[middlepath]

I am tapering off lithium, I started on Friday. I am at 75% dose and going to 50% tomorrow. I am not feeling anything different and I am happy about that. When I got off paxil (many moons ago) it was BRUTTTTTLE so I am just holding my breath right now hoping full withdrawl doesn't rear its ugly head.

I am going to make a go of living med-free as of now so there is no replacement med. Can anyone tell me what they went through getting off lithium? I will ask a few specifics:

1: did your body go through withdrawl? your mind?
2: if you gained weight, how long before the Lithium weight started going away?
3: did you have a rebound effect? if so what hit you...mania or depression?

Thanks in advance! Also, in addition to my questions if anyone just has some tidbits of info to share...i will take any info you are willing to share! I do much better with transition when i am informed. Cheers.

[Anika.]

What is your tapering schedual and what dose are you at? How long have you been on lithium?

I tapered off six meds two years ago. I started with the antipsychotics and then the benzos and anticonvulsants, I saved lithium for last. I did this over months, about 5-6 months. It went reletively smoothly just a few bumps here and there the first little bit, nothing major. This was probably about my 20th attempt at getting off meds. All my previous attempts were basically just ditching the meds suddenly.and not really putting a whole lot of prepration into finding other ways to manage

I'm still off all meds, no mood problems. I didn't gain weight on lithium, not much help there.

Do you have skills and tools to help you manage? How have your moods been recently?

Sorry for all the questions, just want to know your situation better and see if I can help anyway. I onow that at least in my case it took a pretty major overhaul of changes in my life and just the way I think to be able to walk away from meds for good. I have a bipolar 1 dx with psychosis nos, badisically dr's didn't want to choose between bipolar and schitzoaffective. I will admit I was doing exremely poorly. However, I feel that the changes I made and getting away from the meds literally gave me a new life. There was no way I could continue the way my life was. It is probably one of the best choices I ever made.

If you want I can always share things that helped me. Just let me know. It's not easy to get off and stay off them but I really see it as possible and for some people maybe it is what they need. I made a lot of changes prior to getting off meds and I think that was my saving grace this time.

With lithium and the many times I had gone off it, I never really got physical withdrawal like you see with ad's, more of a rebound affect. When you remove these chemicals the brain is used to being fed, blocking this receptor, uptaking that one... takes a little while to for it to get back to functioning regularly. Haha that's not the greatest explanation. Who knows what the heck they real mechinism behind lithium is, but I would say it was much easier to stop, it's more how are you going to handle the bipolar I think.

[IndieVisible]

Lithium is nothing more then a fancy salt. It's nothing. I was on it, hated it because I gained weight, I stopped it cold turkey and told my doc there is no way in hell I will ever waste my time and money on that again. I don't think there is any thing to worry about, I was on it for a year and just stopped. Never bothered me. I actually felt better in a couple of days!

[FallenTree]

I was on lithium almost 30 years ...until it was discovered my thyroid was 11 times normal size. Getting off of it posed no problem... I have also been able to shed quite a few lbs seemingly durin
g periods of depression ...

[middlepath]

Wow...HUGE thanks to you all...I feel less stress about my decision now!

Anika, to give you more background~ I don't know for sure if I am BP1 or 2. I suspect I am BP1 at this point now that I have read a lot and done some sifting through my past. I have experienced mild psychosis on the manic side and I have been delusional on the depressed side. I never asked Pdoc the firm diagnosis though. I guess I am afraid at some level. I have never been hospitalized, I somehow keep myself in check by staying away from people when I am at the peak of a cycle.

My BP has been unchecked since my diagnosis 11 years ago. I ignored it until Jan 2013 when I completed my last episode. I vowed (to myself) to get things in check and change my life. I was put on lithium and have been stable for 9 mos. During that time I have been going to therapy weekly group DBT, and a private sessions too. I have overhauled my sleep routine, eating and lifestyle. I feel like I am up for the "fight" now, whereas before i was uneducated, broken, and had zero coping tools. Lithium allowed me to get my life straighten out but it is also making me fat which is counter-productive since I am now pretty bummed about how i look. Instead of becoming depressed, attempting a med free life (except my PRN benzo) is what I am trying. I don't know if I will be successful but I want to try my best. If it doesn't work, I will be asking for a different, weight-neutral med.

I thank you all immensely for your input. Knowing what to expect makes me feel like I am prepared for the bumps that may come. I just hope they are small bumps and not mountains : ).

[Trippin2.0]

Firstly, according to the periodic table, Lithium is a metal. That's why your kidneys need to be watched.

General properties
Name, symbol,number: lithium, Li, 3
Pronunciation /ˈ l ɪθ iə m/ LI-thee-əm
Element category :alkali metal

Lithium carbonate is an inorganic
compound, the lithium salt of carbonate
with the formula Li2 CO 3 . This white salt is
widely used in the processing of metal
oxides and has received attention for the
treatment for manic and bipolar disorder .

Lithium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lithium carbonate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Secondly I cold turkeyed off Lithium, Prozac & Risperdal, so I'm coming from a different perspective and don't know which med caused what.

Withdrawl symptoms; cold sweats and hallucinations mostly. Don't remember the rest, it was 2 yrs ago and lasted all of 10 days.

Rebound effect; Ultradian Cycling.
This lasted for 3 months and was very hard to navigate after being zombified for months.

My brain did eventually re-adjust to pre-med state (minus most side effects they caused) and then everything went quiet. Much like Anika's experience, I'm one of those people for whom meds made things worse. I now hardly cycle, as opposed to pronounced weekly cycles on 1 combo and then BAM zombie when my MS was replaced with Lithium.

When I do cycle now, its less of a bother, less pronounced, with a few serious ones every few months.

Now I can't say the meds made my bp worse, and being med free made it better, because I had zero coping skills beyond a chemical safety net and a very sickly perception of myself and my life whilst medicated.

They are overall easier for me to navigate now though.

As Anika so eloquently pointed out, my brain had to adjust to being minus chemicals, and I had to adjust to being bipolar.

These days the 2 of us live in harmony mostly.

Ps. No weight gain, sorry no info or opinion there.

[FallenTree]

As a veteran of BP illness I think you should consider carefully before opting out of your meds. As I understand it, this "thing" we face is a "kindling fire" meaning once it starts it never goes out - you are BP for life... No amount of good diet, careful monitoring, ect is going to tame the ugly beast! It WILL rear its ugly head again. For me, it did so even when I was taking the prescribed meds and has cost me dearly through the years. At least keep up with a mood stabilizer!! Don't like lithium? I am on Tegretol with no side effects for me. I do hate the anti psychotics and the way the make me feel - I only take those when I feel my feet start to lift off the ground

[Trippin2.0]

So if so many of us are / were being eaten alive by bp on meds, what exactly is the point of taking them again?

Its a rhetorical question, I'm not looking for a debate, not my thread, not my fight, just making a point.

Also, I know the pro-meds folk believe to be helping when they say "take meds as prescribed" I was on the other side of the fence afterall. But please take into consideration that this is not always the type of support a poster is seeking and may be taken as invalidating or discouraging.

We are here to support after all, and need to be sensitive to eachother's indivdual needs.

[FallenTree]

I can see your point....I think...Every life is different...

Personally, I am not Pro meds...just anti BP. I have seen what it can do to a life!

In my own case, I was finally able to get on with my life once they started me on Tegretol. I had spent the previous 10 years (on lithium alone) going to the state mental hospital at least once a year due to mania that was "on up there".

I was then able to fall in love, move out of my mom's basement and get married.... work and earn a living....

That's all...

Originally Posted by Trippin2.0

So if so many of us are / were being eaten alive by bp on meds, what exactly is the point of taking them again?

Its a rhetorical question, I'm not looking for a debate, not my thread, not my fight, just making a point.

Also, I know the pro-meds folk believe to be helping when they say "take meds as prescribed" I was on the other side of the fence afterall. But please take into consideration that this is not always the type of support a poster is seeking and may be taken as invalidating or discouraging.

We are here to support after all, and need to be sensitive to eachother's indivdual needs.

[middlepath]

Thank you Trippin' and Fallen.

I have been contemplating a departure from meds for months now. It is a carefully thought out choice. The straw that broke the camels back occurred last week and I am just done. I cycled without meds, I still cycled with Lithium, it just dulled my emotions and made me heavier than I am comfortable with.

Trippin' your description of your experience is super helpful...if I experience any difficulties I will just hang tight an know the dust will settle in awhile. I do have a "danger zone" back up plan in case i feel things going too far up or down though.

I started the day and this thread feeling frightened and tentative. After reading these experiences i feel hopeful and relieved. Thanks for that

[Anika.]

I tried the meds, probably about 40 different ones in various combos for nearly a decade before I really.got serious about things. I kept hoping that there would be some combo, some med that would eventually help me out. But I didn't get that. I am super sensitive to medication whether it be tylonal or thorazine. It seemed like I got almost every bad side effect you could get.

For me the straw that broke the camels back was being placed in the psych unit for mania and psychosis that I had tried to squash with my dr for nearly 5 months at home. They kept me for almost two weeks, I was placed on three antipsychotics with two benzos, and an anticonvulsant plus lithium. I could barely walk or even talk. Now that was crazy and I don't believe that is the norm. You can probably imagine how zombified that would make a person.

I called off my long term relationship because I felt I had no feelings left. Not that I could feel a thing. It was sept and my kids were just heading back to school and there was just no way I felt I could be a mom doing what I need to in that state. Luckily he waited patiently for monthes for me to regain my bearings. I was having serious side effects physically, and I am still dealing with severe brain pains... don't know what else you call it. Just severe pain in my brain at random. That pain has been fizzeling out since I am not on meds, but I dunno that was just the point where I knew for myself somethings had to change.

Sorry giving you a big saga there.

It sounds like you have given this a lot of thought and put alot of work into yourself, I think that is really awesome with meds or without!!! I think if you try to ride it out like Trippin did and if you can get youself on even ground you will likely do ok. And if not you know there is always more help available. It's always kind of interesting because Trippin and I both watched each other go through this here together, suported each other and to see how Trippin has managed is pretty amazing. It's pretty neat stuff forsure. The forum yhen was not quite as open to med free as it is now that is certain. It's really nice to see the changes here and know that you will be supported either way.

I was not sure I would be able to do it. I kept in mind that if it got bad that I could always go back to meds. I did not want that, but I tried to keep it in mind. Glad you have a plan and know your danger zone.

I am glad you are feeling hopeful, we all need that. And believe in yourself, your abilities and trust yourself. I think that is a biggie. With bipolar we kinda learn to not trust ourselves, and as we get healthier it can be hard to regain our own trust. And hard to acheive wellbeing if we don't.

I really wish you the best with this. I have struggled with an eating disorder in the past for many years and I know the weight gain is not easy and does not contribute to a sense of wellbeing. It's definatly not a sacrifice we can all make. I can understand that completely.

Keep us posted on how you are making out. And if you need to talk, I'm all ears Middlepath.

[Trippin2.0]

MP, I'm glad you found my post helpful even though I couldn't remember the rest of the withdrawls It wasnt pretty tho, I assure you.

If you want any input or one on one support feel free to PM anytime.

Safety nets are super important, I'm really glad you are self-aware and have made plans for hazzardous times. This will help against being overwhelmed completely by anything bp throws at you.

Like Anika said, she and I went through this together and it has been one hellava inspiring journey, one that cemented our friendship, probably partially because when we started we were discouraged by most members except closest friends here.

That lady let me tell you, she has a variety bucket when it comes to coping mechanisms, we can all learn a thing or 2 from Anika. Meds or no, because we can never say we have enough tools.

I do hope this ride isn't too rough on you, but remember I'm a pm away should you need extra support.

[middlepath]

Anika and Trippin', your offer of support and knowing you both have been down this road means so much to me. Thank you. I hope to be somebody you can lean on in the future when you are in need. (((HUGS)))