lithiumtoxicity

I have lived all of my 64 years (that I can remember) being depressed. I didn't know what it was until my 20s, and read a book called REALITY THERAPY which described my symptoms very well, and offered me hope for the first time. I started therapy soon after, but living with depression ever since.
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I have been in regular therapy since that time, and have had a wide variety of therapists, and a wide variety of antidepressants in those years. I'm currently on Effexor XR 300mg per day, and have been for over 10 years. It seems to have worked better for me than others I had in the previous years.
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Still, the best that I ever feel is what I think 'normal' people feel when they say they're depressed. I call it "neutral", although when I'm questioned by a therapist or doctor, they classify it as 'depressed'. For me, that "neutral" state feels like a huge relief, and a time to freely exhale, and otherwise let my body loose, and to relax. But like I said, the doctors say that I am still depressed then, just not as much as I usually am.
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Twenty years ago, a new doctor told me that the reason I wasn't getting better was because I was misdiagnosed, and he diagnosed me with Bipolar type 2. I started on Depakote as a mood stabilizer, and stayed on antidepressants as well. Then came a diagnosis of ADHD, and I have been on Ritalin ever since. I spent decades on the combination and still fought depression every step of the way.
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Last year I was switched from Depakote to Lithium, at a high dose, and because doctors didn't check my blood levels each month, I ended up with severe Lithium toxicity, and near death. I was taken to a hospital with a Trauma Center a hundred miles away, and spent the next week there hooked to three IVs, and constant medical attention. I'm still recuperating at home.
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My current psychiatrist doesn't agree with the previous Bipolar 2 diagnosis, but thinks it may be something else. C-PTSD seems to fit in a myriad of ways with me. But now I am wondering if even some level of Autism fits with me. It's hard for me to tell what might be actual symptoms that I have, and what might just be coincidences.
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If my depression is not coming from 'depression', per sé, but is coming from C-PTSD or Autism, would that explain why the antidepressants and talk therapy over the years have never truly gotten rid of it? Or does it not make any difference, and I'm just whistling in some dark alley somewhere? I don't really have much hope any more that things can ever get any better. ♧
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#TreatmentresistantDepression
#Depression #ChronicDepression #Bipolar2Disorder #ADHD #Effexor #lithiumtoxicity #lithium #Misdiagnosed #BipolarDisorder #neurodiverse #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Depression #SocialAnxiety #AdultDiagnosis #AutismDiagnosis #BipolarDisorderDiagnosis #Autism #UndiagnosedAutism #TheNationalAutisticSociety #AutismAcceptance #Anxiety #PTSD #CPTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Selfdiagnoses

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#SideEffects #lithium #lithiumtoxicity #Medicine #SideEffects #Tremors #Depression #Bipolar2Disorder

#Anxiety *Click on the title to go to the article-- #lithium #lithiumtoxicity #toxicity #Bipolar2Disorder #Depression

#lithium #lithiumtoxicity #toxicity #Prescriptions #PrescriptionOverdose #SelfRehabilitation

I was in the hospital for LITHIUM TOXICITY for a week a few months ago. It had been building for many months, and my doctor wasn't checking my blood levels. I had one blood level drawn at the beginning and that was all.
As time went on, I was having all kinds of side effects, especially hand tremors that greatly worsened as time passed, but they did not recognize any of them as being connected to the Lithium. So they assumed that they were simply symptoms of other disorders, and put me on other prescriptions to treat those supposed symptoms. It turned out that I didn't need any of them, and despite costing us a fortune, they did more harm than good.
In the end, by the time I was taken away to a hospital trauma center a hundred miles away, I couldn't play my musical instruments, couldn't write or type, couldn't button my clothes or even dress myself, couldn't walk properly but only shuffled slowly, couldn't eat because all food tasted and smelled horrible, couldn't think or communicate coherently, and I didn't know who or where I was.
On top of that, I had developed pneumonia, and we didn't know it until I was in the hospital.
When they tested my Lithium level, it was over 1.9, and they said I was in severe danger of having a stroke.
I spent the next week in bed hooked to three IVs and oxygen. When I was released, I still had the hand tremors, the mental fogginess, the weakness, the mobility issues, and more, but I was off of the Lithium, and getting a little better each day.
I had been so toxic that they said that since I had been all those months building up the toxicity on a cellular level, that it was going to take months to flush it back out of my system and to hopefully get back to where I was before I started the Lithium.
That has proven to be true, so far. It is now four months later, and I am re-learning how to play my main instrument, one day at a time, and one song at a time. It is hard to keep my spirits up at times, remembering how I played before, and how effortlessly I did so. I am not the same player, nor the same person that I was before.
I am getting better at writing, although slow, and my handwriting and signature are different now, and not as stylish or neat. I am walking better, but I can't go far, and I have severe pain in my thighs.
I lost 103 pounds through all of that, but in the last month I have gained 40 pounds of it back.
I don't have the skills for drawing or painting anymore, or at least not yet. I assume the same will be with my sculpting and carving.
It has been an extremely hard road to travel, and painful, but I am grateful that I am still here, such as I am.
If you are on Lithium, be sure and get your blood levels checked every month. Demand it. Be well. ♧

After taking lithium for 6 years I finally worked it out on my own. Every year a do a challenge; hiking up 3 mountains in 3 states over 33 years to raise money for my favourite charity. At the end of the first day I am slurring my speech, stumbling, nauseous and have a headache from hell.

It finally dawns in me; my fifth challenge; I should have been taking in electrolytes instead of just water from the beginning. The salt loss makes the lithium concentrated and become toxic. Not very nice stuff in the first place.

Why has no Psychatrist told me this? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Kat x

#BipolarDisorder #lithiumforbipolardisorder #lithiumtoxicity

I had my lithium level checked today. I think it’s high again. I’m fatigued, having diarrhea my GI doc can’t explain, I have random leg cramps and weakness, and I have a metallic taste in my mouth I can’t get rid of.
#BipolarDisorder #lithium #lithiumtoxicity