[chris83]

1st time here. 38 yr old F, 2 days into weaning off Lexapro, and swithcing to Wellbutrin

I have been on Paxil and then Lexapro for about 3-5 yrs. The last 2 on Lexapro at 20 mg.

Anticipating a realy hard time with a loss of loved one about 3 months ago, I up-ed my dosage of Lexapro from 20 to 40mg/day. Never talked to Dr, didn't even think it might be too high a dose to be safe. I was absolutely terrified of returning to the kind of depression I used to live with. I will say, it has been a very hard scary 3 months and I have handled my emotions better than I ever thought possible which I assumed was the high dose.

I have also been on Zocor or something like it at 20 mg for high chol for 3 yrs. Every 6 months my blood was drawn and chol. did great on the 20 mg of Zocor. In last 2 yrs I have gone from a solid 120-125 petite woman to a high of 140 and now I seem to stay at 137-140. I am significantly overweight for my frame, I went from a size 2 to where an 8 is tight in last 9 months alone.

Yesterday my Doctor called with my lasted bloodwork results and Chol is qt 144, even on 20 mg of Zocor. She and I have been concerned about weight gain, high blood pressure and now this. She believes Lexapro is a large contributing factor. So, as of yesterday, I am weaning off Lexapro and starting Wellbutrin.

Various concerns (sorry, new girl questions! [:I] )

1. I planned to drop immediately from 40 to 20 mg / day of Lexapro effective yesterday, and from now till I am at zero, drop 5 mg every 7 days. This was based on that formula of half life (32) x 5 divided by 24 hour a day you all may know. BUT I REALLY WANT TO JUST DROP FROM 40 TO 20 INITIALLY, is this dangerous?

2. If 2 different SSRI's, Paxil and Lexapro worked well for me, and targeted Seratonin specifically, how likely is it that Wellbutrin which doesn't touch Seratonin but the other 2 neuro-transmitters - will even help me? I can't afford to go back thru a depression, I wuold surely lose my job.

Any thoughts?

Chris