Discussion Lithium

[_milo]

I was recently prescribed Lithium and I'm curious to hear other peoples experiences with the drug. I know you guys won't bullshit me.

 

[AveryConure]

I had positive experiences with it until my dissociation got to the point where it is today and I've noticed a lot of my "good ol' tenants in my head" barely react to it or get ill from it so I seriously didn't find much of a benefit from it anymore.

It seems like lithium either works really well for people or people feel really shitty on it. I would give it a shot but if you're feeling really shitty on it definitely talk to your doctor and/or look up the side effects to see if you really need a different med or just a lower dose so your body can get adjusted to it.

Also if you're suicidal, don't think about OD'ing on it. It ain't worth it.

 

[Endless]

I was what they refer to as a 'lithium responder' in that it stabilised my mood - you either are or you aren't! but I couldn't handle it because of dissociation. I felt like I was living behind glass. The first time I took it it gave me restless leg syndrome at night, really creepy feeling! But that didn't happen the second time I tried it so who knows.

 

[alizee]

It's really bad for you like all drugs associated with whatever diagnosis you have to get prescribed Lithium. You should just try to clear you mind and live in a functional state that won't get people thinking you need to be drugged to be normal. Otherwise you will ruin your thyroid, possibly gain weight, lose your hair and potentially damage something else that's important.

 

[Endless]

It's really bad for you like all drugs associated with whatever diagnosis you have to get prescribed Lithium. You should just try to clear you mind and live in a functional state that won't get people thinking you need to be drugged to be normal. Otherwise you will ruin your thyroid, possibly gain weight, lose your hair and potentially damage something else that's important.

Lithium was prescribed to me for bipolar, is that something you live with? A biological condition where it's not as simple as 'clearing your mind' or, another favourite of mine 'snapping out of it'. It wasn't the medication for me, but without what I'm on now I would be suffering and not functional. So I think it's untrue to say all drugs are bad. Some drugs, for some people can be life changing in a positive way.

 

[alizee]

Lithium was prescribed to me for bipolar, is that something you live with? A biological condition where it's not as simple as 'clearing your mind' or, another favourite of mine 'snapping out of it'. It wasn't the medication for me, but without what I'm on now I would be suffering and not functional. So I think it's untrue to say all drugs are bad. Some drugs, for some people can be life changing in a positive way.

I know about Lithium being prescribed to people with your diagnosis or even schizophrenics.

I'm not on it but I know a lot about it and similar to all the DSM-5 illnesses. I've encountered people who are labeled, with your illness and I think it's hogwash what's being done to you compared to myself who has a different "mental" illness. Illness is just a word that can denote how someone is different than the majority and what people perceive as healthy at whatever state they're at in life.

I'm on "estriol & spironolactone" for the "physical effects" the drugs create, that are measurable & visible by body changes and for helping the illness gender dysphoria. Basically it's just replicating what a female goes through and similar is done for ftm with testosterone injections.

The drugs for bi-polar & schizophrenia are not measurable with how they alter the brain. The medication process is not even considered replicating anything compared to what I achieve with medication for gender dysphoria. The medication of bi-polar or schizophrenics is either adding some chemical formula that isn't ever there naturally and to trigger a response to do something to a region of the brain; where psychiatrists thinks the problem is associated with whatever brain functionality. Usually it's about dopamine or serotonin. In any case the experts have an elementary understanding of the brain in current academia. People don't even know if conscious is real or where it would be located. Previous drugs have killed neurons, damaged tissue and even shrunken the brain. I guess the frontal cortex even would get narrower.

Lithium is not necessarily as damaging as most anti-psychotics and it's labeled as a mood stabilizer. Yet, it definitely can damage the thyroid and longterm use is almost definitely the result with the side effects already listed in the other post.

I think what you believe is a "real illness" is hogwash and just development issues in the past that made your "state of reality" different than others who will never be labeled with bi-polar or schizophrenia. I've lived with a schizophrenic and it's all about the person eating a shitty diet with having a poor mental state that triggers the mania episodes. The person likely has a fucked up brain that's unfixable now because of the medication. Current research that's considered very new is studying how anti-psychotics will make the brain even more sensitive and where the brain builds a dependency on the medication. Basically making the person more likely to have episodes than before if they go off the medication and requiring the dosage be increased because the brain isn't actually fixing the problem with the normal state adjusting to the previous dosage of the drug.

 

[Endless]

I know about Lithium being prescribed to people with your diagnosis or even schizophrenics.

I'm not on it but I know a lot about it and similar to all the DSM-5 illnesses. I've encountered people who are labeled, with your illness and I think it's hogwash what's being done to you compared to myself who has a different "mental" illness. Illness is just a word that can denote how someone is different than the majority and what people perceive as healthy at whatever state they're at in life.

I'm on "estriol & spironolactone" for the "physical effects" the drugs create, that are measurable & visible by body changes and for helping the illness gender dysphoria. Basically it's just replicating what a female goes through and similar is done for ftm with testosterone injections.

The drugs for bi-polar & schizophrenia are not measurable with how they alter the brain. The medication process is not even considered replicating anything compared to what I achieve with medication for gender dysphoria. The medication of bi-polar or schizophrenics is either adding some chemical formula that isn't ever there naturally and to trigger a response to do something to a region of the brain; where psychiatrists thinks the problem is associated with whatever brain functionality. Usually it's about dopamine or serotonin. In any case the experts have an elementary understanding of the brain in current academia. People don't even know if conscious is real or where it would be located. Previous drugs have killed neurons, damaged tissue and even shrunken the brain. I guess the frontal cortex even would get narrower.

Lithium is not necessarily as damaging as most anti-psychotics and it's labeled as a mood stabilizer. Yet, it definitely can damage the thyroid and longterm use is almost definitely the result with the side effects already listed in the other post.

I think what you believe is a "real illness" is hogwash and just development issues in the past that made your "state of reality" different than others who will never be labeled with bi-polar or schizophrenia. I've lived with a schizophrenic and it's all about the person eating a shitty diet with having a poor mental state that triggers the mania episodes. The person likely has a fucked up brain that's unfixable now because of the medication. Current research that's considered very new is studying how anti-psychotics will make the brain even more sensitive and where the brain builds a dependency on the medication. Basically making the person more likely to have episodes than before if they go off the medication and requiring the dosage be increased because the brain isn't actually fixing the problem with the normal state adjusting to the previous dosage of the drug.

In the scheme of things not a lot is known about how bipolar and the medications used to treat it work. Whether medications are used to treat physical or mental issues they all have side effects and it's about weighing up the pros and cons, obviously. Personally, the nature/nurture debate as to the cause of my illness isn't what's important. What's important is having access to, and insight to accept the treatment which alleviates so much suffering for me.

 

[alizee]

In the scheme of things not a lot is known about how bipolar and the medications used to treat it work. Whether medications are used to treat physical or mental issues they all have side effects and it's about weighing up the pros and cons, obviously. Personally, the nature/nurture debate as to the cause of my illness isn't what's important. What's important is having access to, and insight to accept the treatment which alleviates so much suffering for me.

This thread I doubt was created for people that don't care about whatever because they feel alleviation from suffering by the drugs. Nobody is here to control what the outcome is over someone taking drugs or not and the thread is just to explain what's known. I mean a lot of people here consider taking a bullet to the head to alleviate suffering. The matter in the end is arguable but personal to the individual and so I don't really care whatever people do. I just think it's a human responsibility to write how the drugs are a load of hogwash for a social conditioned mentality and it doesn't have to be that way for everyone if they desire. I don't care in any case what outcome a person takes.

 

[Walilamdzi]

I took it for a bit and didn't really notice anything. I never wanted to be on lithium, I was forced to take it by medical professionals. It really didn't do anything that I could perceive and I think that the whole psychiatric profession is a sham. On top of that, it was a big inconvenience for me to travel to the hospital and have blood tests every few weeks... who wants to have the inconvenience of that? So I came off medication without the doctor's approval, and didn't have any mood issues for an entire year. If it was like they said and I needed to be medicated in order to be stable, I'd have thought the issues would have arisen much sooner after stopping medication.

I just think that if someone remains okay "on medication" then medical professionals conclude that it's the medication, rather than perhaps other interventions or other help that someone may receive after some kind of episode but if no discernible improvements are made, they don't ever acknowledge that it isn't having an effect. They exaggerate their ability to control the situation/the interventions they can make because they want to have an answer for something that isn't well understood.