Please help me help my wife!
UK BASED, NHS!
My wife has just started Lithium (400mg), 4 days ago.
Her psychiatrist initially tried her on Aripiprazole (Abilify) but immediately took her off after a month due to the side effects being too much and the cons outweighing the pros.
He opted to start her on Lithium (last resort, as always), she was a little hesitant due to history with severe eating disorders, once he assured her that they will monitor in other ways rather than her needing to be weighed, she agreed.
However, we are now on day 4 and she is really struggling with the motivation to get past the initial side effects, her main one being lack of concentration. Another thing she is struggling with is that she can only take paracetamol for her period cramps (it's currently 36⁰c in UK so it's too hot for heat therapy). She is also currently in a depressive episode so reasoning with her is quite difficult at the moment.
Does anyone have any advice at all on how I can give her the encouragement to see the titration period through? This medication could really improve her quality of life and when she is in a good mindset, she says this herself, but she is really disheartened at the moment and is worried that the same thing is going to happen as with the Aripiprazole where it'll all be for nothing and I'm really struggling to help her stick with it. (Her psychiatrist has not been very helpful, just said I need to try my best to get her to keep taking it until the side effects wear off).