Mental Health Lithium for a year

[telepathetic]

I definitely have unmedicated bipolar getting worse with age, to the point I can't control my finances, lose job, and wind up in dangerous situations.

I just got a new job, and I'm considering getting on lithium for about a year to help stabilize my life.

Thing is, taking antipsychotics in the past made me totally depressed and apathetic, and took like 6 months for the WD to go away if it ever entirely did.


Does lithium have this sort of effect and discontinuation syndrome?

Will it be hard to come off? Will my bipolar be worse getting on and then off?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

I do not like lithium

it never did much to me, it has horrible dangerous interactions with many MANY drugs, and you have to get your blood levels checked constantly

there is no lithium withdrawal or anything like that, the only reason they check your blood levels is to make you that you don't go too high and exceed a safety threshhold

I stopped lithium off and on cold turkey several times with no issue (other than making me feel better...)

 

[telepathetic]

The reason I chose lithium is because it seems to be the most effective in studies, and I've heard in particular it can help with reckless impulsiveness

 

[telepathetic]

I do not like lithium

it never did much to me, it has horrible dangerous interactions with many MANY drugs, and you have to get your blood levels checked constantly

there is no lithium withdrawal or anything like that, the only reason they check your blood levels is to make you that you don't go too high and exceed a safety threshhold

I stopped lithium off and on cold turkey several times with no issue (other than making me feel better...)

Feel better like... ? When you stopped?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Feel better like... ? When you stopped?

yeah, because basically lithium wasn't giving me any benefits at all - it was just giving me side effects and nothing else , thus I stopped and felt better

The reason I chose lithium is because it seems to be the most effective in studies, and I've heard in particular it can help with reckless impulsiveness

give it a shot bro, don't take my negative review as a reason not to do it

maybe its just not right for me?

also I noticed Lithium absolutely intereacts with kratom and causes extreme tremors

 

[telepathetic]

yeah, because basically lithium wasn't giving me any benefits at all - it was just giving me side effects and nothing else , thus I stopped and felt better


give it a shot bro, don't take my negative review as a reason not to do it

maybe its just not right for me?

also I noticed Lithium absolutely intereacts with kratom and causes extreme tremors

Yeah it's effects with psychedelics is why I only plan a year at max

 

[Jerry Atrick]

I definitely have unmedicated bipolar getting worse with age, to the point I can't control my finances, lose job, and wind up in dangerous situations.

I just got a new job, and I'm considering getting on lithium for about a year to help stabilize my life.

Thing is, taking antipsychotics in the past made me totally depressed and apathetic, and took like 6 months for the WD to go away if it ever entirely did.


Does lithium have this sort of effect and discontinuation syndrome?

Will it be hard to come off? Will my bipolar be worse getting on and then off?

I've been on Lithium for about a month now. Went to the mental hospital for severe depression and suicidal ideation and they immediately began tapering me off my anti-depressant and put me on Lithium 900mg. I'm already on an anti-psychotic, Abilify.

I have Schizoaffective disorder and have been on an anti-psychotic + an anti-depressant for the past 10 or 15 years. I wish I could say I knew Lithium was working but I don't think I've been on it long enough to tell. I have experienced a little fatigue, but that could be due to quitting the AD or it could be due to starting Lithium. Can't really tell. I can say that I am no longer suicidal, so that's a plus.

The only real negative is that if I smoke too much herb, my hands start shaking and twitching uncontrollably. But I've learned to avoid the bong and only smoke out of a little pipe, which helps me avoid that reaction. Bear in mind that my tolerance for bud is way down since May when my living situation changed and I went from being a daily smoker to toking once a week. But I still think it was the Lithium that partially caused my hands to shake.

I will bookmark this thread and try to give updates if I have any positive or negative realizations about Lithium as my journey is just beginning.

 

[WellThisSucks]

Not diagnosed as having bipolar until age 55. Started on Lamictal then. Helpful in lessening mood swings. Never tried lithium. Lithium was an early drug for bi-polar treatment. Potential for toxicity (thus periodic blood tests). But it did help some people and still does. Good luck. I wish Lamictal (Lamotrigine) was developed years ago. It might have softened what has been a very shitty life.

 

[telepathetic]

Not diagnosed as having bipolar until age 55. Started on Lamictal then. Helpful in lessening mood swings. Never tried lithium. Lithium was an early drug for bi-polar treatment. Potential for toxicity (thus periodic blood tests). But it did help some people and still does. Good luck. I wish Lamictal (Lamotrigine) was developed years ago. It might have softened what has been a very shitty life.

I hear that is mostly for prevent depressive episodes? I have those too, but are not nearly as dangerous as the mania

 

[WellThisSucks]

I don't remember what the medical literature reports as the more likely or effective prevention, but there is a universe of reading out there. For me, Lamictal has not prevented the mood swing roller coaster, but lessened the severity. I never had the 'fun' mania, just sustained weeks ( 2-3) of feeling nice, pleasant, normal. The lows were, and remain, more prevalent for me. Not suicidal ideation, but irritability for no reason, rage for no reason, isolating myself so other people don't have to be around my bad mood, little pleasure in daily life, but able to handle routine but with little motivation. The hard part about the good weeks is knowing they will be of brief duration for me. The hardest part of the bad weeks/months is knowing they return and last longer. But the depression is less severe when on Lamictal. I wish I had tried Lithium decades ago. I had been on Prozac for years with reasonable management of depression, and still take it. Due to the sustained pressure of an ongoing responsibility, I requested an OK to increase the Prozac. I think that resulted in a major outbreak of bi-polar which had been less pronounced before. I encourage you to give Lamictal a try. My PCP, who is not involved in my psych care, told me that many people, like me, have told him how good a medication Lamictal has been.

 

[plumbus-nine]

Did you consider other non-lithium mood stabilizers yet? For me they failed but I'm not bipolar so this doesn't count and at least from lamotrigine I had zero side effects (also zero other effects but the absence of sides is remarkable, when one doesn't get these possibly very bad skin reactions but they can be minimized with careful titration). Valproate has some nasty sides but I guess it might be seen as less worse than lithium can be - I knew somebody whose kidneys were destroyed by lithium. Not wanting to do scare mongering though, this individual was on it for many years and possibly didn't comply with the precautions of monitoring your drinking etc. Carbamazepine gave me a headache attack from hell but I know of somebody who tolerated it well. Also I read once that there exists another med which prevents a part of lithiums nephrotoxicity, weirdly it was a diuretic and I forgot the link but I'm sure that it was a serious source so there needs to be something to find on PubMed etc.

Yeah, lamotrigine is said to be the only mood stabilizer which protects against depression but it's still an anti-manic too (afaik).

Since dissociative abuse made me full-on manic without this nice hypomania honeymoon stuff I used to get, just mania - spending without caring for the future etc, yeah I understand the need for anti-manics even when I loathe antipsychotics for the exact effects you describe, they're just dysphoria inducing agents like nothing else out of allowed medicine.

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

I hear that is mostly for prevent depressive episodes? I have those too, but are not nearly as dangerous as the mania

Indeed. If you get truly manic Lamotrigine will hardly help, that is my understanding from what I've researched at least and what psychiatrists have told me.
I was on 100mg Seroquel XR for a while which is very little and it definitely helped with the chaos that comes with the territory.
I'm on 300mg now which still isn't too much and I really like it, it's a massive difference with being unmedicated. I still get really hypomanic sometimes but just for a day, maybe 2 but taking the meds do take the edge off. I'm quite blessed that I can get by with only that, and I don't experience any side effects from what I can tell.

To me lithium looks like a huge pain in the ass, riddled with side effects, such that people even prefer antipsychotics, and it requires monitoring and it takes a while to take effect.

I did have to sacrifice most drugs for it, especially tripping which sucks but yeah...

 

[Lil'LinaptkSix]

ai was on lithuium 84 for a copla months. I am not what above poster meant by side effecrs but it ook my empathy and humanity. its a heavy metal, iirc...?
just an expeience

 

[Lil'LinaptkSix]

oh had to go to mobile (laptop bateryy died); so my gobblyey gook isnt because im doped too much on gs of benz.... not yet. lol

 

[plumbus-nine]

ai was on lithuium 84 for a copla months. I am not what above poster meant by side effecrs but it ook my empathy and humanity. its a heavy metal, iirc...?
just an expeience

Lithium is one of the lightest of metals afaik, that's why it's used in batteries (besides to synthesize meth). But yeah the proposed mechanism of effect is that it slows down some/many metabolic processes - it's not just active in these amounts used but there's a correlation between suicide rates and water Li levels - in towns with high natural lithium there's low suicide. Don't know how much of that is scientifically established but it seems to be generally accepted. Lesser accepted are those supplement corps which use it for to sell Li orotate supplements. But it seems that it's not a direct, acute effect like most drugs or meds have but something which needs time to unfold, and then I'm not so sure whether one really needs to dose so high as psychiatry does and if not really already some non-toxic Li level could level out mood swings.

 

[Lisi]

I had been on Lithium for like the last 3-4 years & eventually was at 1625mg/day (with pretty regular blood tests) and overall it was good for me as far as stable moods are concerned. I just finally got sick of dealing with the tremors & insatiable thirst it gave me & I've been lingering around toxic lately so I have just begun switching to Depakote a few weeks ago. I stop lithium cold turkey and started an induction dosage for depakoke and I honestly have experienced zero side effects. I only noticed positive effects after stopping suddenly like less tremors even though I'm pretty much just as thirsty all the time still. I was in a good mindset when I quit lithium and have stayed that way throughout the switching process. It has had zero negative withdrawl symptoms, in my own experience at least. I think it'd be that way as long as you get on a different mood stabilizer immediately after stopping the lithium....otherwise I would assume you are definitely more likely to become depressed or apathetic if you stop lithium without replacing it with another mood-stablizer....cuz that's kinda the nature of being bipolar, I think.

In short, I experienced no side effects from quitting lithium even after being on it for a pretty long time. If anything, I noticed positive things like less tremors & stuff. But my switch off it and on to depakote has been pretty smooth. At lease in my own experience.

 

[plumbus-nine]

Lithium unfortunately keeps sounding good on paper (see wikipedia specially, effects on serotonine blah-blah, PubMed etc) but in reality it's just toxic. Thankfully we have less toxic alternatives available these days. Even quetiapine which I consider to be a pretty shady molecule is better than lithium, as I keep reading. Was interested myself in lithium because it seemed to be a stabilizer which stabilizes you in the middle instead of just anti-manic activity but imho that's just dreams of psychiatrists and rats having a bad time. Never ever heard a single positive long term experience about lithium. Never.

Fuck I mean most of these psychiatric meds don't really work out on the long run as don't do drugs at all, just maybe betablockers and similar really really work as intended for years but lithium seems to be a worse out of the bad. Remember, I'm not against meds, just against the current prescribing practice of throwing antipsychs around like candies.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

Fuck I mean most of these psychiatric meds don't really work out on the long run as don't do drugs at all, just maybe betablockers and similar really really work as intended for years but lithium seems to be a worse out of the bad. Remember, I'm not against meds, just against the current prescribing practice of throwing antipsychs around like candies.

Abilify seems to have worked for me for the last 10-12 years. Risperdal was a nightmare before that. But considering the circumstances, I'd call 10-12 years on one AP "working in the long run."

I've been on Lithium for about a month now. Went to the mental hospital for severe depression and suicidal ideation and they immediately began tapering me off my anti-depressant and put me on Lithium 900mg. I'm already on an anti-psychotic, Abilify.

I have Schizoaffective disorder and have been on an anti-psychotic + an anti-depressant for the past 10 or 15 years. I wish I could say I knew Lithium was working but I don't think I've been on it long enough to tell. I have experienced a little fatigue, but that could be due to quitting the AD or it could be due to starting Lithium. Can't really tell. I can say that I am no longer suicidal, so that's a plus.

The only real negative is that if I smoke too much herb, my hands start shaking and twitching uncontrollably. But I've learned to avoid the bong and only smoke out of a little pipe, which helps me avoid that reaction. Bear in mind that my tolerance for bud is way down since May when my living situation changed and I went from being a daily smoker to toking once a week. But I still think it was the Lithium that partially caused my hands to shake.

I will bookmark this thread and try to give updates if I have any positive or negative realizations about Lithium as my journey is just beginning.

Welp! Turns out my last two blood tests showed elevated thyroid levels. I think the raised thyroid levels may also be a reason for my fatigue. This new turn of events means I have to do one of two things: 1) Either begin thyroid therapy = thyroid meds. Or 2) Quit Lithium. Oh yeah, and once the thyroid meds are started, they must be taken for life.

Therefore I will likely begin tapering off Lithium next week and hopefully my psychiatrist has something effective to replace it with. Fuckabuncha thyroid meds.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

I had been on Lithium for like the last 3-4 years & eventually was at 1625mg/day (with pretty regular blood tests) and overall it was good for me as far as stable moods are concerned. I just finally got sick of dealing with the tremors & insatiable thirst it gave me & I've been lingering around toxic lately so I have just begun switching to Depakote a few weeks ago. I stop lithium cold turkey and started an induction dosage for depakoke and I honestly have experienced zero side effects. I only noticed positive effects after stopping suddenly like less tremors even though I'm pretty much just as thirsty all the time still. I was in a good mindset when I quit lithium and have stayed that way throughout the switching process. It has had zero negative withdrawl symptoms, in my own experience at least. I think it'd be that way as long as you get on a different mood stabilizer immediately after stopping the lithium....otherwise I would assume you are definitely more likely to become depressed or apathetic if you stop lithium without replacing it with another mood-stablizer....cuz that's kinda the nature of being bipolar, I think.

In short, I experienced no side effects from quitting lithium even after being on it for a pretty long time. If anything, I noticed positive things like less tremors & stuff. But my switch off it and on to depakote has been pretty smooth. At lease in my own experience.

Thanks for the info. It's nice to know Lithium can be tapered off without much negative side effects.

 

[plumbus-nine]

Abilify seems to have worked for me for the last 10-12 years. Risperdal was a nightmare before that. But considering the circumstances, I'd call 10-12 years on one AP "working in the long run."

Abilify is an exception out of the antipsychotics together with the newer cariprazine etc. which are partial agonists instead of full antagonists. These have a much better side effect profile - glad to hear it worked for you for such a long time. But as you say, the full antagonists or even inverse agonists (like haloperidol possibly is) are nightmares. You need a certain level of dopamine to function and feel normal. But I got attention deficit stuff exacerbated even on low doses of cariprazine which is a stronger partial agonist than abilify/aripiprazole. People are different.

I have been on venlafaxine (Effexor etc) for next to 10 years now, on and off but always 'relapsed' in what I'm not sure whether this depressive stuff would have been there w/o meds beforehand. Finally switched to fluoxetine, so the NRI component is taken out - my heart says thank you, BPM and BP were over the roof, things are better but still dependent on SSRI and still tachycardia. Prolactin's sky high, libido - what was that again?

Yeah, lithium at least doesn't have much of tapering side effects. Only one person I remember who I think got a high dose directly from her shrink, she said it flashed her in a weird sense, but didn't help/stabilize either afaik.