Posted by J Kelly on March 24, 2016, at 18:24:21
In reply to Lithium water retention, posted by Tabitha on March 24, 2016, at 16:23:06
> I couldn't handle the water retention on 600mg lithium. My face was puffy and my entire body felt weirdly flabby and unbalanced. I'm sensitive about body issues so it was really distressing to me. It's another month before my pdoc follow-up, but I went ahead and reduced back to 300mg. The same night after reducing, I had several extra trips to the bathroom and woke up about two pounds lighter.
>Hi Tabitha,
saw this online:
"With Lithium it is a MUST to drink plenty of water during the day because it is salt based it can cause dehydration so you have to drink alot of water throughout the day to avoid that. Make sure you talk to your pdoc about how much is too much because there is a such thing. I haven't noticed any bloating or water weight since starting it over a year ago. I never was a huge water drinker but it made me crave water which was great because I had wanted to start drinking more water anyway."
> Also, I know you're supposed to drink more water on lithium, and that drinking more is supposed to actually help prevent water retention. But at 600mg, water tasted gross. I checked and taste changes including metallic water taste are side effects of lithium. It reminded me of being on chemo, which weirdly enough, made water and bland foods taste intolerably awful.
>
> I hope this isn't my brain tricking me into lowering my meds so it can become suicidal again.
>Please don't let this happen. I'm in the same boat in that Zyprexa keeps me out of the "dark place" but it causes extreme weight gain. Being overweight REALLY bothers me. But nothing is worth being suicidal over. Talk to your pdoc, as soon as possible, maybe some adjustments (nothing extreme) would be helpful. This is what I'm gonna do.
Please keep us posted.
Jade
poster:J Kelly
thread:1087518
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160306/msgs/1087521.html