Posted by NickD (24.240.212.148) on April 17, 2001 at 09:21:14:
In Reply to: relief posted by Helen on April 17, 2001 at 08:19:43:
slows the central nervous system down, really slowed my ex-wife when she was manic, I had no say in how much she took, but it did cause her some liver damage, my neuro tells me it works for some patients with CH, the typical effects are "unknown" love that term, can only guess when a CH is coming on, all hell is breaking loose that we are aware of and the lithium slows that reaction down possibility even stopping the attack or greatly attenuating it. Lithium is also the drug of choice for sex offenders, sure puts the brakes on that urge, wish I didn't learn all this crap, just too many visits to the mental ward over the years.
In my case and where I think all people are different, is that lithium is a natural mineral the body needs, must be something about the metabolism of each one owns body, it sure put the brakes on my mental acitivities where I couldn't function in my engineering trade and didn't do a damn thing for my CH's, probably the only gain I got from it was that I was too stupid or brain dead to realize I was having a CH, thank God it was reversible, least I think it was. No common treatment for CH's and while your neuro plays that guessing game, you can go through pure hell. I always ask the same stupid question, isn't there any tests to measure my mineral levels and make slow adjustments? Too many tests, way too expensive, not conclusive, are some of the answers. They sure pour down the lithium in mental patients claiming that even with all the negative side effects such as huge weight gain, liver damage, loss of natural urges that it's better to keep them brain dead so they won't hurt themselves or other people, when you walk in one, a bunch of zombies walking around, terrible thing to see, worse when it's a family member.