Hey, Mark...

I was in the hospital when I started taking lithium, so the dosage was ramped up over the course of 3 or 4 days, not weeks...I had no problems. Since you aren't in crisis, your doctor is being conservative, which is good, IMHO.

Again, the lithium by itself may not alleviate your depression...best practice is to only give antidepressants along with a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorder to prevent mania or hypomania. Or he could choose to add something like Lamictal, which DE mentioned and I also take. It is also very effective, particularly with bipolar depression.

Also remember, with any medication the side effects listed happen in a very small percentage of patients...odds are everything will be OK. If you do have a problem, there are plenty of alternatives.

Hope things go well,

DJ