More people should be on lithium
Probably the drug that gave me the biggest, most obvious benefit, but the side effects for me (and apparently everyone else) were unworkable. But if I ever found myself in a big, deep depression again, I'd go back on it for a bit. It's kind of like the nuclear option for me. It's also just annoying to take because you have to do regular thyroid testing, and if you take it long-term, you will have to take hormones for your thyroid, which is another set of dominos. I believe it's also permanent liver or kidney damage if you take it for more than a few years. All this is at therapeutic levels, not lithia water levels, which I don't recall hearing anything bad about.
The no-way-jose side effect for me was memory loss. After a month or so of taking it, I noticed I wasn't able to recall things from my memory the way I used to. I'm usually a walking encyclopedia when it comes to movies and actors and books and authors and all the little details about those things, but one day I just noticed that I couldn't remember something that
I knew I really liked or was really important to me. It was something that couldn't be missing. This extended to things like words and work plans. Even if it was something that happened that very day, I might not remember it. This effect was arbitrary--I remembered some things but not others, and sometimes I seemed to be able to remember things that I couldn't recall previously. It's hard to keep track of because lithium also has a general "dumbing down" effect, so I didn't even notice I was forgetting things until I stumbled upon something that I felt I knew I couldn't forget.
I'm a writer and remembering precise words and precise details are kind of important to my job. I went to my psychiatrist with my issue and her response was to keep taking lithium and talk to HR at work to get a work accommodation. This is modern psychology and psychiatry. They care more about putting pills in your throat than your well being. In this case, it's not motivated by money (lithium is dirt cheap) but by the culture of the profession. Rather than look for other things that could help, it was suggested that I live with conditions that made it impossible to do my job, but instead talk HR into giving me some sort of break, which I personally found insulting. Like other psychiatrists I worked with, she was also dismissive about the dumbing down effect that many of these drugs have, too.
You have me talking about this shit too much. I'm sorry for ruining your thread. I'll leave. Mupepe, I'm a Puppy!, and especially atra "Roosh II" mental remain on the list!
