IMO Medication helps alleviate symptoms. It does nothing to help you cope with stressful situations, it does nothing to boost your self-esteem, it does nothing to motivate you to succeed. For anxiety, medication doesn't make the anxiety disappear. It represses the physiological symptoms which contribute to the 'anxiety' you are feeling. In a way medication for bipolar does the same as well as herbal remedies. It's all aimed to suppress in an attempt to 'eliminate'. (But anyone who has a mood disorder/any disorder can tell you that symptoms tend to be reoccurring, especially after the body has adjusted to the dose you are given...aka growing tolerance) It doesn't fix you, nor does it make you a better person.

As a patient advocate, it really annoys me that there is this dispossession carried in the community that believes bipolar or any mood disorder cannot be managed without big pharm medications. I agree with Venus, we should all be supporting one another regardless of the treatment plan.