Background: I’ve experienced depression on and off since I was 14. In university, I was a physics major, which was challenging and engaging, but could also be soul-crushingly hard. Even getting slightly behind would leave me completely overwhelmed struggling to catch up. Multiple times I fell into a hole of deep depression, binging/bulimia. Despite all this, I got hired to do my dream job the summer before senior year. When I got back to school however, I started slipping back into depression. Everything in my life was good, so I couldn’t understand why I was still depressed. At this point I had tried every non-medication treatment under the sun: therapy, meditation, journaling, etc. There are so many things they say you should do when you’re depressed (get out of the house, exercise, challenge negative thoughts, engage your mind in a task, etc.), but for me it was almost impossible to do these things when my brain was telling me I couldn’t even get out of bed. I decided to see a psychiatrist. Experience on medication: I I got lucky that Wellbutrin was the first thing my clinician prescribed me — bc I genuinely felt a difference within the first day. Tasks no longer seem insurmountable, and I can easily challenge my negative thoughts or lack of motivation. I take 150mg and have actually been able to overcome lifelong insomnia with the help of a very consistent bedtime routine (dim lights, shower, make tea, do a couple Duolingo lessons, put meds on my bedside table, and watch an ASMR video). My alcohol tolerance is somewhat lower than before, but it’s not bothersome. The most interesting side effect is that while in most situations it keeps my emotions quite even-keeled, when I am watching a show, concert, movie, or other art form, I can become moved to tears by it — in a good way! Maybe this sounds silly, but I actually feel like I get to more fully experience what it means to be human now. Anyway, I can’t recommend Wellbutrin highly enough.Read More Read Less