I have been bipolar probably all my life but in the beginning I was a high functioning bipolar and didn't use meds. In the past ten years I have been on quite a number of different meds and it was only two years ago when I was hospitalized that my psychiatrist scrapped all that I was on and put me on several new ones. Since then I have been much better and at times have been depressed but no more really flying high mania. Now I tend to be hypomanic with erratic sleep still but this is the best I have been in ten years. It is sometimes really difficult to find what works for each person because our chemisty is different and it is trial and error to see what works.