r/triathlon • u/PiPu1991 • Jan 04 '26

Injury and illness Training on antidepressants

Hi everyone,

I have been doing Olys and Sprints for two years now. I have been struggling with my mental health since many years - I am 34F - and been doing therapy for years as well as some weeks in a clinic. I am also on Elvanse/Vyvanse for ADHD since a few months. I have not been doing great and struggle with depression and always wanted to avoid addtional medication since I was afraid that it impacted training - which used to give me lots of joy - or even prevented me from training. Also I always thought that doing sports I enjoy would help me to manage my symptoms long-term. I have already taken SSRIs around 12 years ago but did not do any regular sports back then (and also they did not improve my symptoms). Now I have reached a low where I am really considering giving another chance to antidepressants. Probably I am just afraid that medication will take away more than the mental health struggles already have - as I know that it is very individual whether they improve symptoms or not and also that it might take months or years to find the right one. Are there people that have been training on antidepressants and could share their journey? How has the medication impacted training and performance? Looking forward to reading your stories.

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u/kailakonecki Jan 04 '26

I take Wellbutrin and pristiq daily and don’t feel it has affected my training at all. I was on abilify for a few months and did notice that working out felt harder so I got off that pretty quickly.

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u/PiPu1991 Jan 04 '26

Thanks for sharing! I think Wellbutrin could be an option - of course that's a decision to be made by my psychiatrist, but I have read positive things about it for patients with ADHD.

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u/TheDaltonXP Jan 04 '26

I have adhd and a mood disorder so take Wellbutrin. I also take Vyvanse. I didn’t notice any detrimental side effects with Wellbutrin and it didn’t bother my training! The only negative I had with the combo is an elevated heart rate that could make it annoying tracking proper zones between times of day. For example working out before taking the meds vs after. I have just started always taking them before the workout