Lithium and Psychedelics

[Zapgunn]

I have been taking Lithium for 2 months because I was recently diagnosed with bipolar 2. I'm not sure I agree with this diagnosis, but I thought I'd try the lithium anyways. Hasn't really done much for me. I recently got a decent amount of LSD and Mushrooms (Penis Envy and Golden Teachers) I almost took some the other night, but last minute, I looked up drug interactions and found a large amount of horror stories surrounding Lithium and LSD (strangely I did not find any warnings about lithuim and shrooms)

I did a brief taper and I stopped taking the lithium a few days ago and I feel fine. My plan is to trip 9 days from now, which will be day 11 no lithium (again, affter a brief taper). Do you think this will pose any risk for me? The main stories I see are that taking LSD with lithium, can cause siezures, fugue states, and bad trips. I do not understand why litium causes these different reaction. I can easily understand why SSRI'S can block the effects of psych's, but lithuim is more confusing to me.

I figure I will be safe from having a siezure, because all of the lithium should be out of my body after 11 days (right?) but what about the fugue states and bad trips? Why does litium cause bad trips anyways? If I were to take a macro-dose of LSD or Shrooms, would I still be at risk? Would shrooms be safer to take than LSD? How long should one wait after stopping lithium to be safe?

thought I'd post on here because there might be deeper understanding of the pharmacology of these drugs.

 

[l41n]

it's not a good idea

mood stabilisers can kill trips i think

lithium is a pretty serious psych drug, just not a good time to think about psychedelics when you are on it for bipolar.

i have bipolar 1, don't take antipsychotics or mood stabilisers and don't use psychedelics

it took me quite a few years to come to terms with what being bipolar and have a psychotic disorder and what that means.

 

[Zapgunn]

it's not a good idea

mood stabilisers can kill trips i think

lithium is a pretty serious psych drug, just not a good time to think about psychedelics when you are on it for bipolar.

i have bipolar 1, don't take antipsychotics or mood stabilisers and don't use psychedelics

it took me quite a few years to come to terms with what being bipolar and have a psychotic disorder and what that mean

it's not a good idea

mood stabilisers can kill trips i think

lithium is a pretty serious psych drug, just not a good time to think about psychedelics when you are on it for bipolar.

i have bipolar 1, don't take antipsychotics or mood stabilisers and don't use psychedelics

it took me quite a few years to come to terms with what being bipolar and have a psychotic disorder and what that means.

I hear you. I’m not asking if I should take take psychedelics while on lithium. My question was if 11 days is enough time to get the lithium out of my system so that I can enjoy psychedelics, or if it’s possible I will still have adverse effects, such as a bad trip or going into a fugue state.

I don’t have a psychotic disorder. It’s possible that I have bipolar 2, but I’m not so sure. I have no history of psychosis (except for a few times when I did to much meth) and I’m not sure that I really need to be on lithium.

 

[l41n]

I hear you. I’m not asking if I should take take psychedelics while on lithium. My question was if 11 days is enough time to get the lithium out of my system so that I can enjoy psychedelics, or if it’s possible I will still have adverse effects, such as a bad trip or going into a fugue state.

I don’t have a psychotic disorder. It’s possible that I have bipolar 2, but I’m not so sure. I have no history of psychosis (except for a few times when I did to much meth) and I’m not sure that I really need to be on lithium.

oh, that doesn't sound very severe. its during my psychosis' that my life gets pretty destroyed every time.

i'm not a fan of mood stabilisers at all, like i hate them.

antipsychotics are a great class of drugs for getting to sleep if it's needed, or just get me out of mania and psychosis. but i can manage getting sleep naturally so thats why i don't take a neuroleptic every day.

does lithium have discontinuation symptoms, also won't comment on the 11 days, not sure

for bipolar depression i'd recommend look into the snri class (pristiq) and wellbutrin

what dose do you like for shrooms and cid?

 

[Rectify]

I took LSD in college while on lithium at least 1x, and I didn't have a bad reaction, but some people find that lithium makes LSD something like 100x stronger.

I read a really informative trip report involving LSD and lithium here years and years ago. I don't have that link though and for all I know, it may have been pruned since then.

Stay safe.

 

[klfiend]

Can we never prune again....wtf