I was all freaked out about taking Lithium, thought it meant that I was truly crazy. That feeling goes away with time, especially when you realize that Lithium's side effects can be managed fairly easily. Lithium pulled me out of a severe depression after my miscarriage, with no mania rebound at all. (All of my manias come after severe depressions)

I take 300 mg capsules, three times a day. So total is 900 mg per day. That makes my lithium level 0.67, within the updated effective range. I have to take lithium with my meals and a glass of water, or I get nausea and diarrhea. There is also slow release lithium to help with that problem. I haven't had ANY migraines since starting Lithium. I used to have them all the time.

Drinking lots of water is important to protect your kidneys. Lithium will make you thirsty, try to drink water or else you will gain weight from the calorie laden drinks. So far my thyroid and kidneys are doing fine with Lithium. The only side effect I have now is a tremor in my arms/hands. It has not affected my job in the Neonatal ICU, but it can be annoying. Lowering the Lithium dose or adding a beta blocker (heart drug) can make the tremor go away. I have chosen to live with the tremor, because it gets better after I have my one cup of coffee I get per day.

The only bad thing is I hate having my blood drawn, but it isn't very often...once every several months now that I have a stable level.

Lithium is pretty cheap. I get mine for 4 bucks a month under the 4 dollar generic plan at Target. I think it's on just about all of those plans.

I will shut up now