I just wanted to share my experience with Lithium

I was on Lamictal for about eight years 300 mg a day and it left me with chronic SI which was something I have struggled with even before taking that medication but I feel like it made it worse. I think it may have been making mixed states worse. I finally took the plunge a couple months ago and started on lithium. I was like ya I can’t imagine this being some magical pill. They upped it a month ago and I just want to say holy cow it works. I have not had much SI over past couple of weeks. Anger issues still there but right now blood pressure is high so...need to work on that. Anyway I know lithium gets a bad rap but I wanted to share my experience I really hope it continues to work well for me and it doesn’t poison me because I’m really afraid of that but wanted to share my experience for anyone who is struggling with SI.

I was in a resistant depression after two years of resistant mania and psychosis and lotta hospital time.We started me on 1200 od lonf-acting lithium and in three weeks I was much, much better. Depakote, lamictal, and Tegretol were all useless, other than Depakote of course bringing me down from florid mani--that it always does. After 12 years with only intermittent psychosis and some depression, though not as bad as before, I finally became dysphorically manic and psychotic last Oct. while on lithium. Depakote and Trilfaon have brought me out of that.

Lithium is an excellent antidepressant. All that talk about it being bad at managing depression id old, ol. Recently, it has been shown to be equivalent in efficacy to almost any antidepressant for unipolar patients. So, it definitely works. Always. Reason there is so little work done on it is money--most of it is available generic, so drug mfrs. cannot profit from funding huge studies required to look at effectiveness. Most of the work is decades old now. Ttoally out of date, lot of it.

S
So glad you are better and posted this. People dismiss it too easily, IMHO.

Hugs and love.

Thanks for sharing this Bipolarchick

Ha, I was kind of hoping for the opposite, as I'm now starting Lamictal and would like to have it as a monotherapy. I'm on lithium currently but I have no clue whether it helps. At the same time when I started lithium I got into a really bad mixed episode that I'm still recovering from, and because so much was happening at the same time I don't know how much worse it would have gotten without the lithium, or how much worse (or better) it would be right now. So yeah, I guess starting meds while so unstable is far from ideal because it makes it impossible to judge the effects.

Thank you for this, Bipolarchick. I think there are many good reasons as to why lithium is still the gold standard treatment for BD.

The only reason I didn’t stay on lithium was that my blood levels were constantly going up and down. Too low, not therapeutic too high and I was toxic. Even in ip they couldn’t keep it level. But I think for some people it’s magic.

Before I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 I was diagnosed with major depression which wasn't responding to anything. I did a year's trial on lithium. It didn't do a thing for me. So lithium doesn't necessarily work for everyone. Even though I was bipolar back then too, just misdiagnosed.

Lithium worked for me. But make sure to get regular levels checked! I got toxic after over a year on lithium and ended up in the hospital- 30 people in my tiny ER room watching me shake so bad- I dont know if they were seizures but my entire body was shaking - my arms above my head!

Yeah, I edited my post four times to say "...almost always..." but it won't make the changes. Weird.

Don’t be discouraged fluffydinosaur. Lamictal gets excellent reviews. It just didn’t work for me.

I was on Lithium in the past and found it to be extremely helpful. I eventually went off due to the side effect of amotivation, but in general I felt like it was one of the best medications for me. I have pondered going back on it, but my current medication combination seems to be holding me effectively.

Lamictal worked wonders for me. I felt normal, clear-headed, even. Unfortunately, I got a strange purple rash on my face so I had to quit.

That's exactly what I'm hoping for! (The clear-headedness, not the rash. )

So good to hear Lithium worked for you Bipolarchic. It is such a relief when meds work. For me Lithium reigned in my impulsivity and thus stopped my impulsive suicide attempts. It doesn't seem to effect my mood so I need Ziprsidone as well to control the bipolar. Super high lithium doses have been used on me when very manic. It takes a while but seems to help bring me down smoothy. Lithium is a good medication for those on whom it works.

About 30ish percent of bp pts do not respond...

Each individual person is unique. For me, BP II, lithium did not help my depressive phase at all. It made me a zombie as a monotherapy. But in combination with Lamictal, and quite a few other things, a very small dose is a good stabilizer for me. I was fortunate to find a very skilled psychopharmacologist who knew, even many years ago, that monotherapy did not work for me. My hope and wishes go out to everyone who is struggling that they find effective therapies!

I never had lithium personally, but my brother did. He took that and Zyprexa. Well, when he took it, it really helped him at least reign in his rather rapid cycling and stabilize his mood, it even helped with his delusions some (there was a time he wouldn’t take the zyprexa and only lithium. It was 1000x better than no medicine at all). The issue with him was he didn’t always take it.The common “I feel fine” scenario is why he wouldn’t take it, or “I don’t need this anymore” idea. To see it work it’s magic on him, I’m a believer in it for some people. If it works it works.

Bp2catlover. I wonder about the depression. I am just happy to not have a lot of si but I don’t know what it will do with low energy.