Ha, it does seem like a guessing game most of the time. I can't even remember all the different medicines I've tried. At least 6 for depression, 7 or 8 for mania - either an anti-psychotic or a mood stabilizer. And only xanax for my anxiety. (It works the best for me and frankly for the relief it gives me I don't care if I get addicted, though it doesn't give me any sort of high feelings, so who knows). My main problem is that all the drugs they give me may actually work on what they are supposed to, but I have such bad reactions to them and seem to get EVERY side effect possible, thus making it impossible for me to continue taking whichever meds seem to be working at that time.

I took effexor xl 450mg for 2 yrs and gain SEVENTY POUNDS! I mean, no matter what I do, I can literally not eat and exercise my brains out and I cannot lose a pound. Eventually though, it just stopped working for me so I have tried a bunch of other things (which all seem to support weight gain). So its come down to the fact that I have to just accept the weight gain if I want any relief from my bipolar. Yeah. Damn, I know most of that was irrelevant, but I guess my point is that getting a good combo of meds is just a game of craps, who knows when you may win.