Lithium tapering

I’m planning in the future. How do you taper slowly ? Shaving off the pill or liquid taper ? Thanks and good luck 🙂

Hi. I forgot to take my 600mg of lithium for two months before I realized I didn’t take it for 2 months. My psychiatrist was going to slowly taper it off after she finished tapering off my prolixin but I simply forgot to take it for two months before I realized I stopped cold turkey

As for the withdrawal symptoms of lithium, I was also tapering off 0.5mg of the prolixin as a cold turkey stopped the lithium 600mg. This was in October 2025. I just remembered I was very moody like irritable. I wasn’t sleeping well. I thought it was just the prolixin withdrawal symptoms. It was uncomfortable but it wasn’t like I couldn’t function and had to go to the ER. I went to work everyday and didn’t take one day off. The lithium taper was much easier than the last 0.5mg of the prolixin taper. I couldn’t even do 0.25mg after completely stopping the 0.5mg of prolixin for 3weeks. I think the last 0.5mg of prolixin taper was much more brutal than the cold turkey 600mg lithium stopping. I am back on the 0.5mg of prolixin because I couldn’t even go to work. After two months of cold turkey stopped of lithium, I realized I stopped and told my psychiatrist and she congratulated me. Lol.

This doesn’t mean anyone should do what I did. I just got lucky. I could have seriously went to the ER or attempt suicide from the withdrawal symptoms. Everyone has different withdrawal symptoms. I just remembered being uncomfortable, it affected my sleep and I was much more moody and irritable. Good luck. I think you guys will be fine though

I have been compounding the lithium so I can titrate at a manageable pace. I was only ever at 300mg for suicidal thoughts, but it made my head and neck muscles feel absolutely awful. Slow release helped some. Also extreme sleepiness and the urge to just sit. Almost frozen.

You could try a hyperbolic taper. It’s micro amounts.