What are your experiences with lithium (mood stabiliser)?

[Ecdysis]

I'm getting desperate enough to think about asking my pdoc about trying lithium...

Anyone had good (or bad) results with it?

 

[Sideways]

I tried it a few times way back in my early days when I still had Bipolar II on my report card.

Had shaking hands, persistent thirst and intermittent headaches (may or may not have been the lithium). By way of side effects, that was pretty mild and tolerable in comparison to other meds I’d tried.

It appeared to give some support to my depression, but only very mildly.

If I did, in fact, have bipolar, and my pdoc was quite certain of that, I would consider trying it again, knowing what I do about bipolar treatment.

All that said, knowing that I most likely don’t have bipolar II, and that my depression responds much better to very different medications, it doesn’t currently make the shortlist of meds I’d consider if I had another significant depressive episode. I’d also want to try TMS.

I cannot say enough how incredibly helpful it is to have a genetic test on my file which gives me information about which psychotropics are most are mostly likely to give me significant side effects. I wish I’d done that much sooner!

 

[MrMoonlight]

I've been on a dozen antidepressants over the last couple of decades. None seemed to work. In the last year I was diagnosed with bipolar I. I was put on Lithium 450 in the am and pm. Seems to work okay for me.

 

[Friday]

I have ADHD, so pretty much any medication typically used for bipolar disorder? (Antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, & antidepressants) Is completely off limits for me, as it provokes paradoxical (opposite) reactions. Even stimulants, that are usually balmy/soothing that are lithium based? (Almost none are these days, because my peeps -the legit market for stimulants- can’t take them. As they Kick off psychosis).

Known a helluva lotta neurotypical & bipolar folk with amazing to so so to Nope! results using any of those 3 classes of meds.

That’s the thing about neurochem… it’s nearly all trial and error.

If you were born with a disorder, it will give you some general guidelines about what does/does not work, but even then? Will have a lot of fine tuning to do. (For example, there are roughly 80 varieties of stimulants/stimulant cocktails on the market for ADHD. Most people with ADHD will be able to take ANY of them, but will only be “themselves” on a handful of them. The rest will have intolerable side effects.) But if you have an acquired disorder? It’s nearly all trial and error, unless you take the genetics screen for an even rougher guideline.

 

[Ecdysis]

Thanks all for your thoughts!

I've been on a dozen antidepressants over the last couple of decades. None seemed to work. In the last year I was diagnosed with bipolar I. I was put on Lithium 450 in the am and pm. Seems to work okay for me.

Do you find it more bothersome than other medications? From what I've read it seems getting the blood levels with lithium exactly right so that you need regular blood tests or something...? Are there any other restrictions?

 

[MrMoonlight]

I've not found it bothersome. From day one on Lithium I didn't have any issues.

When I first started taking it we did need some blood work done. It wasn't an issue for me. We did a few until we found the correct level in my system.

Wish you the best.

 

[LunaticOnTheFritz]

I was on Lithium once for about a week. I was very confused & didn't understand what I was told & it wrecked my short-term memory.

 

[brokenpony]

i was on lithium for awhile last year (for maybe a year? not sure) when i was thought to have bp2 and it made me number on top of numb. it helped me with my sleep and possibly my anxiety over poor work productivity? but i feel like because of that i was even less productive. that said think there is not good reason to avoid it, if it doesn’t work it’s not hard to get off.