Hi all,

I started taking lithium roughly 3 weeks ago. This week is the first week that my blood levels show it within the appropriate range. Before starting lithium, I was not on any meds because I was in the process of the medication merry-go-round.

While off medications, I could feel myself quickly slipping, sliding and stumbling my way back into depression and the dark thoughts and extreme negative self-talk and thoughts. Luckily this extreme went away once I started taking the lithium.

Where I find myself now, is in this weird spot that I'm having trouble describing and I'm looking for personal stories, input, and just some help putting words to my experience. The last week, I've had two "panic attacks"? I use quotes and ? because it was more as if I was overstimulated by social interaction and just couldn't handle the noise any more but it had those elements of needing to run away and hide. If any of you are Rick and Morty fans I definitely felt Tiny Rick's "I need to get out. I gotta get out." song was very fitting . The closest thing I've ever experienced to that is a panic attack. I feel tumultuous and very momentum based inside. Once things start, they keep going but I don't know when they'll start or how they'll start or what feeling it will be started with. Almost like a compulsion to the best of my knowledge.

My last piece of this is, I started taking my lithium spread out through out the day versus half in the morning, half at night just to see if that might make a difference but so far it doesn't seem to have helped.

As I said, I reach out for your experiences, input, advice, and overall comments just because at the very least I wouldn't mind hearing I'm not alone and maybe someone has had this experience and can share what helped work for them.