Wellbutrin — why I will not take it

May 2023, I started taking Wellbutrin to help with anxiety, depression, and other mental issues. Within 3 days of taking it I started feeling weird, wasn’t feeling well. On the 5th day of taking Wellbutrin I woke up with a swollen eye, didn’t think anything of it, thought I had a cat hair in my eye. As days went on I got worse, i was constantly nauseous, started losing my vision in my left eye. Felt awful, looked awful.

I ended up going to my local ER and was given erythromycin ointment for my eye (ended up making it worse) and then sent home saying I was fine. Next day went to a different ER and told I’m fine, maybe an allergic reaction to the erythromycin. After 4 trips to the ER I was tired, sick, couldn’t see. I was so defeated and exhausted with being sick.

The last trip to the hospital I made I was told I was lucky, (not feeling so lucky) I had an infection on the left side of my brain causing the issues, and if I hadn’t went that day I could’ve potentially lost my vision completely. I was told “Wellbutrin can’t do this to you”. Months after the fact I ended up going to a training for a job, and a psychologist told me that Wellbutrin (being an anti-depressant) can cause issues with the brain, causing eye problems.

So what I got from this medication was an infection, causing my vision to disappear. Thankfully I am fine, haven’t had issues since.

I’m putting this out here for awareness, if you or someone you know have taken Wellbutrin and experienced this but was told that you were fine. Where you felt distraught. You are not alone.

#lemon8diarychallenge