Decided to come off medication(Lithium) after 10 years.

I wish to share with you over the next year my personal experience coming off Lithium.

I have been on 900MG Approx of Lithium for 10 years now and after a lot of reading and personal soul searching I have made my decision to come off lithium over the course of a year or more if needed.

A little history about myself. I was diagnosed at the age of 19 when I was in my prime doing minor drugs and drinking unreasonable amounts of alcohol eating fast food and anything with a fancy lable. Not watching my sleep. Doing things that were completely against my conscience. Isolating myself weeks on end to monger data.

So finally it all came to be too much for me I had 3-5 days of paranoia then I had a breakdown so my parents ended up brining me to emergency where the staff so kindly and thoughtfully put me in a chamber and drugged me up with who knows what it was so powerful I couldn't remember more than the first minute of being in the chamber or even being brought up into the psych ward where they had already induced my body with antipsychotics.

Next thing I know I have a physiatrist standing over top of me the next morning after opening my eyes fighting through a haze to see the voice as he introduce his name and little more ever came from another physiatrist but pills and silence.

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I have started my course of leaving medication behind as I have lost faith in it due to the fact I feel it was absurd for any physiatrist to put me on drugs before hearing my side of the story.

The fact that lithium ruins the Kidney eventually

I like to have a clear train of thought even though 900mg or .5 level allows for fairly evened thoughts but still slower than 750mg from my experience here in.

Concluding:

With a little promise and mood/sleep chart I will bring everyone here through my year journey.

I am not trying to say that I was misdiagnosed only that I will never truly know until I am free of the bind that has been place on me.

I wish you all well that are on medication. This is my personal decision I have made for myself and hope you all stick to your own personal decisions what ever they may be.

Post Edited (Jasonrh) : 3/21/2013 11:06:43 PM (GMT-6)

Thank you for your kind words of wisdom. I will be talking to my physiatrist about this. I have bi-monthly meetings with him, as well I see another health worker she is a RN, she is finding a long term physiatrist for me, she seems really kind and in no rush to dismiss me from seeing her until she finds me a long term doctor. She gave me a book on Bipolar that I read and the mood/sleep chart. Right now the pharmacist is the one who lowered my dose upon my request providing me with 150mg lithium capsules in order to make the change necessary.

I always have had a emergency plan just as you said if 2 days go by take X. Though I have been lucky I have rarely ever had to use this plan.

I don't drink or do drugs anymore for my presonal well being or plan to ever go back again. I tend to go for walks to relax now vs. finding a bottle of alcohol. For drugs I just say no thank you.

Jason