Zyban (Wellbutrin) “No Way”

“I think at this point the only thing that will save us is knowing about any medications before we take them.”

 

My husband’s horror story about Prozac and other SSRI anti depressants is posted in your web site– The Macula’s Story. We have been lucky because my husband is still alive. But we have been through a living hell, because our Primary Care Physician prescribed Prozac for my husband because he was a little down after our house burned. Who wouldn’t be?

Well last week I took my 17 year old son to our primary care physician for nasal congestion and a cough. While we were there I complained to our new Primary Care Physician, who we have been using for about 2 years now, that my son was smoking a pack of cigarettes daily. And that this was ridiculous at his age. The Doctor asked him why he was smoking and my son said, “school and work stress”. So The Doctor said to him, “I have something that will take the edge off the stress and the need to smoke”. Well I looked at the doctor and asked, “what that might be”. He said, “a new drug Zyban (Wellbutrin)”. I almost fell off the stool I was sitting on. This Doctor knew all about the adverse reaction that my husband had to Prozac and other SSRI anti-depressant drugs. We have explained it to him many times over the past 2 years.

I said, ” You forget I am the person who almost lost her husband to Prozac adverse reaction 2 years earlier, I couldn’t believe he wanted to prescribe this anti-depressant to my son. Knowing full well what had happened to my husband on anti-depressants”. He got somewhat defensive at this point and said, “this is not an SSRI anti-depressant like the others. This doesn’t work on the serotonin levels in the brain, this one works on the brain chemical dopamine”. I said, “after the hell we went through with my husband, my son will not take any medication that would alter any of his brain chemicals”.

Then I just told him, “no”. “There was no way my son was going on Zyban (Wellbutrin). I would not take the chance”. He then looked at my son, who will be 18 years old in 6 months. He laughingly told him, “come back to see me in 6 months”. I was very upset by this point. I felt like he was saying come back in 6 months so I can legally drug you without your mothers permission. Does he not think that my children went through hell also. Watching their father turn into a manic depressive, psychotic, suicidal wreck from a completely normal human being. Prozac and other anti-depressants took away their father for 1 12 years of their lives. Through my research and my finding Dr. Tracy, we helped him return to his normal self. But not without the pain and trauma it has caused all of us.

I have explained to this man over and over the hell and the trauma my husband and I and our children went through. Because some Doctor prescribed Prozac for a very stupid reason. Now I keep thinking, “I need to change Doctors”. But then I think “why”. They are all the same. They prescribe these drugs that they know nothing about. Have any of them stopped to read the adverse reactions or side effects these and any drugs can cause on the insert that come with the drugs. No, all they know is what the pharmaceutical salesperson tells them. And we know that the pharmaceutical sales person is not going to bad mouth their own medications. I think at this point the only thing that will save us is knowing about any medications before we take them. Know the adverse reactions and side effect they can cause. If you or someone you know has personality changes or things that seem different about them while on a medication, research it.

With my husband it took 1 1/2 years to realize what was going on, because we saw 5 or 6 different Doctors. I showed them the research I had done and what these drugs can do and I thought this was the cause of what he was going through. And they all said, “Prozac and these other SSRI drugs don’t do that”. Well my husband is living proof that they do. He didn’t get better until we took matters into our own hands and pulled him off all the medications they had him on. And about three weeks latter my husbands old personality started returning. But it took another 7 to 8 months for him to get to about 85% of his old self. He is still not 100% and we wonder if he ever will be. It is very frightening just going to the Doctors for my family and friends who saw what we went through anymore.

Patty Macula

 

1995

Years 2000 and Prior

This is Survivor Story number 94.
Total number of stories in current database is 96

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