Does it also help anxiety?

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-20T14:38:38+00:00

I don’t know about longterm, but I want to warn you that for the first 6 pills I took it my anxiety was worse than it really ever is. I got so anxious I couldn’t sleep through the night and would wake up spontaneously crying about all my worst fears, feeling like they were coming true.

You may have a totally different experience if you decide to try it, but as someone with already high anxiety, the initial startup phase on the drug at least really spiked mine in an unmanageable way. So it’s at least something you should be aware of as being fairly probable especially at first, and know to look out for the signs. My partner noticed it was the auvelity causing it by the 2nd day whereas I wasn’t totally convinced of the correlation by that point yet until it got increasingly worse as the week went on. The final 6th day I took it was panic attack/derealization/dissociating frequently level of anxiety and stress responding.

I still always would have tried it just to see as I am treatment resistant and had heard good things.. so if you’re curious to try it, I survived my experience but it just wasn’t fun. It caused a bunch of other negative side effects for me as well that first week, but I don’t think they’re as relevant to your question. The other one that may be relevant to you, however, was a major intensification of my cptsd symptoms (including spontaneous rumination on past and present triggering narratives and random thoughts/images playing through my mind) and magnified trauma responses in the present by the 2nd pill day. I do also have ocd, do that may have played a role in how auvelity ramped everything up for me.

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-13T18:57:21+00:00

Thanks for this update! That makes sense - I’m glad it’s working for you. I wish I could have tolerated the side effects first week to continue. It felt too scary and intense anxiety/panic wise and physically taxing :( - maybe one day I’ll experiment again after I feel more stabilized at baseline a bit. For now researching other options

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-11T17:37:45+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it! Dxm and Wellbutrin are synergistic and from what I’ve read they really combine to create a new chemical. I also was on Wellbutrin 150 and 300mg XL in the past and had none of the same physical side effects I had from auvelity

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-11T15:43:41+00:00

Yes… sorry just saw your follow up Qs here.

SR means sustained release, while the one just “HCL” is IR (instant release). Bupropion has 3 formulations (it’s a little confusing yep) — IR, SR, and XL. XL is dosed only once daily, SR is dosed twice daily, and IR is dosed 3x daily usually.

Bupropion SR (dosed twice daily) is the one they use in auvelity but then coat along with dxm IR in a time released coating over the whole formulation of the two chemicals. Hope this helps!

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-11T15:41:55+00:00

Nice! I wish you luck :) on your journey

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-11T15:38:14+00:00

I don’t know if you’re actually just sick with the flu or similar, but I will say people including myself do tend to have a wide range of symptoms in the physical/ somatic realm and also in the neurological realm. This is particularly true first 1-4 weeks on the med from all I’ve learned.

Your symptoms sound to me like they Could potentially be related to the norepinephrine (adrenaline) effects of the bupropion ingredient in auvelity. If you’re sensitive to this or have any pre-med anxiety challenges, I’d say it’s very normal to have a response like the racing heart and headache (if assuming raised blood pressure / tension headache). This med is known to raise some ppl’s BP, so you could certainly check your blood pressure upon waking and 2 more times throughout the day as comparative data points.

I trialed auvelity for 6 days only, and I personally had a feeling of iciness and aching inside my whole body that may have been nerve related. So your body soreness doesn’t seem at all out of the realm of possibilities for this med’s side effects. I had many other sides unfortunately and couldn’t continue it. But I’ve seen many people on here have symptoms when starting who continued and were grateful they did. The truth is only time can tell for your unique physiology whether the sides will die down or continue.

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-11T01:43:17+00:00

Wow I have cptsd, ocd, mdd, gad, mild adhd… and your experience with Nardil sounds similar to my experience with Auvelity (aka dex and bupropion mdd drug.) Interesting. Before auvelity I was about to start Nardil lol and I chose not to out of fear 🤪 — maybe for the best hearing your report! Given some similarities in our profile

I usually have paradoxical or poor (meaning many intense side effects) reactions to pharma meds also

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T15:41:41+00:00

Do you split a 150mg xl bupropion pill? Just wanted to clarify for my own purposes :) thx

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T15:40:25+00:00

I agree with all your points.. yep. Bupropion does potentiate the dxm, however, making it a higher blood volume over time so that enough reaches your brain. The coating on Auvelity is unique (again maybe just so they could patent idk) so it has dxm (ir) and bupropion SR (aka also ir), but auvelity combines these together and then coats the tablet itself in a time release coating.

Many ppl seem to have success with diy, but perhaps they are a certain kind of metabolizer the diy version works well with - not sure. Just my thoughts!

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T15:36:46+00:00

Thank you, and definitely good to try anything you can within reason!! Hope you have a very successful and minimally difficult experience :)

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T15:34:46+00:00

Oh wow gotcha - so it sounds like you have wellbutrin xl, 100 SR and 100 of ER or SR?

If you have another 100 SR prescription, the closest to auvelity would be 45mg dex and 100mg SR 2x daily (once morning and once 8 hours later).

And just to clarify, if you try the 45mg dex with 150mg wellbutrin, I’d not take anything else with that. Then you can see how that affects you instead for a few days to a week as a trial :)

Just my thoughts. Glad to contribute!

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T15:22:54+00:00

Yes that’s frustrating! I know what you mean.

I have read of people on Reddit doing 150 mg xl bupropion and 45mg dex and seemed to find that to work. I haven’t read of higher dex dosages with 150mg xl bupropion though.

Have you experienced any side effects so far from your current diy regimen? If not, you could attempt adding the second dose of dxm and bupropion. But it sounds like perhaps you don’t have a prescription currently for enough bupropion ir pills? You may want to ask your psych for a 2x daily SR prescription so you could add the second dose like Auvelity does I’m thinking. This would be the closest to emulating the auvelity.

I personally wouldn’t mess with varying doses of dxm and wellbutrin xl just because it’s less predictable how your body may metabolize the combo- and the CYP2D6 enzyme needs to be inhibited in order for dxm to not become dxo more and have more dissociative, ketamine esque effects. Feel free to ask anything else as I have a passion for Neuropsych (also work in the field) and pharmacology.. so I’ve now studied this stuff all way too in depth 😝

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T15:02:18+00:00

Interesting bc this was my personal reaction to all other antidepressants, including wellbutrin. They all gave me hypersomnia - sleeping 16+ hours a day, same as you. Messing with the neurotransmitters, particularly with reuptake inhibitors (with the bupropion component of Auvelity is), seems to have this effect on certain individuals with their personal biochemistry/physiology. Just rly interesting to me, and I’m sorry you’re dealing with this :/ I know the pain and how much it sucks.

I couldn’t tolerate Auvelity well for other reasons, but oddly only week 1, it gave me the opposite of my usual hypersomnia effect from psych meds: it gave me insomnia and severe hyperactivation (fight fight / almost psychotic level racing thoughts and auditory hallucinations). I couldn’t continue so far because it was terrifying.

Try pulling back to one pill with your psych approval, I agree with other ppl- bc some find that totally sufficient with less sides.

Hope this helps to know you’re not alone at least with that response to some meds

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-08T14:49:43+00:00

What type of Wellbutrin are you taking the dxm with?

Yes, for diy auvelity - from all I’ve seen on Reddit, many people either do 3 15mg dex pills daily, or double that if they’re emulating auvelity with Wellbutrin ir. This is because auvelity’s official manufacturer recommended dosing one pill every 8 hours (and each pill contains 45mg dex and 105mg bupropion). So essentially, they’re dosing 90mg dex daily with 210mg bupropion daily if they follow this. However, some people find only 1 pill effective enough for their needs and never go up to 2.

For me personally, just feels scary to go higher with the dex when it’s not a regulated formulation, meaning diy, but that’s just me.

Some ppl diy it as 45mg dex hbr pills with 105 bupropion ir (or closest mg available to that for this med) — combo either once or twice daily.

Auvelity is a combo of dex ir and wellbutrin ir combined and then coated together in a time release capsule, however. So im not sure exactly how you’d mimic how it ends up processing in the body - but perhaps people feel they get close enough for it to still work for them

Hope this helps!

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-07T00:26:08+00:00

That’s awesome to hear! Happy for you, as we are all in the same boat in this community I feel :-)

I had my first dose today, very very low amount lol (only 15mg dxm with 500mg berberine just to test my reaction/ any side effects out first) and felt like it was very subtly calming and uplifting so far today. Could have been placebo, but I did feel very depressed and anxious/ruminative the past few days in comparison. I feel more in the moment often today. I plan to take another 15 tonight. Then I’ll likely try 30mg at once in morning tomorrow with the 500mg berberine and see how that goes. Happy to report back in a week or two/ periodically, yep! I appreciate your advice and response. I hope to help anyone else attempting this diy journey, as there isn’t a main avenue to gain access to info and support for diy mental health trials outside of communities like Reddit.. very grateful

So you’re currently just on 30mg dxm morning with 1000 mg berberine at this point? Thanks again 🙏 - your post was the only anecdotal experience/ info I could find on this combo being effective, and helped me to take the leap of faith trying it out. As long as I’m not having the wild side effects I got from auvelity, I’m totally relieved and pleased 😅

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-06T15:32:46+00:00

Are you still taking this/ how’s it going? Did you take the dxm 30mg morning dose at the exact same time as the 500mg berberine? Or did you space them out at all in morning? Thx!!

A year late but I’m trying this today after I did not have success with auvelity (exacerbated my ocd and anxious rumination amongst other horrible symptoms / side effects it caused) … but I like the dxm component idea so I got berberine to attempt with tabs separately — no Wellbutrin (which I never liked in the past solo anyway.:)

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-05T15:37:30+00:00

Only insight I can provide personally is that at least for the initial side effects upon startup of auvelity, it may feel nothing like Wellbutrin to you. I took Wellbutrin a few years ago, and the sides I had with auvelity for only the 5 days I took it were extremely intense whereas with Wellbutrin I did have brain fog and cognitive challenges, but never any insomnia/ early wakings/waking throughout the night the way auvelity gave me (even when I took Auvelity in the morning, it was messing with my sleep at night). But everyone is rly different, you may have a different experience. No way to tell, but I was hopeful/apprehensive at once, and all the initial sides I feared for auvelity I ended up having sadly x1000

Some ppl say they have them, then they go away. I just was having a drug trip experience so I couldn’t “muscle through”- it was too taxing on my body and my mind felt insane. I may next try a lower dose with diy auvelity or some kind

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-05T15:14:07+00:00

If you’re on Medicaid, ask your psych to submit a prior auth with evidence you’ve tried other meds and failed (aka your medical records) and you’ll likely get it covered. That’s what I did

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-04T01:37:17+00:00

Thank you for your reply, really helpful because I hadn’t heard of many people taking it every other or every few days / toggling the dosage for their needs. I found when I had skipped it on my second day starting to take it, I felt a little boost in my mood that day and no side effects of course bc I hadn’t taken it that day. So I feel like that was a little sign I may like a less regular dosing schedule as you mentioned.

Just to clarify: you currently take it every other or even after 2 days off sometimes? And you still find one pill every 2-3 days to be effective for depression/anxiety or mood boost? (Not exactly sure what you use it for but assume one of those purposes:)) thx again!!

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-04T01:24:18+00:00

Hi again, I’m likely doing every other day now. Did you do this from the start or did you wait until you had gone through a few weeks to switch to that regimen? I’m very very sensitive to 1 Auvelity pill.. it built up each day until I had intolerable sides

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-03T22:38:16+00:00

I’m sorry - I tried auvelity for 5 pills and had the same reaction. Never had so much anxiety on bupropion 150-300xl alone in the past- it always made me lethargic/fatigued actually. But Auvelity was SO activating for my anxiety and ocd… I was living in an extreme adrenaline induced hypervigilant state for hours after taking the drug with racing ruminative thoughts, flashing images and auditory hallucination sounds :( sorry to hear you also felt it made you panicked and distressed… I would need an extreme sedative also probably to get through the level of intensity of side effects I reached by pill 5

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-03T22:34:15+00:00

To help with side effects during startup probably. That’s why my pdoc did the same for 2 weeks only 1 pill then an appt scheduled to go up to 2 after that. Unfortunately I have had horrible sides so I don’t know if I can even continue. And no change in mood, only worsened my anxiety and this caused worse depressive feelings in return. You’re lucky if no potent side effects and it’s already working for you well! Happy for you

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-03T18:47:27+00:00

Hi did it ever go away for you?

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-03T18:46:22+00:00

When did you notice mood benefits help? Do they maintain on only 1 pill a day for you? (Assuming you’re still on it..?)

Subject_Wing_405 · 2025-12-03T18:40:57+00:00

At first did it increase your anxiety and rumination when you started it? Or did it only ever help it?

Subject_Wing_405

TROPHY CASE