Posted by clint878 on November 13, 2006, at 8:39:45
In reply to Doc wants to try Lithium but nervous!!!, posted by Rani on November 13, 2006, at 5:07:15
I'm going to give a bit of different advice here than most people. My experience with medication is that it is usually prescribed too easily, for problems that are too minor. It's important to remember that medications have side effects. When the problem isn't that bad, the side effects are often worse than the original symptoms.
I think the way to go about making this decision is to imagine yourself having a bad reaction to the lithium and dealing with nausea, dizziness, and vomiting for several weeks before you feel better. This may not happen to you, but there are likely to be some side effects. If the image of you feeling like you have a case of the flu while you adjust to the medication sounds better than the way things are now, then it's worth a try. If, however, you can still function and think such a reaction would be far worse than you are now, you probably aren't bad enough to require medication.
This method has always worked for me in the past. There have been times where I fooled myself into thinking the medication would work perfectly without side effects, and those are the times when I eventually decided to discontinue.
poster:clint878
thread:703040
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061110/msgs/703079.html