Lithium Toxicity Concerns

Thank you to anyone willing to read and respond. Quickly, please please don’t say anything over the top or that will feed into a belief that I am making a fatal error. This will only cause me panic at the faintest symptoms.

Briefly, I am skinny, but not overly skinny. I weigh 115 pounds and am about 5’9 and at most, 5’10 or so. I am on 900 mg Lithium. I also have gastrointestinal issues and cannot eat much; I eat about a small meal a day some days. Anyway, I began exercising a few weeks ago and it made me feel like I was gaining a sense of control as I was losing weight. My life is a mess and I hate myself, but this sense of control and weight loss gave me peace. One day I looked older and very tired and I began to like myself. I wanted to look thinner and started to feel this sense of control over my circumstances.

I want to keep doing this and get my weight down to maybe 105 and stop. My concern is I am going to end up killing myself accidentally because I don’t eat, am overexercising burning calories I don’t have, am losing weight, and taking 900 mg of Lithium. I’m concerned it is going to become toxic to me. Yet, I don’t want to give up the weight loss. I finally like how I look and feel! I love the control.

Am I going to end up accidentally hurting mysel? Please don’t feed into this because it will only cause me panic at the faintest symtpoms. I fear death only because I feel I am going to a worse place.

Please scientific, objective answers only. Thank you!

Hello bda: Welcome to PsychCentral. I noticed it has been a couple of days since you posted this. And no one has replied to your post. So I thought I would. However, since you have concerns with regard to the kinds of replies you might receive here, I'll be brief.

I have no authority here on PC. So this is just my personal opinion. However I don't believe there is anyone here on PC who would be in a position to offer advice with regard to your lithium toxicity concerns. Our purpose, here on PsychCentral, is to provide one another with support and to exchange information & experiences. The majority of us a consumers of mental health services, not medical or mental health professionals. My personal, non-professional recommendation would be that you consult a physician or other medical / psychiatric services provider with regard to your concerns. I wish you well...

There's not an immediate time emergency but I do think you should contact your doctor about whether you may have some symptoms of anorexia. Of course I'm not an expert either.

At 5'9" and 115 lbs, your BMI (body mass index) is less than 17. You are significantly underweight. BMI is not a perfect measure, but there is no world in which you are not seriously underweight already. 105lbs is not a reasonable goal.

I think you should consider that you may have an eating disorder, or you may be getting a little OCD about body management. Please talk to your Pdoc ASAP.

You said that you are thin, but you still want to diet and lose weight? Are you thinking about what you have said here? Hey, it is your body, and I am not trying to say that I know better than you. I recommend you to see your doctor.

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water to avoid lithium toxicity. Like the others said you may want to see a doctor about your weight issues.

It is crucial that you tell your doctors (including psychiatrist) about any weight loss plans. Your eating habits/amounts and exercise amounts. Lithium in particular sort of mandates that. You don't want to take any chances of hurting yourself or even dying from Lithium toxicity. Even without meds, I too am concerned about your health. Be very honest about your weight and weight goals.