[Edgar's Mom]

Hi All:

I'm coming off of Lithium (I've been on it for about 2 years) and I'm having some side effects I'm interested to see if anyone else has had them. I haven't taken any for two days and before that I was going down 150 at a time.

I've been very sedated and had a nearly impossible time waking up in the mornings for the past long while. I was thinking it was the Seroquel, but the last few nights I'm sleeping very lightly and waking up a lot. I'm also waking up with less sleep and am wide awake in bed, which never happens.

This morning I woke up with a very painful dull throbbing ache in both shoulders and down both arms. My body was aching a bit and I had periods where I was sweating and then cold but not the chills, as the fan was on.

I've been in a very deep depression for months. The past few weeks have been very, very low. But now I feel I'm on my way up energy wise, but still very depressed. My anxiety is way up too.

I used to get this obnoxious hyper mood that my husband would call my "buggy mood." I would be so hyper that I would bother him constantly, trying to hug him and play and goof around. I would annoy him and know that I was annoying him, but be unable to stop myself.

With the Lithium that went away and I haven't been like that for a couple of years..... Well, tonight I said to my husband as I bounced around the kitchen "she's back." He laughed and said he could tell and that it's okay. He's a saint, but I have to try not to pester him too much.

Tomorrow I think I'll have absolutely no coffee. I had been only able to have one cup before feeling my anxiety skyrocket these past few days, then I overdid it yesterday and had 4 cups because I felt so depressed and wanted to get some cleaning done. It worked and then I had 3 today which was not a good idea. I still can't take a deep breath.

Anyway, sorry for rambling... anyone else feel these things? Any suggestions for managing this other than avoiding caffeine?

[Edgar's Mom]

One other thing.... I have absolutely no appetite (not hungry at all) and have to force myself to eat. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I could have gone a couple days with no food at all.

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[Ea1963]

I think mania is a typical response to stopping lithium.

[~Christina]

I have dropped meds of all sorts left and right cold turkey and really never had a hiccup ..

But....

Oh hell.... hell Lithium??? I went through absolute hell! I was so so sick on all levels, There was many times I preferred to just die.. Almost 3 weeks of hell.. Then I slowly got better.

I will say it took me about 3 months for my brain to re learn how to function with out lithium or any medications.

I no longer felt dumb as a stump, I could suddenly remember how to spell words like "what" "ours" "symptoms" etc etc.. you get the picture.. I could talk again without lots of.. Ummmmmm, Errrrrr..

I had hoped that my hand tremor would have left also, but nope ! it's not as bad as while I was on Lithium, But its still here..

As for food? Well I had no desire to eat while so sick, But I also deal with Anorexia and I struggle with food routinely.

[Edgar's Mom]

Wow Christina, this was nearly that bad.!!! I was on a low dose so I'm hoping that any reaction I have is mild and short-lived..

I know one thing – I felt truly alive last night for the first time in so long I can't remember. But… Although it was a sort of mild hypo, underneath I can still feel the depression so I'm a little concerned about that. My main concern is that I don't have a meltdown.

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[lovejoy91]

Thank you for making this post. I'm getting off Lithium, too. I had minor headaches but that's about it.

[Trippin2.0]

I also cold turkeyed... Its was pure hell on earth.


I had cold sweats, body aches, shivers, hallucinations, sky rocketing fevers, I was so exhausted I gave up on getting out of bed, all of which lasted almost 2 weeks... My family said it looked like I was coming off of heroin.


Ugh just ugh!

Never again. Never


I am not at all sorry I did that though, because I needed to, but I wouldn't recommend it.


Sounds to me you're experiencing withdrawals, hopefully it will go away soon.