Mine was against it, as most are. He would not even help me lower the doses and so I did do it myself very slowly. His reasoning would be looking at the past when I dropped my meds and it was bad. My reasoning was that with the meds it was bad, in the past I just dropped them but I am not in the same place as I was then. I worked really hard to acheive mental wellness in various different ways, the past is not exactly an indication of things to come.

I have been off them and doing better than ever before, I know that I made the right choice. However even though I am stable and have been able to maintain that I swear he would still not agree. That is not what he has been taught. My GP on the other hand see's how much better I am doing and is very happy with the outcome. He even called me a model patient for Bipolar. My dr's perspectives are worlds apart. But I will trust the one that holds my wellbeing as a priority.

Keep in mind that this is your body and mind not your dr's. Would she put up with these side effects, would she even take these meds if it was her? I asked my pdoc that, he wouldn't answer. It's possible to manage bipolar without AP's. The side effects as you know can be quite bad.

Don't be afraid to tell her what you want, and what is not ok for you. If she is a good dr she will want to work with you on this. If she drops you because you want to be an active particpant in your own health then maybe it's not a good dr to have in the first place.