Major Depression and Lithium

I have a long time diagnosis of Major Depression-Recurrent and Anxiety Disorder. While not formerly diagnosed w/ Borderline Personality Disorder, I have
been told & know personally that I do have characteristics of BPD.
My psych doc has taken me off of Xanax and is titrating me off of Klonopin. I have been experiencing severe amts of anxiety to everyday stress. My depression which had been under good control has been going steadily down hill to the point that I am back to cutting,suicidal,starting to isolate some,& generally having an extremely difficult time.
One of the main things that my psych doc did was to start titration me off of
Topamax(which he says is a poor mood stabilizer) & started me on Lithium 450 mg at bedtime. The next time I see him he plans to raise to the dose to 900 mg.

My question is this: Having never been on Lithium,and only assoc. Lithium w/
Bipolar Disorder,what is Lithium's role in stabilizing the mood of a depressed person & what should I expect from Lithium in general?

Not to scare you because I know every person reacts different to medication, but both times I was put on lithium shortly after I attempted suicide. I hope your depression gets better as your pdoc increases the dose. I hated going through that as anybody would. Good Luck!

I was on lithium and klonopins for almost a year. I stopped cold turkey on my own with no problems. No withdrawal and I felt great. I stopped because I felt perfectly fine again. It is common to get suicidal thoughts on lithium and also SSRIs. The younger you are the more common it is.

My understanding is lithium is better for mood stabilization not depression. Though it should help there too. I simply didn't like it because it removed any ups I had. I become kind of emotionless. But some how I did start to feel better, and just stopped. I felt great for the whole next year. I won't go back on lithium. I don't care what the doc says, let him take it. I gained weight and had to let them monitor my blood and for little or no improvement. Not worth it for me. Some people love it though so I should not be so harsh. I hated it. And would rather suffer then be on it. Luckily there are alternatives for it. I hate docs who think they are gods and know everything. All they are to me is over rated and over paid book worms.

I do wish you the best of luck!

Thanks 4 replying,Bipolarchickk. Being new here that means a lot to me. I have attempted suicide 3 times in the past & almost succeeded unintentionally one time several years ago. I have not been this overtly & intently suicidal in over 15
yrs.
I appreciate your input. I hope my experience will be different since my diagnosis is Major Depression as opposed to Bipolar Disorder.

Hi IndieVisible,
Thanks for responding. I hope the Lithium doesn't make me emotionless. That is how I was on the Xanax. If U don't mind me asking,what is your diagnosis? It is not unusual for people who R Bipolar to stop taking their meds because they miss their "highs" or they feel they R "cured".
You said there were "alternatives" to the Lithium. Can you tell me what they R?
I'm glad U R better & hope that you continue to be well.

I was put on lithium for constant suicidal ideation. In my case, it worked like a bomb. No more morbid thoughts of my own demise running through my head daily...

Buuut, it did more damage than good for me. I had horrid side effects, hand tremors that illiminated all fine motor skills (seriously, even smoking was a chore) I became borderline retarded, had zero working memory. I lost a chunk of my beautiful vocabulary so I resorted to using 6th grader level language, my word recognition "broke", which lead me to needing a spell check for the first time at age 27 , annnnnd I was flat. no. mood. at. all.

So I flushed all my meds becoz pdoc's solution was "tremor" meds, which was a dealbreaker, not to mention utterly useless because I had more (and bigger) issues than tremors.

I have been diagnosed bipolar and borderline, and unmedicated for the last 2 years because the current medical model doesn't suit me.

I hear from many members here what a wonder drug lithium is, so hopefully you will be one of those that benefit from it

I'm starting to believe my diagnosis of bipolar, for a very long time I rejected it as wrong. Then some people thought I was borderline, which got me wondering, which proved to be false pretty quick. I can go months to years perfectly fine. Each time convinced I'm cured or believe there was never any thing wrong with me. It was not until I started keeping a journal and made notes and charted my moods and feelings I started to see the pattern and when I start to forget or doubt it I read my journal.

Alternatives to lithium, here's a few, Lamictal, Topamax, Trileptal, Tegretol Depakote, I'm sure there are many more. Even SSRI's can sometimes be effective. Right now I'm only on Wellbutrin and Zoloft. I'm sure that will change after my next pdoc visit, may be not, I'm doing ok.

Hi aern01, I am bipolar but I hope I can answer too. I was put on Lithium because I needed a mood stabilizer, my doctor had 2 others she was considering but she chose Lithium because of my suicidal ideation/severe depression episodes and Lithium's anti suicidal properties. With time and a few dosage increases it has completely diminished my suicidal thoughts, I'm currently at 900mg and doing great. I hope it works for you

I was put on lithium several years ago when I was just diagnosed as treatment resistant depression (now bp ii). Because of this, I talked a lot with pdoc about how lithium is good for folks who are just depressed and not manic. Apparently, it is used a lot for people whose depression doesn't respond to other things because it has strong antidepressant properties. The good news is that if you are taking it for depression only, you can usually take a much lower dose.

I found that it wiped out my suicidal thoughts. Pdoc said that this is a known benefit of this med. it was great!

I liked lithium and didn't have huge side effects. The reasons I no longer take it have nothing to do with the med itself.

Good luck!
EJ

Tripping 2.0--Thank U 4 your input. I hope it does alleviate my suicidal thoughts
& stabilize my depression,but without all the negative side effects. I'm sorry U had such a bad experience especially since it did rid U of your suicidal thoughts.
Glad your holding your own currently.

Thanks so much for positive input,Blue_Bird!! I also really like your turtle ticker
tape!!

EJ,
First of all,thank you for your encouraging words that Lithium may be helpful to me in stabilizing my mood & helping alleviate my suicidal ideations. I do have a
question 4 for U. R U saying that "Bipolar 2 Disorder is actually Treatment Resist-
ant Depression"? I have often wondered what the difference is between Bipolar 1
& Bipolar 2.

No, I just meant that I was rediagnosed. However, many people who are eventually diagnosed bp ii were once diagnosed with treatment resistant depression. I think my pdoc said that the medical literature debates the relationship between bp ii and TRD.

BP II is when you have depressions (often very bad ones) and hypomania, which is like a less severe type of mania. BP I has full out mania.

Hope I answered your questions! Good luck!

EJ

EJ--Thanks for answering my question. I googled the terms & now I understand
Bipolar 1 & 2. I appreciate your help. Hope U have a good week. Look fwd to seeing U on the site.

aern01

Hi Aern,

Like you I have been diagnosed on and off with Depression ( also GAD ) and I am awaiting a full evaluation for suspected BPD and or BP. I too am taking Lithium, effexor and Xanax when needed.

Personally I have found the Lithium to help, the thing to remember is that we are all wired differently and what works for one might not work for another. It's a real pain in the rear but we have to go through them all until we find what works.

For me personally the thing that was driving me nuts was the constant chatter in my head and not being able to focus on tasks. I've only been on the Lithium for about 5 weeks now but I am noticing some differences. I am slightly calmer and don't seem to be so 'manic'.

I find the Lithium to be a pain because its affected so easily by sodium and caffeine and I workout 5 mornings a week so really need my Isotonic and intra workout drinks.
It made me really really tired for a few weeks and I made the mistake opf trying to wean off the effexor which started a horrible episode of brain bangs and night terrors and yes that one night I was feeling pretty damned desperate, but once I got back on my regular dose of effexor I was fine again.

I can't say that I have felt emotionless on it, in fact I'd say I had that more the last time I was on Effexor but I now think thats because it triggered a manic episode.

I hope it works for you !

Hey aern01-so sorry to hear you're struggling so bad! I tried Lithium for my bipolar depression and it made me worse and gain weight. Everybody responds differently as you well know, but I love Lamictal at 400-600mg for depression and mood stability and Latuda at 120-160mg. Also, for a benzo I prefer Valium over Xanax/Klonopin. Best of luck!!!

Hi Vans1974--Thank you for sharing your experience w/ Lithium. I don't expect 2
B on the Klonopin long term. My psych doc is gradually weaning me off of the
Klonopin. Thank you for your support.

aern01

Hi Faithless Cat,
I appreciate everything U had to say. I know that I am not Bipolar,but I do have
BPD Traits,which is how the DSM 5 likes to refer to it. In case U don't know the
DSM 5 is the GOLD STANDARD 4 Psychiatry. I understood everything U said except for the last paragraph. Do U think maybe U could re-write it? I would really like to understand what U were trying to say. By the way,I'm not saying the problem is yours. It could be me having a hard time understanding.

Hope To Hear Back From U,
aern01

I'm guessing you mean this bit ? I can't say that I have felt emotionless on it, in fact I'd say I had that more the last time I was on Effexor but I now think thats because it triggered a manic episode. ...

What I mean is the only time I felt emotionless was while on effexor, but that I believe the reason I was emotionless is not because of the med but because the med itself triggered an episode and the episode made me emotionless ...

hope that makes a bit more sense.

Good luck going off klonopin....made me so sick and down. I stayed in the house for a year. I took myself off of everything and it was hard and I now know that I should have consulted a doctor. I don't have the best insurance so I was sent to a MH clinic for low income people and went for about 2 years. 5 minutes with a pdoc every 6 months....my therapist was great but the doctors were heartless bastards and I am not like the other people that were in the waiting room. I was scared to be around these people and I knew I deserved better than some state owned care.....sorry for the rant and good luck

I was on lithium and had the unusual effect of vomiting. I was not even in the therapeutic range when this happened. I also had severe acne. I was very depressed on it and tried to take one day at a time. Everyone is different. My friend took it with no problems.

My husband has serious side effects from lithium. He started having seizures. They changed him to depakote 2000 mg per day. But I found out today from his bloodwork, He has stopped taking it. Now he is super depresses. Any advice?