Hi..lithium journey to begin..scared
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Hi..lithium journey to begin..scared
| Thu, 07-20-2006 - 9:09pm |
hi, i'm Nita. my diagnosis today is Bipolar II, not otherwise specified...whatever that means. Ugh, sigh....here goes, another new med.
i'm so sick of this...i have been going thru these trials of meds for 11 yrs now. i'm so tired.
yesterday, i was hypomanic...it was great! i went shopping, cleaned, visited a friend and got in her hot tub, watched movies...all after 4 hrs sleep the night before.
today, back down in the depression darkness. i cried alot at the dr's office. i told her i'm crying because of the ups and downs, not ever knowing what the next morning's going to be like.
who else is on lithium? has it helped? please, i need some support and reassurance that maybe, just maybe, this may help.
i have been really scared of trying this. i'm desperate now.
thanks for listening.
nita
i'm so sick of this...i have been going thru these trials of meds for 11 yrs now. i'm so tired.
yesterday, i was hypomanic...it was great! i went shopping, cleaned, visited a friend and got in her hot tub, watched movies...all after 4 hrs sleep the night before.
today, back down in the depression darkness. i cried alot at the dr's office. i told her i'm crying because of the ups and downs, not ever knowing what the next morning's going to be like.
who else is on lithium? has it helped? please, i need some support and reassurance that maybe, just maybe, this may help.
i have been really scared of trying this. i'm desperate now.
thanks for listening.
nita

Hi Nita-
Welcome... I just started lithium two nights ago. I'm on 900 mg although I'm sure that will go up. I'm worried about it, too. To be honest, though, in comparison to a lot of other medications I've taken the side effects aren't that bad (yet). What have your diagnoses been before? I can't believe you've been through 11 years of this... I would have given up by now. I hope that the lithium works for you!
Meg
Hi Nita and welcome to our board.
Lithium is a good baseline med. It is what my pdoc refers to as the "tried and true" bp med. Unfortunately, it didn't agree with my system. I'm one case though. It works for many others. Give it a try. It can be a god send, and is for many here on the board.
I know new meds can be scary, especially after having tried seemingly every one on the market. It's also frustrating. But have faith and hope. That this one could be the one that works for you. We will keep our fingers crossed here for you as well.
Keep posting here. We look forward to getting to know you. Welcome to our board:)
Peace, Love & Light,
Traci
Nita,
I was terrified when my pdoc rx'd Lithium for me--I had always heard it was the drug of last resort and came with tons of side effects.
Nita,
Hi! I was the SAME WAY. I resisted Lithium for years, while trying ALL the other meds out there for BP, depression, the anti psychotics, you name it.
Lithium is the only one that helped. Now, I am down to a low dose of it, and it still helps, the only reason its low is that I am very sensitive to all the meds.
I still cycle a lot...but I'm ultradian cycling BP I, treatment resistant. So if it can help me, it can help anyone else.
Watch your activity outside, you don't sweat as easily and can become dehydrated. Eat when you take it. Don't get rid of salt in your diet.
I hope you'll stick around and post with us. We love each other very much here, and the support has saved my life so many times. These ladies here on this board are my only real friends.
Love and Hugs,
Keli
Wow 11 years! My hat's off to you for hanging in there.
I went through about 8-10 (don't remember exactly) different meds in about 3 months. Then we tried lithium and that's what has worked for me. Of course it took two months of upping the lithium before it worked. Apparently, you need to have enough of it showing up in your blood for it to do it's job. My PDoc told me if it's below range (0.8-1.2 mmol/L), it's almost like not taking it at all.
*holding my breath for you, that it'll work for you too*