ok, just an update: pdoc double-checked my levels (he didnt have my file last time i saw him, as we were meeting in a different place), and it was at 1.0, and possibly rising (because i'd just switched to 750mg).

i am completely off lithium, and i'm still having weird side effects, but pdoc said it has something to do with the lithium in the cns fluids being retained longer. he wants me completely off it for a week longer, and then we'll try to go on it again, but at a much slower rate, and getting blood tests before each increase.

he said he did a lot of reading after our last appt, and he's of the opinion that it's definitely the lithium causing the hallucinations - they aren't typical 'psychotic' hallucinations, and the way i described them were very specific to the way other cases of lithium-related hallucinations had been described.

so, i guess that's one thing to be glad of. i'm not (completely) losing my mind just yet .