Does Taking Lithium Make Me A Battery?

It seems I am the troublesome patient who makes my doctor earn her fees.  I have treatment resistant depression/bipolar disorder and it's living up to its name this year.  I've tried many, many medications.  After dissatisfaction with how I felt on my medications in April and May of 2012, I decided it was time for big changes.  I spent the next few months in a hell of tapering off Effexor, Seroquel and Zoloft.  This withdrawal caused me to go into a deep depression and in October I sought the help of a new doctor and new medications.  Prozac has helped with my irritability and some of my obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, but has done nothing for the depression.  The past two months have been two of the hardest of my life.  I have never been this depressed for this long.  

I saw my doctor again today and it's time to start getting creative and aggressive with meds, so we are going to try lithium.  Lithium has been around a long time and has been a go-to treatment for bipolar disorder, but because of lots of new meds that have come along it's been shoved to the side and less popular in recent years.  I'm dreading a new medication, new side effects and the unknown, but I'm also hoping BIG time that it helps.  

The side effects are nothing I having faced before - in fact, I dug myself a hole and gained 13 pounds on Zyprexa in two (yes TWO) months.  And since I have zero, or even negative motivation, it's not going to be easy to undo the weight gain.  But I'm realizing I have to pick one battle at a time and right now I am trying to combat the depression and deal with the rest later.  

Lithium can cause toxicity quickly so I have to have my blood drawn once a week for the next two weeks as I start it.  We are going up with it as quickly as we possibly can without hospitalizing me, although I'm so desperate to feel better that I'd gladly do whatever it is I need to do to feel better immediately.  Unfortunately, psych meds take a bit of time to get to their therapeutic levels, so it may be later rather than sooner. 

Unfortunately, docs and scientists don't know how lithium really works on depression, but it sort of jump starts the central nervous system.   There's more info on lithium all over the web, but no one really knows how it works except that it has been monumentally helpful for some people.  I hope I am some people!