Once I realized that, I stopped envying unmedicated people. I hope this drug is as effective in others as it is in me.

So by homeless I mean leaving in a motel for mentally ill people. That is how my county, god bless it, deals with patients who otherwise would have been homeless.

But I have a job and I am moving into a big apartment - knock on wood, not homeless. Both in part due to my excellent credit history and credit rating, which, in turn, are what I have thanks to Lithium. I will explain in detail, but let me warn readers from outside of the US that it is probably not worth your time reading, because this American game of credit history that we all are forced to play is, to the best of my knowledge, not something that as of yet has taken hold in other countries. Of course, I might be wrong.

So Lithium removes the urge to buy from me. Underneath, I have not changed a bit. Recently, I skipped a bit of Lithium to the tune of spending on services, before I realize that was going on. So the natural urge is there as strongly as ever, it is just completely suppressed by the drug. I have close to 100K in credit line from various credit cards yet I have just recently switched from tasty lattes to less than perfect instant coffee with milk in an effort to save money. Not manic behavior, right? But I know I have credit card debt (from the time I had to pay the divorce lawyer, had expensive and ineffective therapy all expenses I no long incur) to pay down, I made my first payment last week, and that instant coffee will help me in this direction.

I have a whole bunch of credit cards. Three American Express cards - on one, I carry a balance which has to be paid off beginning in October, one I use at Costco and on Amazon only, and the third is my main pocket credit card on which I get Delta miles ( a free ticket, eventually). I also have a Chase Visa card for the establishments that do not take AmEx, such as my fruit stand (American Express charges, I believe, 3% on each transaction which is why many small businesses cannot afford to take it). I also have a Discover card which I use to pay for my cell phone service. I have a Bank of America card with a balance which I started paying down last week. I think this is it. Why so many? Why not put as much as possible on the Delta AmEx to get a free ticket as soon as possible? Well, because it damages credit score. I went to a seminar several years back and I have read up online and I know the factors that go into the calculation of the credit score. It is better to have many cards and to use them all a little (less than 30% for sure) than to have one card and max it out. So for instance, my Discover Card that has a 10K credit line and on which I only put $80 for the cell phone service is a perfect example of good usage of credit. You have access to a lot yet you use a little. Without Lithium, I would not have had the discipline to use less than 1% of my credit line. Of course, I incur an overhead in managing payments on all those accounts, but after calling each credit card company and making the 16th of the month the due date on each, and setting up automatic payments at least for the minimum payment (now I am switching to full balance automatic payments but when I was on state disability, I could not afford it), I am in good shape.

My credit score is so high that it seems theoretically possible only for people with home mortgages and with lines of credit and with installment loans such as auto loans, because those are considered premium forms of credit and they contribute more to the credit score. But I somehow manage without them.

Why bother, would you say, if I cannot buy a house anyway? Well, it is a brutal world that values credit history above all. A company of my employer's caliber does not recruit people with bad credit histories (unless of course the recruits are fresh from other countries on H1B visas, but in that case they have NO credit history rather than bad credit history) - credit check is part of a background check. I look good on paper so I get hired.

My new landlord is very laissez-faire, he has not asked for employment verification or references, he just based his decision on the credit check. He said "You have excellent history, I am pleased". Well, I am pleased that he is pleased. So that is how people check if I am trustworthy (the landlord does not know that I have been late on rent and had to bring cashier's checks and that because of this history I wrote him 12 checks, put them in 12 envelopes, affixed 12 forever stamps and gave it all to my ex who will be mailing on time for the next year - big thanks to him).

Before Lithium, I used to buy half of online catalog of hanna andersson - an upscale retailer of very pretty children's clothing (clothing from Sweden, Denmark, etc.) My girls still have some stuff that has never been unpacked and now is both too small and too bright. Give me as much credit as I have now and take away Lithium and I will be in trouble.

What are the non-pharmacological means that have been suggested here to deal with impulsive buying? Living on cash, not carrying plastic, freezing your credit card to force yourself to wait until it defrosts hoping that the impulse will in the meantime go away. But that is essentially living without credit. How would I have built this excellent credit history if my credit card were not used at all (plus, all the trips to the ATM would have been inconvenient - it is much more convenient to carry plastic in my wallet)? Or as in the case of a frozen credit card, were used only sporadically? No, you have to have constant activity on your cards. I once had a Master card and I did not use it and it got closed by the card issuer. Use it or lose it.

So thanks to Lithium I have the basics - the place to live and the job. Thanks god! Thanks god for Lithium! For a medication that costs practically pennies, this is a huge monetary return!

I have complained about the thyroid medication due to which I cannot have breakfast upon awakening - I have to wait an hour. Well, when I think of the inconvenience of getting and carrying cash, the breakfast inconvenience pales in comparison. I am now posting waiting for the hour to pass. Nice solution.

Acne - the acne situation forces me to apply Tazorac diligently every night, lest I have a breakout. As a positive side effect, I have no wrinkles - Tazorac prevents wrinkles. I am bad at beautifying myself - for instance, I have long eyelashes and it would have been good to apply mascara to accentuate them, but the thought of using make-up remover nightly scares me off. So I doubt that I would have been applying Tazorac to prevent wrinkles alone. But now I have to. So acne is probably a positive rather than negative side effect of Lithium.

Weight - I used to be thin while on Lithium, size 6-8, very normal, so it does not cause that in me (Depakote does and I will try to get off it).

Losing words, slowness - as Venus points out, every once in a while everyone forgets a word, so I am too quick to attribute it to Lithium. Not a significant side effect.

And that is all. Not much to complain about, especially in light of the fact that I might have been homeless and unemployed had I not built this credit history that looks so good on a background check.

You might say that it is an artificial and unfair game and you would be right. It is especially unfair to recent graduates with significant student loans who cannot pay back the loans because they cannot find jobs and they cannot find jobs because they have bad credit histories. Very unfair. But it is a game that I am challenged with, and I play it so well, and Lithium takes the credit.

Again, I hope it is as drastically helpful to others.