Jaime Lowe - Bipolar Disorder and Taking Lithium

This week on Wellbeing we talk with New York based author Jaime Lowe about her journey with bipolar and experiences with the lithium medication she took. This is the tenth instalment in our series on bipolar. Jaime is known for her 2017 bipolar memoir Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing My Mind. Her book gives an in-depth look into lithium, the gold standard medication used to treat bipolar disorder. In 1993 Jaime was diagnosed with bipolar at the age of 16 and thus was soon prescribed lithium which offered her stability in her condition. However, years later due to the negative side effects of the medication she had to go on alternative medication. In this interview, Jaime talks about lithium, her journey with bipolar and the struggles she had in having to change medications after years of stability.

Jaime also talks about her book Mental, how her bipolar diagnosis impacted her, how teenagers can help friends going through bipolar, what lithium's role is in bipolar treatment, lithium's under utilisation, what she liked about lithium, and her journey in having to go on alternative medication after coming off lithium.

"The other beautiful part of lithium is that its on the periodic table of elements and so . . . in America you can't patent it. So, it is one of the cheapest medications and often for that reason its not prescribed because you don't have pharmaceutical companies lobbying on its behalf." - Jaime Lowe on this episode of Wellbeing

Tune in next week when we talk with Ellen Forney about her bipolar journey.

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