Hello there Chenryu76! I am so glad I stopped by this week or I might have missed this thread. You might be interested to know that I was once a bipolar child in the state system and I fought against forced drugging and exercised my right to refuse medical treatment (psych meds) and I never once regretted it.

I did the big, “Oh no!” for years—living with my daily madness. And I didn't always do so well. But I learned a lot about myself—my strengths and weaknesses. Trying to learn how to control the manias and depressions was one of the greatest challenges of my entire life. I didn't have a family to support me. I walked away from ineffective, dehumanizing and traumatic mental health care. And I learned to live with being mentally ill. I really didn't have much of a choice.

Eventually, I learned to deal with it. So yes—you very much can live with symptoms of bipolar disorder without any psychiatric medications in your body. I got my Dx when I was very young. And life was not at all that fun for a very long time, on meds or off.

But life was definitely better off of them. Things did turn around and I don't suffer like I used to. Hope that helps!