Social Skills Getting Worse?

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I actually wonder whether it isn't just simply stress that builds up, which causes these 'slumps'? Then again since starting Wellbutrin all sorts of chemical whacky stuff seems to have rebalanced (my monthly allergy bouts have canished, my sinuses are not blocked chronically because my saliva is of a normal consistency etc.) so perhaps there is/was something chemical going on as well... or perhaps the chemistry is a reaction to stress?

Noetic, good to hear Wellbutrin is helping you. When I tried that stuff it did exactly the opposit - made me twice as bad and I went from a 5 cigarette a day to a pack a day smoker on that as well. Only time it seemed to have a pleasant effect was on the withdraw. Strangely ritalin/concerta did a lot of good for me and even on normal ritalin, instead of having a quick drop after 3 or 4 hours I had a real slow and gentle drop off that lasted all day - trouble is now that stuff overloads me and ghosts me out too.

There is a little-known side effect of Welbutrin which thankfully I had read about even though my psychiatrist had never heard of.

Wellbutrin gave me mild visual hallucinations. I talked to my psychiatrist, showed him the book which stated the lesser-known side effect, and he took me off it.

Was kinda trippy though. In a not-so-good way.

The one time I went to Putin Bay with my friends I ended up drinking on it (I knew about the seizure risk, told my friends and they were all like "Don't worry, we'll pull your tongue out of your throat if we have to" ) and I ended up comming down with the worst hangover headache ever just about and when I was driving home the next day I got something a little bit like what you may have been talking about; I was getting some wierd stuff in my peripheral vision and I've had that happen other times and other ways completely unrelated to that or anything hallucinogenic.

I don't know how similar Ritalin and caffeine are supposed to be in this respect, but what I find with caffeine is that it tends to build up in my system a bit. It helps me a lot for awhile, but usually after a couple of months (sometimes longer) I find it's starting to cause more overload for me instead of preventing it... at that point I can go for at least a week or two without any caffeine at all before I start feeling that chemical deficiency where I feel like a stimulant would be helpful again. That seems kinda strange to me since the normal effects are supposed to be tolerance, dependance, withdrawl etc.

Perhaps you metabolise it very slowly - I metabolise it too quickly so the rebounds were dreadful.

I think mine are about the same, but it's painfully obvious that I seem to lack because now I'm getting older I'm expected to be polite and make small talk with strangers, whereas before I could get away with my Mum saying that I was shy. But now I can't really fall back on that, and know I ought to say something, but I never know what. I've got worse in terms of things coming out wrong or being interpreted wrongly, because I have the digging of oneself into holes down to a fine art either that or because I can have deeper conversations with my friends, it's highlighted the way I dig myself into holes ... Thinking about it, I think I've stayed the same. OK well not quite, but I've stayed the same amount behind my peers. If that made any sense

Funny thing is, as of lately, I've been making less and less attempts to put out the energy to be sociable when I either don't have anything to say or when the crowd I'm with is not vibing with me. Seems like more of a liability since I'm almost 26 and whereas before at 21 I could get away with a little bit of quirkiness it's like I'm really supposed to be this refined adult who doesn't misspeak, start talking at the same second someone else does, answer a question when the person was ambiguously talking to someone else, etc.. I've been finding that at least right now I'm falling into those traps or finding myself slightly off-point conversationally more pressed to socialize with people and, again, am not really able to flow with their gearing or the current topic (I feel more damned if I try than if I just stay quiet).

As I get older society expects my interaction to mature as well. For me this is not occurring. Socially I'm much the same now as when I was in my late teens. The only difference is that I have more experience.

I also find that I'm getting more and more tired of making an effort to interact so now I just try to shut the world out as much as I can and to hell with what people think.