I started lithium a few months ago. It has been over fifteen years since
I last tried the drug, so this was a big decision.
My bipolar (the bipolar- what do you call your bipolar?) has steadily gotten worse over the past five years. It’s a downward curve that I constantly try to straighten. Thus the lithium. I started out with a typical dose and waited and waited and when that didn’t work, I went up to a higher dose. Within a week, I felt like I was living life under water. All I wanted to do was eat (a lot), watch European soccer and get into bed. It was truly awful. I stopped working on creative projects and had trouble focusing.
Interestingly, I was still very able to do the coaching I love, meet my work deadlines and hang out with friends- but everything else was a fog.
One day I thought- oh no! It’s the lithium! Pretty dumb that it took me that long. So I went back down to the original dosage and the underwater feeling is gone. I am still on lithium. It helps with the big down swings. I need it, but it’s always a trade off between medications and side effects. How are your meds? Or the meds of the person you care about? IS THE DOSE CORRECT?
Julie
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I am really intrigued with your issues of focus and concentration since I have suffered that on and off for similar spurts in the last few months. I am also on lithium and it seemed to get me back from the “under water” feeling you describe, but the concentration I need to be productive and successful is not there. The inability to be concentrate and produce is becoming the new source of why I feel bad.
I started on Lithium about a month ago. At 600 mg I wouldn’t call it a wonder drug, but I was amazed at how much it seemed to slow down my brain, and balance out my emotions. After the initial blood draw, I was upped to 900 mg (one week ago). No new side effects, and a little more improvement.
Honestly, I have been thrilled. Depakote did nothing for me, and Lexapro (my last med years ago before I gave up on meds) left me feeling like a slug,
One thing I do notice is that concentration takes effort. If I don’t focus in something…anything…my mind just goes to la-la land. For now, I prefer that to the racing thoughts of the past twenty years, but we’ll see how long it takes me to get frustrated by that propensity to drift.
Another blood test last week to check my levels. We’ll see.
I just had my litium level tested. I’m waiting on the results. I’ve been on it since diagnosed in 2005. Dunno if it works well or not, I just keep taking it no matter what happens with my mood. I wanted to comment because I have been reading your health care card information I purchased from you and am so excited! More excited about anything to do with my illness in forever. I’m looking forward to getting more into the process. I linked to you in my last blog post. Would it be ok if i blogged about my process of working with your health care cards? I would really love to. Thanks for being so real!
i know this isn’t the topic but i need help. i’ve been blindsided by a devestating depression. i saw my pdoc today and he suggested the hospital. i can’t let my family know how bad i feel because i have commited to my daughter to babysit her five month old now that she is back at work. if i don’t keep up my end of the deal she will be screwed. i was so sure i would’t get here again and i fell humiliated that this has happened. i feel so alone. is there anyone out there
I was prescribed 300 mg of Lithium in September 2011 and it’s been very helpful. However, I’ve had more than my share of stress the last few months, culminating in my daughter’s wedding two weeks ago. Two days ago, I returned to my psychiatrist who prescribed 20 mg of Prozac. I have to research to see how long it will take to see any of its effects, but I’m hoping to have my focus and concentration improve and my anxiety and depression lessen. I also need to start taking medicine for hypothyroidism, but have to wait until I can afford to see a doctor for that prescription! Whew! And yes, I know that the thyroid meds will help my moods improve. Just can’t juggle it all financially!
This is off topic. Has anyone had any experiences , good or not so good with Electroshock therapy?
One of my friends tried it and it was a ten day hospital stay and entirely covered by insurance and the best
news is so far she seems so so much better than before. We’ll see how she does.
But what I read about ECT is that its very much safer because of lower currents, and the positions
of electrodes on the head and because the patient is given muscle relaxers so no bones are broken anymore.
(OK, I know One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, but some people need a better treatment than drugs. Drugs
do not work for about 50% it seems or even 60% of bipolar spectrum disorder patients do NOT get better on drugs at all)