For me, lithium actually worked really well. I had very little side effects other than the most common ones (excessive thirst). It didn't affect my appetite, and I didn't gain weight on it. I also didn't lose weight on it. It was one of the few that I found that was weight neutral for me.

The problem I had with it was that my blood levels were never high enough. It also would stop helping about a month after upping the dose. But my psychiatrist didn't want to put me on a dose any higher than what I was on because he felt it was "too dangerous" and "too high of a dose". Because of that, the effects from my taking it seemed to wear off quickly. Add to that the comments of an idiot therapist I was seeing at the time, and I wound up just stopping it without weaning off it.

I didn't really have any side effects or withdrawal symptoms from stopping it the way that I did, but I am wondering if that is because of how it was affecting me when I was taking it.

My doctor had me try a lot of other meds after lithium - all of them atypical antipsychotics, and I kept getting bad reactions and bad side effects from all of them within one to two weeks. My advice would be that if you know it isn't working, talk to your doctor about stopping it and trying something else. If you've tried a lot of other meds in the same class as the new one though, and they haven't helped, I personally would be a bit wary of it

Just my experience and my thoughts.

Healing