I have been on the bipolar medication roller coaster for the past 20+ years. Have taken Effexor, Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac, Lithium, Seroquel, Welbutrin, Depakote, Ativan, Xanax, Pamelor, Lamictal, Ambien, Lunesta, and probably a couple more I can't remember.

Nothing really worked well for me at all. The Ativan and Xanax do calm down my anxiety, so they do help me. Ambien helps me sleep, but I am afraid to take it too often. I need it every night because I just DO NOT sleep unless I take something to help me. Most of the time I take Tylenol PM or Benadryl.

The psychiatrist I see now wants to keep increasing the dosages. If it still is not effective, she wants to add more meds to the one I already take! I don't like that. I don't want to take something that will make it necessary to do lab work every few months to make sure I am not having any kind of liver damage due to the meds!

I am in therapy weekly. That is helping me a lot! I am weaning off of Depakote, even though my psychiatrist is not aware of this. I am being careful. Taking it very slow. Haven't had any problems at all.

My question is this. Does every person who has a bipolar diagnosis 'need' to be on meds? Is it possible to be resistant to that kind of treatment in that meds don't help? I know that there is a chemical imbalance that causes bipolar, so you would think meds would be the only way to go. But from my experience, I am not sure I believe that anymore.

The weight gain and side effects are just not worth it if the meds are not doing anything that I can see. My family can't see that much difference when I am on or off of them either. They CAN see a difference when I miss a therapy session. I have major meltdowns for some reason when that happens.