[zekey]

I've been on Lithium for more than a year - as an adjunct to try to get a sequence of antidepressants to work for me - to no avail. I've been feeling better on and off the past few months, despite the medications' lack of efficacy. In the past couple of weeks, my doctor had me taper down from 600mg of Lithium a day to 300 mg (tapered down to 300 for a week, then stopped). It is probably totally coincidental, but it has now been 9 days since my last dose, and I have been feeling significantly more depressed - most worrisomely, crying seemingly nonstop-feeling sad about just about everything.

I should add that I'm in a very stressful job, and just came back to work Monday after a week off - on vacation, I felt somewhat depressed in the AM, but then OK. As soon as real world stresses came back, it returned. So I suspect this is just a coincidence, but wonder if anyone has experienced increased depression, especially tearfulness, after stopping Lithium?

[justfloating]

Hi zekey,

I was only on lithium for a couple of months to get me through a particularly stressful period at school, so when I came off of it I was all right. (That being said, when I came off the lithium I was also finished university and heading home to a relatively stress-free environment, so I had none of the triggers you're describing.) I think if you've been on lithium for a long time you can experience a variety of side effects as you come down. For what it's worth, I've come off of other antidepressant medications in the past and that HAS made me feel worse. Have you told your doctor about how you're feeling? Regardless of whether it's the lithium or something else, you should probably let him/her know so you can figure out how to deal with it together.

Best of luck.