Avoid caffeine with lithium. Lithium + Caffeine = reduced blood levels of lithium.
Lithium is going to get working at 2-3 weeks, but getting to the 0.6-1.2 mmol/L range takes some time, because your psychiatrist needs to monitor the blood levels due to lithium’s very narrow therapeutic index. My last BMP said i was at 0.3-0.4 so im not on enough yet.
I added a vitamin complex of B9-B12-Nacetylcysteine and i can actually retain memories AND create solid long term memories while studying. Vitamins are a great route to go to help with getting our minds right.
Also, have you heard of Lurasidone? It does not have antihistamine side effects (Drowsiness, dry mouth) and does not add on weight like the other atypical antipsychotics (second generation antipsychotics). It is a marvelous drug and after trying Quetiapine, then Olanzapine, Risperidone, Aripiprazole, I am now on Lurasidone and I FINALLY FEEL LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING AGAIN, and I hope and pray that you do to and that things get better.
Thank you very much for the message, @DelusionalSandwich! Latuda is still not in my country, it will get time to have it here. I take vitamins, yes. Omegas, vitamin c, vitamins B and even iron. Do you know if sometimes you need more than a month for lithium to work? Maybe one month is still few, no?
If you don’t mind me asking, not like it is a big deal but just being courteous, what is your blood level of lithium? The therapeutic range is 0.6 - 1.2 mmol/L of blood. Some sources say 0.5 to 1.3 but yes it will start working or showing changes after 3 weeks, however, you need to be in therapeutic range for it to be doing it’s job of potentiating GABA, increasing release potential of Serotonin/5HT, decreasing Dopamine, blocking IMPase and IMMase, inhibiting GSK-3 and much more.
If there is not enough, the job won’t be done to the efficacy that lithium is prescribed to be at.
If there is too much, it can mess with your kidneys, so just monitor your levels with a BMP every time you increase the dose and then probably once every 1-2 months there after.
Hope this helps!
Lithium also promotes BDNF and Bcl-2 which are neuroprotective, and several regions of the brain increase in grey matter in response to lithium such as: ventral prefrontal cortex, hippcampus, anterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus, paralimbic association cortex, and left amygdala.
Lithium is amazing if used correctly, and I hope it helps! Balance is everything.
I dont know my blood level of lithium. My doc even didn’t put me on exams like this. maybe in the future. I guess I live in a ■■■■■■ up country where the mill people are at the bottom… they dont care about us. In the past, they tried on me just like this about 10 aps without a result. and my new doc said they abused with me because of so many meds who probably put me a bit too low too…
I couldn’t read the whole thread. But you know its okay that your mom doesn’t like you now? That is her problem, as long as you are feeling better. Mom’s are tough to deal with as an adult child. Sometimes you just have to stop listening and do your own thing.
I cut my own mom out and see her as little as possible now that I feel better.
My pdoc said the sweet spot for lithium to work is around 4-6 months out.
Oh, ok, skims. Thanks I hope your doc is right cause me too I find that I should wait more than this past one month…
I love my mom very much in fact so I dont feel very well when we have problems with her but I understand also that I am a grown adult and that this happens. She can be hard. Especially when she says that ill remain between 4 walls cause I still dont go out and she doesn’t see an exit to this. She said that I dream when I talk her about feeling better one day wow… But whatever, I try not to be angry cause I dont need this either…
I am very dependant to my mother still on the daily life basis so its hard, she is hard, yes. Idk why some mothers are like this. she got mad when I left her alone in the food shop the last time cause I was ultra anxious. she thinks that I do it by a caprice wow, you see?
Lets pray that I need mostly time on this med, yes.
Idk, I was very anguished when I saw my mom today… I am not sure that its normal. when I am alone, I am ok. But when I see her, I feel irritability towards her and anxiety. She is very anguished about me now and says that this is no good… I send an email to my doc now. My inner monologue in my head is decreased on the lithium but I still lack peace of mind. I am more alive on this med, but not in a good way cause in my head, I am not calm…
pfff. I wish somebody can say to me here that sometimes the beginning of some meds are tough and this will settle down, idk…
I guess I felt similar to you in that I got hyped up on the lower dose. Things calmed down after increasing. I’m only on 600mg which I’m told is still a low dose.
I am on 600 mg too. But maybe I need more time than that you know, skims? I lived between 4 walls since 15 years so you can imagine how bad was my depression too and maybe I shouldn’t expect fast relief. I feel more alive on the lithium already but its the anxiety which is bad. I have headaches also by it now. But I want to believe that this med tries to rebalance me after so many years of despair. My doc suspects that in the past I was put on too many aps who smashed me, you see? but I am very anxious without the lithium too. Now, I just express it, I pace too when I am at my moms house and my mother is freaked out…
My psychiatric stopped my Ablify in last appointment because of my request. I am only on Lithozon 200 from a week. I feel less control in mind and flowing in one direction where I started to work. But I am watching my condition and one week is less experience to explain.
Well, my anxiety was more manageable today. Its just now in the evening that I got bad again…
My mom is worried. She even said that she wish to throw away all my meds, yeah… Moms are not big help. I didn’t live since 15 years, even before this I was miserable. and the last time I went out without meds, it was something totally abnormal, I risk my life even cause I stop eating without meds…
Maybe I am bad with my mother, so I feel sad, but its hard to see her desperate about me, its not a help…
I hope your doc is right cause me too I find that I should wait more than this past one month…