Despite being on wellbutrin and abilify, I still get deep, dark, sui depressions. I know that I won't be able to get through med school and residency as I am, and it's my dream to become a psychiatrist. I need to do something to get this depression under control. I feel like I won't make it to see 25 if this continues; there is only so much of this that I can take.

Since this is such a desperate situation, I am willing to try anything. I don't care if a medication causes me to gain 50 pounds; if it lets me be a doctor and keeps me alive, it's worth it.

I know that many of you struggled for years before you found the right meds. But you found them eventually, and that is really encouraging to me. I want to experiment with different meds until I find something that truly works. My pdoc, however, believes that I'm already on the best possible combination.

I know that there are other options to try. Wellbutrin is the only antidepressant that I have tried. Abilify is the third mood stabilizer, but I know that there are others. I read somewhere that there are over 200 possible med combinations for bipolar; I've only tried 4!

How can I convince my pdoc to be a little more adventurous? He is afraid of "overmedicating" me, but my life is at stake here. At this point, I want to be a lab rat.

For those of you who have experimented, did your doctors just keep going until you were stable enough to reach your goals and live a decent life, or did you have to push them to keep trying?

Thanks