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 Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 12:45 am
Okay, so my shrink wants me to start Lithium, well lithibid... same thing.
But my mother thought she said that if I ingest more then 1500 mg of salt in 24 hours... I will go in to a coma. I was hoping to get some info on Lithium, and if you've taken it, how was it for you? What went wrong (or right)? Side effects? I'm sitting here debeating on taking my meds because I'm kind of scared... Please help.
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 8:56 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 2:34 pm
*dance for misty* Thanks, I did some research online, it's frightening... I hate how med changes make me feel like a terrified child. I found out that if I lower my salt intake, it can lead to reabsorption of the lithium... and I can O.D. eek And a low sodium diet over time mixed with lithuim can cause heart faliure... I really don't want to know who had to test the drug in order for them to find this out. sad
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 2:39 pm
I was on Lithium for a month or two. Nasty stuff.
I got the munchies like mad from it, and you have to drink a -lot- of water. Also, you have to get bloodlevel checks for it, and it'll blow your short term to hell.
It didn't show up in my system for some reason, maybe because I skipped a dose by accident every few days, and the dosage kept getting upped, till it hit 1800 mg. I took that and basically OD'd. Unfun.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 8:31 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 8:57 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:26 pm
Fail I was on Lithium for a month or two. Nasty stuff. ... and you have to drink a -lot- of water. Also, you have to get bloodlevel checks for it, and it'll blow your short term to hell. yep I took it too same thing I am now on Effexor and it is a piece of Crapp
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:41 pm
Lithium is pretty effective, from what I've heard, but because of the potential for either kidney or liver damage ( or both, I can't remember) you need to go for blood tests.
I think you should, take it, try it out, and if you find out that you don't like it after awhile, you can get your doctor to switch meds.
I was on Depakote for awhile (also called Epival) and it ******** me over. I kept going from numb to suicidal over the span of a day, every day.
Needless to say, I stopped taking it. XD
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Hypomanic Poet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:13 pm
I took Lithium for nearly two years. It was one of the very first medications they put me on, which in a way, was really stupid of them. Lithium should be used as one of those last-resort treatments, at least in my opinion.
While I was on it, I was numb, hungry, and bored. It stabilised my moods, yes, but to the point where I had no mood at all. I couldn't remember much, and I stopped thinking altogether. It was extremely difficult to deal with, because I was still in school and going through everyday life.
Make sure you drink a lot, get plenty of exercise (I gained about 85-90 pounds over two years), get regular blood testing, and tell your doctor everything you feel and experience.
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Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 3:29 pm
Lithium, for me, was the worst thing I took. First, it took 3000 mg's a day, just for me to react. (I think it was like 6 pills, the last cocktail I took required 32 pills daily, but not all one med.) On top of leaving me unable to do anything but sit and stare, it made my mouth dry as hell. And it never mattered how much water I took with them, cottonmouth like crazy.
Then I noticed the weight gain. After 25 lbs, I quit the meds all together, but the weight kept on comming. Turns out, Lithium caused my thyroid work sporatically, so my metabolism was knocked out of whack, and I gained 150 lbs- before we finally got me into see a specialists and get meds to make it work again. I've only taken half the weight back off, and the last half is proving difficult.
Lithium is not too high on my list, though admittedly my doctor was over medicating me.
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Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:38 am
It's really not as scary as everyone makes it sound. It's not necessarily a last-resort medicaton. Yes the level of effectiveness is incredibly close to the toxic level, but they will do bloodwork to see a) if you have kidney, liver or thyroid problems and b) they start you off really slow on a very low dosage that gradually increases, and then your blood is drawn like every week to determine how much you have in your system. Remember, doctors are professionals so they will be able to tell if you're on the right amount or not. Also, when they say the "toxic level" they don't mean like BAM you're dead as soon as you hit that level, it's just that when you get too much in your system it will give you certain bad side effects, basically it will make you feel like you're drunk if there's too much in your blood. It's really not that hard to get you on the right level.
It is very effective. I suppose if you are mildly bipolar you might want to try something else, but if your life was miserable like mine and you wanted to die every day and had serious depression or whatever, trust me, you would be so ******** happy to be on it.
Also, it has less side effects than many other medications as long as you follow the right diet (ie. no alcohol, low levels of caffeine because it's a diuretic and you have to stay hydrated, so drink lots of water and eat salty foods because you will lose a lot of salt, which you have to keep replenishing to make the drug do its job).
People are scared away from it because first of all, it's so old (approved in 1949 to treat manic-depression, so it's got the reputation that something like ECT has, it's an old stand-by so people have this notion like it doesn't work anymore or it's archaic, but guess what, so is penicillin and it still works pretty well for what it was originally intended for). Like ECT, scientists aren't completely sure why it works yet (though that is under intense study currently) but they know that it DOES work for a lot of people.
Also for people who are lazy and want to pop a pill and make everything go away without having to work hard enough to make sure you have the proper diet, well then it probably isn't for you either. But it's the only drug that was specifically developed to work for bipolar disorder, all the other drugs were drugs designed to do something else that people just give manic-depressives because it works for some of them. If you're not psychotic, you can't really use anti-psychotics, and then you get the anti-seizure medication -- a lot of those can have serious side effects as well. And I would feel more comfortable taking something that is FOR depression and bipolar than something that people use for something else mainly.
Also, did I mention it's really ******** cheap for a psych medication? 60 capsules cost me $20, and I don't have insurance. For someone like me, being able to afford your medicine is important, because otherwise I'm completely ********, and I would probably kill myself or something.
Lastly, Lithium permanently changes your brain chemistry. It also stays in your body a long time after you stop taking it. That may sound scary, but it's a really good thing. I like knowing that the meds I'm taking might actually fix me, as opposed to taking something for the rest of my ******** life that just treats the problem, by temporarily changing your brain chemistry.
heteria: Actually my psych did tell me about the NSAID reactions.
PS. Keep in mind it's INCREDIBLY ******** STUPID to stop taking the medication just because you gain 20 lbs. What's better, being a crazy waif or being healthy and chubby? People are so superficial sometimes.
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:49 am
roothands
It is very effective. I suppose if you are mildly bipolar you might want to try something else, but if your life was miserable like mine and you wanted to die every day and had serious depression or whatever, trust me, you would be so ******** happy to be on it...............
...........PS. Keep in mind it's INCREDIBLY ******** STUPID to stop taking the medication just because you gain 20 lbs. What's better, being a crazy waif or being healthy and chubby? People are so superficial sometimes.I didn't really have a problem with anything you said except these two statements. Your first paragraph is incredibly naive. You should know that everyone's brain chemistry and the effectiveness of ANY medication will vary. This is EXACTLY why some cocktails will work for some and not for others. You're very critical of the people in this thread who stated having a negative experience. They do take blood, it was biweekly for me, then eventually bimonthly, they were supposed to be monitoring my thyroid, blood levels and hte like. Problems didn't show up until it was too late...if your thyroid goes up and down, working sporadically, it's extremely easy to get past the blood tests. I'm not putting down the emdication, but it wasn't a success story with me. And yes I stopped the medication after gaining 25 lbs, I don't think I should have to give up my physical health in exchange for mental health. And the fact that in the end I had actually gained over 150 lbs, that's not chubby. That's fat, that's beyond just fat...that's morbidly obese. And it's not healthy. The payout in the end wasn't worth it, so who are you to critisize those of us with negative experiences because you've had success with it? I mena I'm happy for you and all, but there is always two sides of hte coin, you shouldn't balk at one because it isn't what you experienced.
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Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:03 pm
People usually don't gain more than 40 lbs. on Lithium, so what happened to you, while unfortunate, is incredibly rare. You should present that your experience is not typical so as not to scare every person away from Lithium.
I'm just sick of everyone being so scared of Lithium, it really isn't any better or worse than any other drug out there. I don't hear the same "OH NOES" comments about other drugs like I do with Lithium. All of them have side effects. Quite frankly, from what I've heard from people on other medications I think I'd be better off sticking with this one.
For most people exercise and diet are effective at keeping the side effects of Lithium minimal. My only complaint so far is that I get dehydrated very easily (everyone does on Lithium) so I have trouble keeping enough water in me to avoid things like headache and muscle cramping.
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:45 am
roothands People usually don't gain more than 40 lbs. on Lithium, so what happened to you, while unfortunate, is incredibly rare. You should present that your experience is not typical so as not to scare every person away from Lithium. Why should I have to line my experience up with YOUR views on the drug. The OP asked about EXPERIENCE with the drug, and that'sd what I gave. I'm not gonna line my experience up with what the pamphlets say when they spout their statistics. Those statistics only matter to people who didn't become part of that statistic. As for only gaining 40 lbs, that's excessive. I guess if you weigh 100 lbs, it isn't that bad, but to something who weighs 200, 40 lbs can be enough weight to endanger their lives. You trivialize something to champion your favorite drug, but it's hardly a trivial matter in ALL cases. But I guess those people's lives don't count, since it's "rare". And it's not just Lithium either, I've had bad experiences with Buspar, Respiril, Depacote, Seroquil and a multitude of other drugs. Choosing to live life on drugs, is basically deciding what problem you are willing to live with in order to get past another problem. So what? The OP asked about Lithium...so that's what is being discussed. The point is, I'm glad you are having success with it, and I'm glad other people have had success with it...but belittling and trivializing another persons experiences because of stastitics....that's just rude, disrespectful and ignorant. It's rude, because you're trying to contradict what the person is saying and minimalize their opinion. It's disrespectful, because basically what you're saying is that this persons expereince doesn't matter, and then you even go so far as to tell them that they should say so- by trivializing their experience. And it's ignorant, because you neglect the fact that ANYTIME you mess with your brain chemicals the out come will vary from person to person. So all experience counts, both good and bad. So what if one group is bigger than another group, does that mean you won't become one of the smaller group? The chance of getting AIDS from unprotected sex is like 1 in 500...you want to bet your life on a statistic? Go ahead, but until then don't tell people that they should trivialize their experiences for the sake of protecting people's perception of a drug. I'm not getting paid to spout stastistics...I had a bad experience. And that's what I've stated. You should be more respectful of others.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:10 pm
Some people gain far more than "healthy and chubby" weight on meds. I went from a "chubby" 180 to a just plain fat 220, even with exercising, and even now being on Topamax, which usually makes people lose weight.
When you've got other physical problems that are influenced by your weight, it can suck a** on a lot more than superficial levels. And if you've already got self-esteem issues about weight influencing your depression, uncontrolled weight gain from meds is hell in itself.
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