Lithium and alcohol?

Question

Hi! Has anybody had any reaction/bad experience taking Lithium medication and drinking alcohol?

The reason I ask is, i guess like with all mental medications, it's best not to drink, but it never actually says not to, the leaflets just say 'alcohol can increase drowsiness' yadda yadda. I been on Lithium since February 08 and have pretty much avoided booze this whole time, only having one beer here or a beer there. I dont miss alcohol much but it would be nice to have a night out with a few drinkies...

Well I tried that with a friend at his place... I drank three ONLY THREE lousy little premix Vodka cruiser drinks. I didnt get tipsy or drunk but late in the night I started with a headache which got worse and by morning when I dragged myself outta bed and got in the car (felt nauseas) and got home, I went straight to bed... and basically died for two days. I was so violently ill... constant vomitting, shakes, and I felt like my skull was cracked wide open and the pain was so bad I thought I was gonna start bleeding from my ears and eyes.

Has any one had this horrible affect from alcohol? I dont know whether to try again at an up coming social event. I like beer and think maybe it wont 'hurt' as much. I can never go back to vodka again.

Would just like to know your experiences. Sensible answers please because I dont want to hear stupid teenagers saying I 'cant handle my booze'. This is not the case so stay out of the mental health section!!

Answer 1

New to Lithium one month in, shared some rum and cokes like a regualr get together, yelled a few swears at my sweetie at 8 pm got a ride to a  jam session with hubby's buddies and remember nothing from around 10pm -2am. I remember receiving nasty phone calls to come home asap and if I didn't get home I would be divorced. I  called a cab 15 times according to my cell log, no memory from 2ish-5 am when got home, slept till noon then was so dizzy and felt like I had the worst hang over ever in my entire life or flu even. Just plain sick. I was blamed for  being a total drunk, provocative and all the rest and was missing one of my sweaters. The next day I had a feeling as if someone had put something in my drink. My husband was getting texts from his friends saying I was quite the party girl. Not good. Something wasn't right to be a complete idiot over a few drinks and black out but still functional to those around me. Very wrong and kinda scary if I was with the wrong crowd. This week I went around and told everyone I was sorry for my behavior but not knowing what I did is the worst part.  How do you say sorry and mean it if you have no clue what was going on? How could I black out without passing out from a few drinks and appear to be normal just drunk to everyone else?  I have been in trouble for a good week on the home front.  So I should be if it was intentional or not I guess. I have decided to drop lithium, live with being manic and ditch the drinks too.  I am glad you guys wrote in on this one because I have been going nuts trying to figure out what happened to me and why I acted the way I did over rum and cokes?  I could have been raped, killed who knows what.

from, not such a bad girl, I was just stupid to mix the meds with alcohol

Answer 2

 i guess no one should drink.

i'm 46 and been on 1200mg of lithium  day for 5 years - before that just antidepressants.  i drink 3-4 glasses of wine or beer a day.  i seem to be fine, no negative affects, but then i am searching the net seeing what other people say about lithium and booze.

Answer 3

To the person who says alcohol doesn't increase dopamine, read Alcohol, Drugs, and the Brain by the Butler Center for Research, July 2001.

Answer 4

Alcohol doesn't increase dopamine. It's a downer. Get your drugs right.

Answer 5

I had the same experience. I started on Lithium in December of '08. In may I went out and had THREE weak rum and cokes. I was so drunk I couldn't see much or talk clearly at all. I fell asleep and woke up in the bathroom violently vomiting. I stayed that way for 8 hours before I could leave the room. I was cold and horribly shakey and unconciouss most of the time. I don't remember a lot of it. I just remember I've never been that ill.

AA