Originally Posted by
Lavenderfields 
On Valentine's day, a strange thing happened - my alcohol cravings disappeared. I used to drink a couple of glasses of wine every night and more on the weekend. I've tried for years to become a normal social drinker with no success.
I was just at my doctors and I told her about this. We finally boiled it down to the Wellbutrin because I had started it in early October for the first time.
Now I don't even think about running to the liquor store or impatiently wait until 5 o'clock so I can have a drink. And I can have a glass of wine with friends without the cravings starting up.
One thing though, is that I'm very aware of the effect alcohol has on my body now and prefer the way I feel when I haven't been drinking.
I take 300mg of Mylan-bupropion XL HCL in the morning. And no, I haven't lost weight on it like many say they do.
That's great.
You may know that Wellbutrin is marketed as Zyban, a drug to help smokers who want to quit. I first took Wellbutrin more than twenty years ago for depression. It didn't work very well for me at that time and came with some very bad side effects.
Anyway, very early on in the treatment, I disliked the very idea of drinking coffee. So I stopped, on the spot. I wondered then whether or not WB played with taste buds and/or the sense of smell.
When I stopped taking it, I craved coffee again.
I started taking WB again more than two years ago. Medications that did not work at one time in our lives may work at another time. I still drink coffee, and I don't smoke, but my appetite changed considerably, both in the amount of food and the types of food I eat. My appetite hasn't returned to its previous baseline and, due to the normal aging process, I don't expect it ever will. That remains to be seen.
Some of the SSRIs have been implicated in triggering cravings for alcohol. But they also help with alcohol withdrawal and with symptoms associated with PAWS. As is true of most of these medications, you can't expect to have the same results, or consequences, as someone else.
I don't recommend medication for anyone unless life and death are serious considerations. Personal research and a competent prescriber make up the best defense against unwanted consequences due to medication.