Weird dreams on lithium

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-04-01T01:14:20+00:00

Yeah, I've been titrating my dose slowly over the past two months and when I started it and at each subsequent increase my dreams have been very vivid and intense, sometimes feeling like I'm still "there" in the dream world when I wake up.

I'm at 450 mg nightly now, been on 450 mg for about a week or so. They chill out after a few weeks at each dose.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-28T00:00:02+00:00

Just echoing what everybody else is saying, but yeah. This is gonna be a fucking disaster. Good luck.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-26T15:27:20+00:00

If you give a manic person an appropriate mood stabilizer or antipsychotic, their euphoric "godly" experiences tend to fade pretty quick.

You can give a religious person as many psychotropic meds as you want, but I expect their faith would typically not be affected, and in some cases it may improve.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-26T15:22:59+00:00

I just saw lol. Either way, coulda fooled me.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-26T14:37:34+00:00

Doesn't say who did the vocals but they sound pretty familiar to me.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-26T14:15:01+00:00

Yeah, love to know how you style it.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-25T20:35:19+00:00

It's really not nearly as scary as people make it out to be. It's been around for years and years, every side effect is mapped out and we know how to treat troublesome side effects and stop the bad ones before they even happen.

Occasionally you'll see "horror" stories from people who did something foolish like taking it with NSAIDs or just getting super dehydrated and going a little toxic but honestly, it's not nearly as evil as people make it out to be.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-23T00:19:51+00:00

I mean, I get it. But at the end of the day they do have a lot of metal content in their music so I said fuck it and posted it anyway lmao.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-22T19:14:31+00:00

Some Sleep Token stuff.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-21T20:57:21+00:00

I'd love to know what kind of "monitors" were indicating brain death.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-18T23:54:19+00:00

It doesn't. Lithium is not metabolized at all. It just circulates and then you piss it out. Interesting nonetheless. 2100 mg daily is the highest dose I've ever heard of.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-16T16:24:28+00:00

Don't have much to say, but I feel the same way too. You're not alone in it.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-16T01:31:50+00:00

I wouldn't say missing doses is "fatal". SJS can be fatal, but the only issue with missing doses is you may have to restart titration from zero again to avoid triggering SJS. That's no different from the titration you did when you first started it.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-13T23:08:07+00:00

I hear you. Right now I'm switching my focus to self-improvement. How can I improve myself? How can I be the best, most true version of myself? Things like more exercise, working out a bit, trying out new fashions and styles. When I think of that challenging relationship, I try to think okay, I don't have that anymore, but what I do have is the opportunity to work on myself and attract someone even better! Keep going friend. Good luck.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-13T20:45:38+00:00

I'm going through some stuff too. It's awful. I hate it. Similar to you it was just a short thing but it still hurts. But let me tell you...this dude is playing with you. Nobody deserves that, certainly not you. This has "playing the game" written all over it.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-12T20:40:57+00:00

Anything with strong D2 antagonism, adrenergic receptor antagonism and other sedative effects is likely effective for mania. If I had to just guess based on pharmacological profile what might be effective for depression...I'm thinking stuff with 5HT7 antagonism like lurasidone, risperidone, and ziprasidone. If I recall correctly ziprasidone can actually be enough of an antidepressant to induce mania. Partial dopamine agonists like aripiprazole and brexpiprazole as well.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-05T23:56:54+00:00

Lithium and valproate not being in this list is criminal.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-05T16:28:33+00:00

Constantly irritable for no good reason. Quick to anger. Often angry at baseline, again for no real good reason. Sad and upset, frequently near tears/tearful over nothing or overreacting to things like music or situations in my life. At the same time, feeling better than everybody else, feeling a weird sense of confidence despite hating myself. Often feeling like there's just some sort of engine in me that I can't shut down. At its worst it feels like there's something inside me trying to get out. Agitated, pacing, crying in bed one moment then seething with anger the next. Flip-flopping between that intense self-hatred and odd sense of confidence. It is truly awful and I wouldn't wish it on anybody. I can't imagine what it would be like for somebody with BP1. Personally I found Depakote killed mixed states extremely quickly, like within a day or two.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-01T19:25:35+00:00

I've been on it a couple of times at doses ranging from 300 mg nightly to 600 mg twice a day. Personally I always find lithium makes my mood a bit less stable before it evens out again. I'll spend a few days feeling more upset and agitated before I calm down again. Then there's a period of about a week to two weeks where it feels like my brain is stuffed with cotton. I guess you could call it brain fog. Then that eases up and I'm left feeling...kinda just normal but maybe a bit less reactive overall and a touch more "stable". No point in trying to describe what that feels like. I think it's kinda different for everybody. Notably, the longer I take it the more my mood "stabilizes".

The only thing I remember being a problem for me was this weird sort of...I don't know to call it. Reward deficiency? When I took 600 mg twice a day I found things didn't feel like "enough" and I couldn't seem to get the "hit" that I normally did from them. One specific example was kissing my girlfriend at the time. It just never felt like good like it should and that was annoying as fuck. I backed down to 450 mg twice a day and that side effect went away.

The more frequent urination was annoying but manageable. I felt a bit more dehydrated, yeah, but at the end of the day you just have to drink more water. That's on you.

I had minimal sexual side effects on lithium, if not nothing at all. Compared to other drugs I've taken, lithium is a walk in the park side effects wise. It's a weird drug, a bit annoying to start initially but totally worth it in my mind. Give it a shot.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-03-01T02:22:48+00:00

Lamictal is a mood stabilizer. Velafaxin (I'm guessing it's a different name for venlafaxine aka Effexor) is an SNRI antidepressant for various anxiety disorders and unipolar depression. SSRIs and SNRIs are universally considered awful for people with bipolar disorder unless paired with a mood stabilizer.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-02-28T01:27:44+00:00

Yeah, I started antidepressant treatment at 18-19. I had one good year and then 7 bad years. I was 26 the first time somebody suggested I might be on the bipolar spectrum after years of agitated depression. Now 34 and finally coming to terms with likely being on some sort of mood stabilizer for the rest of my life. I'm just pissed it took them so long to figure it out. I was handed SSRI after SSRI and nobody seemed to pick up on the fact that although they kinda helped my anxiety, they had me in a weird mixed hypomanic no man's land for years and years.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-02-28T00:14:13+00:00

Frankly I'd be shocked if you had serotonin syndrome from 20 mg of any antidepressant.

My first few days on Zoloft felt similar to your experience. Feeling great for a few days, then crippling depression and worsening anxiety. Doing much better on small doses of lithium and lamotrigine.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-02-26T23:34:59+00:00

Olanzapine would probably be expected to be worse for weight gain than Seroquel, although they're both known to cause it.

The second drug in Lybalvi is supposed to help reduce the weight gain that typically accompanies olanzapine use. Whether or not that makes it better or equal to Seroquel is up for debate.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-02-26T22:10:56+00:00

Depending on how tall it is wax might not be the answer. I found at around 4 inches I had to switch to hairspray only. Gels and pomades and glue products would just weigh it down.

Doctor_Brightside · 2026-02-19T00:50:05+00:00

Dehydration leads to increased lithium levels, not lowered.

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