Can Lithium stop working after 2 months!?

Hi! I found Lithium and like my therapist says, it's like I found GOLD. It was the most amazing experience to go from what I totally now believe is BiPolar II to "normal." I could let EVERYTHING roll off my back, since it wasn't after all a life or death situation. I was happy, stable like NEVER before, I was capable of just being me and being focused and - everything was truly amazing. For a month. Now it's barely been two months - I upped it from 600mg a day to 900mg a day just in case it would keep more possible mania at bay. Well it probably did!! I feel almost back to pre-Lithium days. WHAT happened?? Can you be this low on Lithium just so soon after you were just so normal on it? I am #@$%&*ty at drinking enough water, but I do drink enough every time I'm thirsty though. HELP!!!!!! Everything has me crying again, pissed, irritated, and the feelings of loneliness (all the "#@$%&*" and there is a lot not having family or anyone there for me) was all deal-able before, and not difficult. Now, I'm back to cutting my wrists to rid myself of the inside pain. WHAT GIVEESSS!!!!?

I was on Lamictal (Lamotrigine) for over a year and NOTHING happened! Decently high dose. Lithium is my wonder drug. I've never ever had a sleeping problem tho. So no sleeping meds for me.

Maybe I do need Lithium WITH another drug. But I did so extremely well on just that for two months. Maybe I'm just human with emotions that will still go up and down. This is more down than I thought I could be on Lithium though. I am scared though. I want it to work work work....thank you for your thoughts. Anyone else welcome? I've never posted anything in my life till the previous one and this is great!

call your pdoc asap to find out what he/she wants you to do. Li is the gold standard for treatment of bp, I don't know what the therapeutic level is though.
best person to answer about this is your pdoc, esp as Li can be toxic at some levels. keep us updated on what happens.

THANK YOU! my pscyhiatrist (is that what you guys are saying pdoc? lol) said he agrees with me going down to 600mg a day. which was short but really nice to know. i trust this psych, unlike others. i had such a dramatic change on only 600 which is i guess a fairly low dose.

maybe 900 is just too much for me. tho what perplexes me is why would i seem to be "like before" - bad, terrible. instead of "more, too stable" if anything??? Thoughts ??? THANKS!

ps -
you say psycho like its a bad thing
LOOL :)

I'm so glad you got a good answer from your psychiatrist (pdoc, it took me a while to catch on to that too). Hopefully you'll be feeling back to your good self again soon. I know its weird how the meds work and they work differently for so many people. Like the seroquel, I take 100 and it helps me sleep, I went up on it briefly and I couldn't sleep, ruminating thoughts that wouldn't go away, so went back down and its all good. I've just increased my depakote a week ago so I'm watching to see what happens with it. the dosage for that is tested by blood levels, like lithium, and though I was feeling much better earlier this spring finally, the blood level was still below therapeutic level. I still feel pretty good. not up or down or anxious or irritable or hypersexual. that last one is what gets me in trouble.

keep us updated on how you are doing, oh and welcome to the site btw.
Amy

ps I'm glad you like it :)

aah you're a girl! i love it. i guess i never read the icon name. omg. it's the Lithium's fault!! ;o)

thanks for the welcome! this is great.

what is therapeutic levels? the level that works for me? is there any point in getting my blood test taken now while my body still has about 900mg a day in it to see if THAT is something that was wrong, making me feel bad? i just started the 600mg a day yesterday...

Johanna

Hi!
Yep, I'm a girl :)
I guess there's a part per unit of blood level that a person is supposed to have for particular drugs...the level for depakote is between 50 and 100 and what I was prior to the increase was at 33. I was told to get blood drawn after a week and if anything needed attention that the office would call me.
so my guess would be wait a week again on the 600mg and then get your blood drawn and results faxed to your dr.
Amy

Hi there,

I also had a similar Lithium experience--started out on 600 and it pretty immediately stopped an episode that had landed me in the hospital. It was increased to 900 and that was when things started spiraling down. My self harming thoughts returned, I felt very depressed, I was ruminating, etc, etc. My pdoc lowered me back down to 600 and we added Bupropion (Welbutrin). We had to make some minor adjustments to that med (made me feel too agitated at first), but I am doing really well now on the two meds at relatively low doses each.

Sometimes an extra med can be helpful...it just all depends on your brain chemistry!

Good luck!

I am also a girl, diagnosed BP NOS. ;)

Yay! Thanks! I was on an anti dep before for years, then combined with ADHD meds, then anti anx, then lamictal. Finally I was like forget it!! Got rid of ex pdoc and new pdoc put me only on Lithium and it changed my life!! So I dont wanna have to open 89 other bottles in the morning again :)

We are going to see what happens on 600mg - and with sleeping better, eating right and exercising again which I stopped b/c of all the hours at work. this may have all been affecting me somewhat, tho i refuse to believe working more, eating worse has made me THIS BAD.

What is BP NOS? I'm BP type II.
Oooooo I wanna make a chart!!