Yup, meds definitely take away that drive, you may still want to do well but, you'll be okay with settling. Your mind won't race and you won't feel any inspiration at all. Those ideas that get you an A+ paper won't come, you'll get As and be fine with that, even a B is acceptable because you're not driven anymore. You're not up all night with insight. You won't be able to care like you do now.

And whether the meds really work to prevent depression is questionable. Mania sure, but you get hypomanic and that is a good way to be. Hypomania is just happiness in people who don't get depressed and not considered disordered.

If you're anything like me...

So, I went off my meds. Goal, prevent depression, and enjoy "hypomania".

Question your doctors. Question everything.

Going hypomanic because of Zoloft doesn't mean you have bipolar disorder.

Being depressed doesn't mean you have a disorder, you said your dad was abusive, maybe you have every reason to be depressed. Depression, even severely so, is a normal human experience. Question that your depression was disordered.

Personally, I think my "bipolar disorder" is a manifestation of my struggle with the awareness that life is ultimately meaningless.

I'm not anti-meds but, you absolutely cannot trust your doctors authority. You're in university, you must see it, even the most educated population is full of raving idiots.

Good luck.