When should I be taking my medication? Wellbutrin and Celexa?

Question

Recently I have moved from 40mg of citalopram (Celexa) daily, taken at bedtime for approx. 8 years,
to 20mg of citalopram + 150mg bupropion (Wellbutrin), told by pharmacist to take the citalopram in the morning and the Wellbutrin at night with my birth control pill. Over three months I saw a negative impact on my anxiety and depression levels, but it helped prevent me from sleeping for 12-14 hours a night as I was before.
NOW I have moved to 20mg citalopram + 300mg Wellbutrin and I mentioned to the pharmacist that, like many people on the internet report, the Wellbutrin is having a stimulating effect and while that worked to prevent me from sleeping too much, the higher dose was preventing a full sleep. She said "okay, this can happen, or the opposite can happen, but this is how it affects you so take it in the morning."
so I asked "should I then be taking it at the same time as the citalopram? or would it be better to switch them and go back to taking the citalopram at night?"
I was pretty unhappy when the final answer was that I should be taking the citalopram in the morning, then letting it get into my system before taking the Wellbutrin at noon, then continue taking the birth control as usual.

I will say I am not good at remembering to take my pills and medications! Despite alarms and reminders and placing them in convenient places, I continue to SUCK at it. Now I have to remember THREE times a day? I can tell already that it'll work for about a month and as soon as it becomes routine it will get all screwed up.

She really couldn't tell me WHY I should take the citalopram in the morning only. Officially the instructions for the medication say "take morning or evening with or without food, same time daily" and I already know it doesn't keep me awake, as I've been oversleeping after taking it for 8 years, and I've gone off and back on and off again and back on so many times that I know the citalopram is not the cause of the hypersomnia.

Anyone have any advice? Also I should say that I wake up at crazy times, sometimes 7 and sometimes noon.. that makes it hard to keep a morning pill schedule.

Does anyone else take this combination, and when do you take yours?

Answer

I have been taking the same medications since March. I take Celexa 40mg, Wellbutrin XL 300mg, and a  birth control pill . I take them all at the same time, every morning before I go to class, so around 9:30am. I started Celexa 20mg in January and moved up to 40mg and it wasn't working, so I was supplemented with Wellbutrin XL 150mg late March. It wasn't until the summer that I noticed having trouble sleeping, and I was prescribed the 300. It's December and I still have trouble sleeping, but I don't want to change medications or have to take another medication, I can barely remember to take the ones I have now! Anyway, other than my extreme fatigue, I have seen no issues with taking all three medications at the same time every day. I think as long as you're consistent with whatever you're doing, you will be fine.

Answer

Thanks for your response. Do you know if it is bad to be taking the two around the same time? The celexa and Wellbutrin XL? As it is I am finding the Wellbutrin XL 300mg stimulating enough, and in order to combat the insomnia I have been setting an alarm for 6:00am and taking the Wellbutrin, then by the time it is time to get up it is having an effect and by the time night rolls around I can sleep. I have also started taking the celexa at night, but if I continue taking the Wellbutrin so early I will be able to take the celexa when I get up, although I never really get up at the same time.

I don't think switching would be a good idea if the celexa is working for me, it seems that some antidepressants work differently on different people and the risk of the new medication not working could be very bad.

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As for the oversleeping, it is not really a question of self disapline, I feel exhausted around three hours after waking, and in the cases where sleeping in not necessary, it is hard to disapline yourself when you don't even want to be alive anymore.
But this combination seems to be better.

Answer

Wellbutrin generally should be taken in the morning if its XL, morning and afternoon if CR, and morning afternoon and early evening if IR. The XL was a bit calming at 150 mg but did cause  insomnia  but 100 mg CR was fairly stimulating though I only took it once a day. Celexa also should be taken in the morning but if you need something slightly more stimulating Zoloft is great with Wellbutrin also and if you have trouble remembering to take them Prozac weekly is an option. If you have issues with over sleeping the only answer I can give is use some discipline and just get up

When should I be taking my medication? Wellbutrin and Celexa?

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