What are the symptoms of a person who is withdrawing from Lithium and alcohol at the same time?

Question by BEKYANDY: What are the symptoms of a person who is withdrawing from Lithium and alcohol at the same time?
My sister is bipolar she is in her 50’s and she has been taking Lithium for years and smoking Pot and she was an alcoholic for 23 years then quit and has been back to drinking very heavy again for the last she says 2 years she went into recovery 28 days ago and they have stated at the recovery center that she is disrupting the meetings and talking crazy and dilusional. she does not make any sense and is combative and aggressive. Her 28 days are over today 09/01/06 but she has done absolutely nothing that was required of her in Rehab and has done nothing but hinder everyone elses progress.She argues everything and is very loud and when she talks she is making absolutely no sense at all When she was taking the Lithium she was not going to the doctor for regular blood tests she would just take it and get so high. we could not even understand her when she talked she would come over and spend the whole time on the toilet with Diarrhea and right before she went into rehab she was throwing up

Best answer:

Answer by California Girl
My boyfriend is bipolar, i know all about this. She could have Lithium Toxicity, lithium levels are a precarious thing, get her in for a blood test. She could be suffering from Alcohol Withdrawl, my father was a raging alcoholic, and whren he went offthe alcohol, he hallucinated. Her addiction is aggravated by her mental illness, the mental illness aggravated by the addiction. Your sister sounds like she is having an acute manic episode where she is in serious need of psychiatric intervention. My boyfriend went off his meds for 4 days, did drugs and was chasing people around a supermarket with a machete although he did not hurt anyone. He’s now in jail, when they go into manic episodes, bipolar people become unpredictabel, dangerous to themselves and others. Contact your sisters psychiatrist, or mental health, see if you can get her into a hospitial to be stabilized. I haVE been through this many times with my boyfriend, there is often little you can do other then get outside help.

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