Is lithium sneaky?

[ColdNorth]

Hi. I think I did something strange to my head. Ended up doing about 1.5-2g MDMA in 2 weeks even though I knew I was past any reasonable effects. Not that much for a regular user but I had gone 3 or 4 years without it. Talked about this in another post but just to recap..Life has just been so boring and routine, I had to do something or face spending the whole summer indoors which happens 50% of the time. I've been on lithium, buprenorphine and weed all winter doing absolutely nothing. All motivation to do anything has died and I literally stopped casual social visits with friends and family completely. I won't list the numerous lifetime diagnosis as I doubt most of them are even real rather than results of drug use and excuses to hand out meds. Bipolar type 1 is the only thing I know for sure I have.

But now for the last week weird stuff has been happening. First thing I noticed was that I hadn't taken practically any bupre all week which shouldn't happen without cravings after several years of doing it. It's kind of surprising to have to run to the toilet for the first time in ages. I'm seriously considering quitting it as I'm down to one 0.4mg pill every 2 days or so to make sleeping easier and my doctor is on vacation when my script runs out. Just 2 months ago I blasted through my 2 month supply in a week after just a short time without lithium (very weird intense despair), luckily the doctor never wants to leave me suffering w/d so he gave more. I can't remember why I thought it's worth it anymore. After a fun start it eventually kills the little enjoyment you have left.

Then there are these emotional states that go from 0 to 100 in an instant. This started a while back but got intense just now. I've been killing the recover-e time with movies and music which both trigger them, half the time laughing just because I feel so good until water is streaming down my face and going to tears in beautiful moments. Depressing stuff can hit just as fast like the fact I have to start building a temporary social life from scratch once again but somehow that just doesn't stick anymore. It lasts a few minutes and I'm back to smiling.

Anyone else ever got this? What is happening? MDMA effects or normality returning? I used to think I don't mind eating the lithium but is this just what stuff really feels like and I didn't notice the diminished experience before? I don't know anyone else who is on the stuff so there's nobody to talk to and compare notes with. I never noticed any effect going on lithium but then I was always on the downhill after a manic episode when I started. The manias never used to bother me that much until they escalated into psychotic breaks but in hindsight increased drug use at the time seems like a more likely reason for that. I quit a LOT of things when I became scared for my life and almost caused the death of a friend.

I figured the MDMA is probably to thank/blame but I've also gone without a manic episode for over a year so I have no clue what I'm unleashing by staying off lithium and fucking with my brain chemistry in so many ways at once. I know you can never be sure but this really doesn't feel like mania/hypomania. There's no extra energy or the regular drive for constant action. Did I really think for a year life is supposed to be like that? There's NO joy in it after it becomes routine. None. You get up, take your pills/lines, smoke a bowl and spend the next 12h alone in front of the computer growing cancer and drinking coffee, perfectly content with achieving nothing. I've done that my whole life and I'm sick of it. Something always brings me back to detachment but life can be lived in the meantime.

I will smack the next guy irl who tells me he's gonna fix his motivation problems with opioids.

If there are any lithium eating bipolars here, does it numb you emotionally and how do you integrate your bipo with drug use (or vice versa)?

 

[prayersfor.rain]

I'm bipolar, symptoms go back to like 6 years of age. I used to be on lithium, when I first got diagnosed a couple of years ago..
Life sucked when I was on it. I couldn't feel anything. I mean it's cool to not be TOO angry, or TOO sad, but you still want to feel those things to an extent, you know what I mean? Otherwise you don't feel quite human. Not only that but I had really bad tremors which were embarrassing in public, painful muscle spasms, I started losing my memory (couldn't figure out how to spell my own name...), extreme muscle weakness to the point where I'd stand up and fall and not be able to get up because my legs wouldn't work. I had a hard time speaking because I couldn't get the words out and when I did they were slurred and I'd stutter. I started hallucinating that bugs were all over me. Massive headaches.
Got off it and all of a sudden everything improved.
I'm on risperdal and wellbutrin, and I work on mindfulness for my anxiety but I do have a xanax rx that I don't use very often. This seems to work fine for me.

I can't say anything about mdma or opioids because I'm not fond of pills AT ALL so I'm def only gonna take them if I really have to (like, so I don't go crazy) and I have no clue where to get opioids from.
Are you still on lithium?
Also, I'm editing this because I reread your post and....I smile all of the time too, and that's me NORMAL. Turns out I happen to be a happy goofy ass person after all. I know it's not mania because I can sleep right, and I can eat right, and I'm not running around talking like a tweaker who's been up for 5 days and hasn't eaten (which I used to do, sober.), and I'm not ordering all sorts of random shit off of amazon (I tend to do that manic...). But when I first got on meds, I was like whoa, this isn't how I'm supposed to be, I guess the world IS boring.
Not true.
The world is cool. The world is fun. The world can be awesome. If you need meds and you're on the wrong ones, the world is probably NOT those things.

But yeah, all in all, lithium was NOT a good experience for me. It was like I was on some fucked up shit planet.

As for being bipolar and recreational drugs - I no longer do coke/meth because it really does make me manic. And I'm so afraid of being manic because I've done so much dumb shit, that I really don't do that stuff anymore. That and partly because we don't get good stuff here anyway. Risperdal keeps you from hallucinating so I can't do mushrooms anymore (well i could but it'd be pointless), but I'm not getting off risperdal to do shrooms because without it (risperdal) I get really really paranoid. I do smoke weed and I drink a lot. I seem to handle it quite well. But I do try to eat a healthy diet, and I try to sleep on a good schedule so that I'm not sleeping too much or too little, I try to exercise, etc. so that probably helps.

 

[ColdNorth]

Good to know, thanks. Those side effects sound really nasty! No wonder it needs blood monitoring.

No, I'm not on lithium anymore, came off because of MDMA interactions and I don't think I'm going back on it. It's important for me to be able to do psychedelics and every time I have to stop lithium for a long time before it doesn't interfere. It's weird that it took almost a month to start feeling different. Good timing though, summer is starting.

Half the time this country is covered in snow and darkness, at one point in Lapland the sun doesn't come up for 2 weeks and in June the sun is up all night. All of that makes people sometimes act crazy. There's actually a trend of spring suicides in Scandinavia. At the end of April when the nights start to disappear, young men aged 20-30 go nuts with suicides.

But in the summer this is paradise. Thanks for the info, off to sleep =)

 

[Jabberwocky]

I've been on lithium, but it was over a decade ago.

I've known many people on lithium. I think about 10% of people who take it get nearly miraculous results, maybe over half get some substantial benefits. GI bad effects or being weak are not uncommon. There are 10-20% of people that can not tolerate lithium or keep ending up in toxic/uncomfortable levels. Its a drug that takes keeping fluid intake, exertion levels, and other factors at a constant. For me I was never consistent enough about things and experienced more discomfort than benefit.

Sorting out what effects are related to one's mood disorder vs one's medicine isn't very often clear or easy. Fortunately there are many other meds to try and lithium not working out still leaves many other meds and approaches available.

 

[chawthorn19]

Hi,

I've been on lamotrigine, clonazepam, zoloft and adderall for quite some time now. I have type 2 bipolar disorder, along with other issues. But, my mood swings have been getting out of control again lately even though I've been on my mood stabilizer, (lamotrigine). Last week, I experienced days of rage, irrtability, anger, and erratic behavior again. I finally saw my psychiatrists again today and after talking she thought I could benefit from lithium. Now, I've heard tons of bad and good about this medicine. I'm under lots of pressure and stress about starting lithium because I hear so many negative things about it. Has anyone had a good outcome from taking it, compared to other meds? Any advice would be great!!!

 

[KushNshrooms]

I take 1350mg of lithium carbonate it's literally saved my life I usta be extremely violent and was always in trouble once I was put on lithium at Yale psych hospital it was an instant change I was no longer that same violent outburst type of person there were and are some negatives for one when I got put on it I constantly shook for like 2 weeks,it won't work unless you have the exact amount also it's added to my social anxiety it makes me not wanna go anywhere or talk to anyone
I am diagnosed with
Rapid cycling bi polar
With schtizso tendencies
PTSD
Agoraphobia
Reactive attachment disorder
Social anxiety
I take 1350mg litium carbonate
Aimbien 10mg
Triliptal 1200mg
Paxil 60mg
And 600mg neurotin

 

[paranoid android]

Hi,

I've been on lamotrigine, clonazepam, zoloft and adderall for quite some time now. I have type 2 bipolar disorder, along with other issues. But, my mood swings have been getting out of control again lately even though I've been on my mood stabilizer, (lamotrigine). Last week, I experienced days of rage, irrtability, anger, and erratic behavior again. I finally saw my psychiatrists again today and after talking she thought I could benefit from lithium. Now, I've heard tons of bad and good about this medicine. I'm under lots of pressure and stress about starting lithium because I hear so many negative things about it. Has anyone had a good outcome from taking it, compared to other meds? Any advice would be great!!!

I currently take Lamotrigine 200mg's a day as my mood stabilizer along with 6mg's of Clonazepam a day and also 300-400mg's of Seroquel and 300mg's of Bupropion when the Lamotrigine alone is not cutting it. If i didn't live too far away from the hospital for blood tests to end up costing me alot of gas money i would try Lithium with Lamotrigine for sure. We know the long term side effects of Lithium unlike with atypical anti-psychotics and many newer anti-depressants and Lamotrigine which helps the depression side of things and the rapid cycling better then Lithium usually does and Lithium which helps Mania and Mixed states better then Lamotrigine typically does is a pretty common drug combo here.

Id try both together as i know alot of people who have had success with that combo and that way you don't have to be messing with anti-depressants or anti-psychotics as long as you stay stable. Id certainly try it before trying Divalproex again which is a fav among the shrinks here. All that drug did was possibly trigger worse depression in me.

 

[KushNshrooms]

Lithium carbonate and Paxil work great to control mania. Rapid cycling bi polar and mood disorders

 

[Dresden]

Lithium is just gross. And don't combine it with lsd or shrooms unless you wanna intensify your trip exponentially.

 

[KushNshrooms]

Truthfully I've done shrooms plenty of times over 50 times and I must say my trip was just as intense as the other people I was tripping with

 

[Xorkoth]

Yeah lithium actually greatly increases the intensity and danger of psychedelics. A lot of people have reported seizures when combining it with LSD. It's generally strongly recommended not to take psychedelics on lithium because of this.