Thirsty on lithium

I started taking 300 mg of lithium last Friday night, then on Sunday increased to 600 mg. So far the most troubling side effect is thirst. I am so damn thirsty all the time. I have always had trouble drinking enough water, but now if I don't, I feel like I'm dying. This morning at work I noticed my heart was beating fast, and I could feel it pounding. My pulse was 105 and I felt short of breath. I drank some water, but several hours later I ended up going to the ER worried that I was experiencing a bad side effect. My heart was fine. I was most likely just dehydrated. I have been drinking water tonight but I feel like if I go more than a few minutes without drinking water I feel just awful. Has anyone else experienced this on lithium?

Never had lithium but have been extra thirsty for 6 months or more and then sweat like a pig at night while I sleep. When I get up in the morning, I have to leave the blankets on the bed turned down so the sheets dry out. Pillows wet too. My head really sweats. Gross! Good thing I'm sleeping alone at this time. Drinking all the water each day feels right.

Lots of people here are currently on Lithium or have taken Lithium. I bet within 24 hours you will get half a dozen replies from people who will share with you their experience of lithium. Now that I've stuck my neck out and said what a helpful bunch we are, I hope the others deliver the 6 replies I forecast. If not, I could always apply for a job as a weatherman. Their forecasts are always wrong.

Another totally useless reply from skilsaw. Chatty sort, aren't I.

ah, lithium. does so much good, yet can be sooo bad. it's a salt, isn't it? i have a problem drinking enough H2O, too. i have an UTI right now, probably due to a drug side effect complicated by being dehydrated. dehydration can really be uncomfortable and harmful. i think that's one of the reasons lithium went toxic in my body and i had to stop taking it. drink up!

I'm afraid it's a normal effect of lithium.

However. Do not drink water. This sounds odd but water dehydrates you. You can make your own sports hydrating drinks using:

- 1 l (two pints) of water
- some fruit syrup you can buy at a supermarket, NOT sugar free! the sugar is important
- pinch of kitchen salt

Put in bottle, shake, enjoy. (Or you can buy Isostar and assorted stuff and pay 10x more, of course... ) Alternative solution is bouillon. I'm a seasoned lithium user and been through that.

As your body gets used to lithium that terrible craving will pass but you are going to drink more as long as you take it. But I promise it will feel nowhere as terrible as it does now.

Ive been on lithium n I was always thirsty with a dry mouth. Im gettin off lithium now at the hospital. I gained 30lbs on it! N I couldnt concentrate or think clearly. I was up to 900mg until the lithium put me into what they callin a bipolar depression episods n been sufferin for a couple months. Finally got to the point I had to admit into hospital cuz I had negative thoughts sayin I should just take all my meds n b done with it. So I havent had a good experience on lithium but hopefully you will. So yes lithium makes you thirsty n you can gain weight so keep an eye on that. It started with just a couple pounds here n there n then it just kept increasin over time. I also had annoyin muscle twitches. N I took mine at night cuz made me tired. Hope this helps little.

Thanks everyone. I still felt like death this morning but I drank 60 oz of water the first two hours of work and started to feel better. Blood work showed my lithium levels are fine but I was very dehydrated. I drank so much water today, and if I stop for even 15 minutes I feel horrible. It's ridiculous, and I hope it gets better because I really want this to work. And I really need to be careful about the electrolytes. I think I will try the recipe for the sports drink, thank you!

Oliveira wrote:However. Do not drink water. This sounds odd but water dehydrates you.

Do you know what the reasoning behind this is? It doesn't make sense to me at all, and I'm not too sure I believe it without any sources.

The amount of water in your body is related to the amount of salt (not lithium salt) in your body. So if you pee more, you pee out salt. When you pee out salt, your body excretes water. If you weren't on lithium this wouldn't be a big problem, probably, but because you are, and amount of lithium is not changing, you end up with elevated levels.

This is how I understood what my pdoc told me two years ago, so I might be completely confused here, but his advice worked very well and that's all that mattered to me.

Oliveira wrote:The amount of water in your body is related to the amount of salt (not lithium salt) in your body. So if you pee more, you pee out salt. When you pee out salt, your body excretes water. If you weren't on lithium this wouldn't be a big problem, probably, but because you are, and amount of lithium is not changing, you end up with elevated levels.

This is how I understood what my pdoc told me two years ago, so I might be completely confused here, but his advice worked very well and that's all that mattered to me.

Wouldn't that mean you do need to drink more water to dilute the salt?

The salt gets out of your body with sweat and urine -- the amount of salt regulates the amount of water in your body. So you need that extra pinch of salt to actually keep the water in.

(I'm starting to feel very unsure about this so I will just stick with "it worked".)

When I quit lithium on Dec 31 last year, I was 102 kg. Then I went to see my family, ate my mom's cooking, didn't do any physical exercise, hardly walked as I had a spine injury (still recovering) and after 10 days came back home, stepped on a scale and I was 95 kg. I retained 7 liters of water thanks to lithium as I find it VERY hard to believe that I magically lost actual weight while sitting on my bum and stuffing myself with Polish Christmas food.