that reside in cortical and subcortical brain systems that are specialized to process different kinds of information .. i.e. long term memory. (Sources for reference: Cohen, 1993; Diamond 1990, Scheibel, 1990)
Oooops. I put the wrong username in my comment above ..
Bupropion saved my life — literally. I was on the verge of suicide, and I bought some generic Wellbutrin online. Although $78 for a month’s supply sure wasn’t cheap, it was worth the cost. Instead of wanting to kill myself, I’d just shrug when things went wrong (“Eh, it ain’t so bad”). I couldn’t afford to stay on the bupropion and I’m having problems again, but the symptoms aren’t nearly as severe as they were. It really is a wonder drug for me, and it was even easy to quit smoking. I know that not everyone reacts well to it (especially to the TEVA generic), but I think that it’s incredibly effective for some of us.
I’m glad to hear you had a good experience with it – I’ve heard a lot of good things from people about it.