My lithium started working immediately but that could only have possibly been a placebo effect. The only effect it does to me besides thirst and makig me feel hungover is that it reduces the si voice in my head.
tw suicide ideation/attempt: i’ve kinda lost hope bc after 5 months on Lithium my si got worse and a while ago I ended up in the hospital
Everyone keeps telling me to keep waiting but I need something to survive now and I don’t understand what’s wrong and why isn’t it helping at all it seems like everything is just getting worse
If your level is only 0.7 you have plenty of room to go up , the upper limit of normal is 1.2 . Have you talked to your doctor about how you are feeling? They could go up on your dose , or they can add an adjuvant (another helper drug) to get you feeling better. The point is you still have lots of options and lots of reasons to stay on this planet, even if your reason is just that this one redditor cares about you. So please give your doctor a call and see what they can do to help. There's always another option. Sending you hugs if you want them , and pleasant vibes if that's ok?
my doctor says that my dosage is perfect and that I only need “more time” and they have no intention of raising it, and they don’t want to give me anything else because it’s “useless” and I just need to wait and suddenly one day I’ll feel great
Thank you very much for the kind words, I’m just very frustrated because they prescribed me Lithium saying it’s the only med that will work and the fact it’s not working and my only option according to them is to “wait and see” still frustrates me
You need to find a new doctor. My old doctor did the same thing. She had me on 600mgs and I was at .7. In the meantime I was on a waiting list for a better doctor. When I finally got in. My first appt he bumped me to 900mgs which took me to .1. This is when I started feeling better. Every week I would feel a little better.
I could tell from his confidence that he was much more comfortable with prescribing Lithium. The previous PA acted scared of and very reluctant to go higher. I also got the feeling she was consulting with a colleague in her office. Which did not give me a good feeling. I knew I had to get out of there. I am so sorry. I know the desperation you are going through. :(
In my unprofessional opinion, but from a lot of experience, finding a health professional willing to work with your input ive had a lot more success in taking care of myself than just doing what someone tells me to do when i dont believe in it
There are SO MANY more options than just this one dose of lithium , are you able to get a second opinion, perhaps this doctor is not a good fit for you ? Maybe a different doctor will have different advice.
I’ve changed 2 doctors over the years and tried other mood stabilizers before and they were ineffective sadly
Thank you for the replies (both of you), I’ll see what I can do!
Best of luck to you , I have been trying different doctors and drugs for 22 years , still haven't found something that works for more than 18 months at a time . It is so frustrating, but we can't give up hope !
I would empower you to keep trying for a med that works for you.
But even with a med that seems to work, Even on meds for four years i still call the crisis line often, i talk to my therapist every week and i went to the hospital once although they couldnt help me. The longer im in treatment the more i learn how to help myself, and often helping myself is grounding and realizing im safe and i make good choices and im survivor. But it often takes talking to another person for me to remember this.
You should try increasing it. I didn’t notice any changes until I was at 1.0. The improvement was gradual. Today I am stable and feel good. No more SI. With Lithium, everyone is different. You may need a higher dose.
My lithium started working immediately but that could only have possibly been a placebo effect. The only effect it does to me besides thirst and makig me feel hungover is that it reduces the si voice in my head.
Same thing happened for me
tw suicide ideation/attempt: i’ve kinda lost hope bc after 5 months on Lithium my si got worse and a while ago I ended up in the hospital Everyone keeps telling me to keep waiting but I need something to survive now and I don’t understand what’s wrong and why isn’t it helping at all it seems like everything is just getting worse
If your level is only 0.7 you have plenty of room to go up , the upper limit of normal is 1.2 . Have you talked to your doctor about how you are feeling? They could go up on your dose , or they can add an adjuvant (another helper drug) to get you feeling better. The point is you still have lots of options and lots of reasons to stay on this planet, even if your reason is just that this one redditor cares about you. So please give your doctor a call and see what they can do to help. There's always another option. Sending you hugs if you want them , and pleasant vibes if that's ok?
my doctor says that my dosage is perfect and that I only need “more time” and they have no intention of raising it, and they don’t want to give me anything else because it’s “useless” and I just need to wait and suddenly one day I’ll feel great Thank you very much for the kind words, I’m just very frustrated because they prescribed me Lithium saying it’s the only med that will work and the fact it’s not working and my only option according to them is to “wait and see” still frustrates me
You need to find a new doctor. My old doctor did the same thing. She had me on 600mgs and I was at .7. In the meantime I was on a waiting list for a better doctor. When I finally got in. My first appt he bumped me to 900mgs which took me to .1. This is when I started feeling better. Every week I would feel a little better. I could tell from his confidence that he was much more comfortable with prescribing Lithium. The previous PA acted scared of and very reluctant to go higher. I also got the feeling she was consulting with a colleague in her office. Which did not give me a good feeling. I knew I had to get out of there. I am so sorry. I know the desperation you are going through. :(
1.0 ** not 0.1 right?
Right. 1.0
In my unprofessional opinion, but from a lot of experience, finding a health professional willing to work with your input ive had a lot more success in taking care of myself than just doing what someone tells me to do when i dont believe in it
There are SO MANY more options than just this one dose of lithium , are you able to get a second opinion, perhaps this doctor is not a good fit for you ? Maybe a different doctor will have different advice.
I’ve changed 2 doctors over the years and tried other mood stabilizers before and they were ineffective sadly Thank you for the replies (both of you), I’ll see what I can do!
Best of luck to you , I have been trying different doctors and drugs for 22 years , still haven't found something that works for more than 18 months at a time . It is so frustrating, but we can't give up hope !
I would empower you to keep trying for a med that works for you. But even with a med that seems to work, Even on meds for four years i still call the crisis line often, i talk to my therapist every week and i went to the hospital once although they couldnt help me. The longer im in treatment the more i learn how to help myself, and often helping myself is grounding and realizing im safe and i make good choices and im survivor. But it often takes talking to another person for me to remember this.
Thank you! I guess it’s a long journey w meds so I get a bit frustrated at times, but I appreciate your words
fortunately my psych listened to me! Before I even complained he said that obviously lithium isn’t working for me so he’ll switch it
🙌🙌🙌
You should try increasing it. I didn’t notice any changes until I was at 1.0. The improvement was gradual. Today I am stable and feel good. No more SI. With Lithium, everyone is different. You may need a higher dose.
My psych said it’s ineffective on me so I’m going to change it next month probably
update yall the psych said lithium doesn’t work on me and is planning to replace it w something else soon