I am open to gradual of course. Monday is my appointment with my psychiatrist. I am weary if sleeping for 10 hours a day, no libido, hyper salivating, chronic runny nose, frequent urination and lack of control to prevent dribbles. I also have been a principal enginner or project manager for decades and it just saps my desire to get shit done. ugh. I hope she is receptive.

Took my dose (900mg) at 11 am. After 2 hours of building nausea and finally acceptance, I threw up. Its 1:38pm. I still feel terribly ill and I’m afraid I’m experiencing lithium toxicity. I haven’t been drinking a lot of water, nowhere close to 2L. very scared. I hate AI so I’m not asking AI

edit: I barfed again after this post (nothing but air and my pills), brushed my teeth, and went to sleep. It’s 9:30pm and apart from residual nausea I’m okay. I also drank an electrolyte vitam juice that my mom gave me and I’m okay. Thank u everybody x

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Hi all

Started decreasing coming off Lithium ( for many reasons) Shakes, dizziness, bad short-term memory recall, severe fatigue amongst other things.

In the UK. My setup is, you get to see a psychiatrist once every four months and in between any titration / adjustments speak to the GP who emails said psychiatrist on what questions I have and what to do, and can take sometimes two weeks for a response. Not good.

The GP said it's fine to titrate down by 200mg every two or three weeks ( I was titrating up 200mg at a time when I started Lithium ) and she didn't need to seek further assurance from the psychiatrist on the matter.

I said / asked at the appointment, and going back the way / reducing, is it not smaller doses, as in 100 mg at a time ?

She said no, and 200 mg is safe

Since doing this ( 200mg reduction) at a time ( was on 800mg then 600mg after three weeks now at 400mg) I feel rubbish. Just feel out of it in not a nice way and totally out of sorts.

What information / guidance was given to anybody on here that has titrated down/ off Lithium as in dosage and time between each reduction, and also, how did they feel? I know everybody reacts differently, but any info is appreciated .

So I’m sure we all know how important it is to stay hydrated on lithium. This isn’t eh possible for me right now.

I’m entering a surgery soon that requires I fast from all food and drink for at least 8 hours. Not sure how normal that is for most surgeries so to clarify, it’s a a tooth extraction. I usually can’t go even a couple waking hours without a sip of water though, so I’m worried. I don’t want to go toxic but also don’t have a choice in terms of whether to drink or not.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of situation? I’m not taking my dose closest to its actual time but I def still have lithium in me.

Can I have 1 drink?? Or a tiny bit of weed? Anything??? I only take 150mg I feel like I’m missing out on anything fun. 🥲

it seems like most people quit taking it because of side effects. i feel like my mood and SI have been extremely negatively impacted but i was under the impression this usually wasn’t the case with lithium

I’m going to talk to my doctor on Tuesday about lowering my dose. The brain fog and the lack of emotions and ability to function day to day at 900mg is telling me this is too high of a dose. From what I hear in this sub people report feeling better and I’ve only felt worse. People talk about feeling better from SI and having energy to go places and do things but I’ve had SI this whole time and I’ve been on it for 3 months. Did anyone have success lowering their dosage?

I’ve been on lithium for about a month, was put on it while hospitalized. It worked fine for the first few weeks, but recently i’ve had more intrusive thoughts again. They’re not always there but they’ve become a lot more frequent and sometimes pretty intense. Is this just something I just need to work through? I don’t mind, I was just told it will get rid of stuff like this entirely. Maybe they lied while I was there to convince me to start it.

Also any and all tips will be greatly appreciated since i’m still getting set up with an actually good psychiatrist.

Guys, I’m going bald. Every time I shower I lose a literal fist-full of hair. I just keep it in a ponytail and wash it as little as possible to try and keep it as much as possible.
I’ve been on lithium since 2020 and I guess this is common for long-time users. We’re trying to take me off it, but anytime I get too low in dosage things get hairy (or rather lack thereof).
Does anyone have any thoughts?!

I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder but lithium wasn’t introduced until after my first hypomanic episode. So I don’t really know if it helps against that. But it reduced my suicidal ideation and I came out of depression.

Now I just got diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and I might have to go off lithium.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? How did you deal with it?
I’m on olanzapine as well and wondering if that can cover whatever lithium is doing for bipolar? As for the anti-suicidal effect, maybe it’s okay, I’m no longer depressed and don’t need it? Thoughts?

Does anyone else struggle with severe car sickness after starting lithium? I’ve never had an issue with car sickness until I started lithium about 4 months ago. I can’t sit in a car without getting a headache or wanting to puke

Anyone have any experience with this? What is the best glp1 to use?

Does anyone have any advice on the water retention and weight gain?

I’ve been on 1200mg for a while now and for some reason my body started just like absorbing every liquid ever.

I checked my blood and the lithium levels are fine this is just a strange newly occurring symptom.

People taking lithium did you have a reduction in SI, after how long from being on it. What was your diagnosis TRD, BPD. Bipolar …
Would live to hear about your experience

I’ve been on Lithium since Summer, I’ve noticed and people around me notice that I overthink every single step more than usual. I am on therapy and I work among my therapist paralyzing doubts and the constant need for reassurance but since I am on lithium I want to double check everything… has anyone been through this?

Hey all - I’m relatively new to taking lithium - I started last December and have remained at 900mg/nightly once my titration finished.
I’ll preface: I’m clearly ok - but I’m trying to decide if I should’ve taken more action with the scenario below.
Six days ago, I had my blood levels checked (the timing was just a coincidence) and they checked out at 0.8 mmol/L.
Two days ago, I ran the Chicago Marathon. My 18th marathon, but first in 7 years, and clearly my first since starting Lithium. Training was fine, nothing too out of the ordinary.

Here’s where I became a little worried, but not enough to take any action…and I’m curious from your experiences if I should’ve been more cautious.

I know how my body normally feels after one of these, but this time whenever I stood up it was difficult to walk and my teeth would chatter uncontrollably until I laid back down for a couple minutes. That was new.

I think I stayed hydrated well…the only real evidence that I know I can get without a test told me that I was pretty well hydrated, lol. Gatorade almost every stop - and the gels/nutrition I use have like 230mg of sodium, taken every ~45 minutes.

I’m curious if any of you have encountered anything similar - with or without the exercise.
And if you have, is there anything you’ve learned that might help me or someone else here?
TIA

First suicidal thought in months. Im at 1200 mg so i didnt wanna have to increase if this continues. Im just sad lowk

Hey all, I’ve been taking Lithium since March of this year at described dose and I have a question regarding an interaction - feel free to tell me if this is a dumb idea or no. I am very mindful as I should be about any and all interactions and I couldn’t find info on this. To preface, I don’t normally use drugs or alcohol on a regular basis but prior to Lithium I’ve had many experiences with things. Is it safe to be taking anything Amanita muscaria related? Obviously not the raw mushrooms. I know better than to take classical psychedelics and I don’t use cannabis with THC anymore. I have a microdose level gummy and I’m not trying to throw caution to the wind here. Thanks

Literally that’s it. That’s the post. I’ve been through about 4 dosage changes, drowsiness is so rough the first couple weeks of a new dose 😭😭

Anyone on Litarex/Lithium Citrate? How many pills are you on for your blood level to be in the “therapeutic range”?

I’m currently on 5 pills, but so far my lithium blood levels have gone like this:

1 pill my blood levels have been on 0,1.
2 pills my blood level have been on 0,2.
3 pills my blood levels have been on 0,3.
4 pills my blood levels have been on 0,35

(But there was a difference on about 40-60 minutes between when I usually have my blood taken to when it was taken last time, like it was taken 40-60 minutes later than usual…)

But I’m just really starting to feel like it’s a lot of pills to take at once😅
Though I am starting to feel a change in my mood, like I feel lighter and more clearheaded.

My current Lithium Levels are under therapeutic levels, at 0.4. Am I getting any benefits from taking Lithium if they are below current therapeutic levels?

I didn’t have access to my medication for a week due to switching pharmacies and issues with CVS being incompetent. I just moved across the country for school and am still adjusting to my new routine so super crappy time to lose access to my meds. My health insurance doesn’t work out here but I’ve been stable for 2 years on lithium so I’m hoping to just check in with my psych back home on breaks.

I (thankfully) started again last night but I can feel myself getting kinda funky. I’m writing this at 4am and have been making weird.. art(?) all night. Texted someone I really shouldn’t have. All the things. Mania for me typically starts with me getting super spunky and quirked up before the real shit kicks in.

I can’t imagine dealing with ts if I was like a 70 year old lady who couldn’t navigate all the new ai customer service stuff trying to call my local CVS for insulin or something. Idk. Just a bad situation.

This is also the longest I’ve ever gone without my meds. Don’t freak me out but I wanna know if they’ll kick back in without extra intervention.

Hi all.

Unfortunately, Lithium hasn't worked out for me, and after discussing with GP, I am starting to decrease my dosage. I was on 800mg and now taking 600mg. I asked various questions regarding reducing, and though not 100% sure, the GP has said as I titrated by 200mg up the way she suggested doing the same going back the way.

I am in the UK, and unfortunately, you get roughly 10 minutes, and I left with other questions I should have asked but forgot. I don't see the psychiatrist until the end of November. Who is really the person who should oversee it, but the mental health system isn't fit for purpose.

It has only been a few days, and thankfully, I am managing to wake up without a previous, feeling like I have swallowed a horse tranqulisers. What I am not liking is an increase in shaking and mild overwhelm. I'm not sure if I should ignore the doc and reduce by 100mg rather than 200mg and stay as is. Anybody input who has started to come off or have completely come of Lithium would be appreciated.

I have cerebral palsy i was put on this stuff after withdrawing from dabs made me go a little crazy and it spiraled into mania and im kinda just sitting in the aftermath they wanted me to take 900mg but im taking around 600 cus i didnt really want this to happen and im a bit sleep deprived cus of that but im dead certain once i take the 600mg tonight ill sleep its just i took my last dose way before bed so thats probobly playing a role and i also took an edible to kill the pain but after what happened to me i cant fall down that rabbit hole again but as far as this lithium goes its just i dont know i never wanted to be on it its just alot but i will be taking it to get a good nights rest tonight i just didnt wanna sleep off the edible becuase id screw up my sleep schedule and honestly sometimes i like what the lithium does for me but is there any hope to come off this stuff they just kinda put me on it cus i couldnt metabolize the other stuff they wanted to give me but is there any hope to get off this stuff i tried to do this ghetto taper becuase i felt like a zombie coming home from the psych ward which i mean didnt turn out very well but atleast i can feel emotions somewhat now but i just need some guidance from anyone whose been on this stuff ill be taking it obviously like its too strong to just come off of but man this is shitty I miss the comfort in being sad