Hello-I am new here- I have health issues of my own but found the subject range so wide, I thought I would ask out of concern for a dear friend. He is male, 58, Caucasian,( I add this only because certain conditions can be more or less prevalent in various ethnicities)- He was dx'd bipolar at age 37 or so and was put on lithium which worked wonders for him- unfortunately, and according to him- some bipolars won't take meds due to euphoria feeling so good they don't think they need it. He has a Bachelor of Arts teaching degree in English literature and an undergraduate degree in something called "Reading Pedagogy Psycholinguistics" which I think is teaching another teacher how to teach- anyway, I say this because the guy is brilliant- he also composes classical piano pieces that just blow you away- the first time I heard him play, I wept- I have seen him sit and write each individual note with a pencil- he had to take a complete course to learn the art of writing the notes on the page along with all of the other musical symbols,etc. He is something else. He ended up losing everything and eventually became homeless temporarlly here and there. I caught up with him after having not spoken to him in ten years , he had been on disability since I first met him and was still on it. We talked on the phone for about two years and he told me about all that had happened with his health- he had had surgery on one eye to no avail, he had lost some of his hearing and had developed these electric feeling shimmies or shakiness more like electricity in his lower legs sometimes moving upward to his hips but it started in his feet. He's had it for about 6 years now.His neuro says polyneuropathy but doesn't give him anything that helps. Is it the lithium? Do any of you have this? I just want to get any suggestions to help him. He can't play keyboard(had to sell piano) Please- any info appreciated. I've had alot of his work copyrighted for him. This is driving him nuts. I f any of you have an electric shimmy feeling in your lower legs please respond. SORRY so long- life story-he's a good man

Lithium tore me up. I had an uncontrollable eye twitch. Ringing in my ears which made me feel like I was hearing through a sea shell. My legs tingled, I would get dizzy, pass out, severe night sweats and my hair started falling out.

For me Lithium did more harm then good.

I will admit I had no mood swings on lithium. I was a zombie all of the time.

In addition to my legs tingling I would get night cramps. Often cramps are due to a low potasium level however since I quit lithium I have not had tingling nor cramps.

Who do we have to kill around here to get spell check? :blob_fire

Smile

Thank you- Girlz- hope you don't mind if I call you that- I don't know how long you were on lithium; it sounds like you had a relatively toxic reaction to it.Did you take it for a short period of time and get those symptoms? When did your feelings in your legs begin? How long after beginning lithium therapy?I'm sorry- here I am banging you over the head with all these questions. I hope you are alright. I know from knowing and learning more about bipolar disorder from the two years I spent talking on the phone with my friend that the illness is one difficult little dragon to tangle with. I have seen my friend when he was in what he calls "the borderland"- very tense- explosive and delusional although able to look back and see where he was wrong. He has been through so much. I believe inside he is a very sad person- very ashamed perhaps that once he was so successful and now "looks" like a nobody; living in government housing, he's as thin as a ribbon. I know this because I was able to visit him last year for a few days- after he developed this neuropathy in his legs, he went to a neurologist who decided on a rather stupid gust of a whim to try Trileptal (an anti-convusant) to treat the neuropathy while at the same time making a mutaul "agreement" of sorts that my friend would decrease his lithium and just try thr Triletal for his bipolar disorder- because, after all- anti-convulsants work in the treatment of bipolar illness!!- yes, some do, to varying degrees but not that one- I couls hear it in his voice- slowly creeping in- arguiung, I couldn't get a word in and if I could, I couldn't finish a sentece. He is such a wonderful person- doctors treat him like he is invisible and yet if they heard him play the piano they would be so shocked that this seeming wreck of a man is so refined and elegant as to make one feel as if it is the ethereal nature of angels coming through his fingers onto those keys. I, on the other hand , have my own particular talents, my own particular set of circumstances which began with two auto accidents in 1982, when i was 16. It has been a long,hard 24 years and just when I thought things were getting better than ever, I was struck down again by some inner ear problem which has left me with horrible neck spasms and severe pain. My life used to be very different, now I have not one friend but God alone, perhaps that is okay for now- I don't particularly want anyone to see me like tis anyway. Thanks. Take care. Dish