That drug cost me two jobs, both which required speed and accuracy and paid good money. The drug slowed me waaay down. I'm pretty sure it temporarily knocked my IQ down by 40 points, as well. I blew up to a horrid 270lbs! That's the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I have weak joints and arthritis and it was painful to walk. During that period of taking it, I sustained too many injuries and I just decided to taper off of the medication because it made me feel like s**t. The doc at the time didn't agree but screw him. It took a year of diet and exercise (6 days a week, 2 hours every other day lifting 15 lb dumbells and 1 hour sprinting every other day) to get back down to at least 185. I was a size 14 (I'm tall) and muscular as hell. Compliments all around and I felt really strong and healthy. Kind of overdid it with the puking and laxatives but eventually cut that out. Gained a little more but I still feel much better than I did when I was on that drug. Depakote and I have a bad history. I used to be on it during highschool for my epilipsy and had the same problem but to a lesser extent. Good riddance to it.