My husbands former psychiatrist had him labeled as depressed. Most antidepressants just made him mad. None of us (including his psychiatrist) realized the times he felt better were actually hypo mania. It was just a breather that he felt better for like a week.

A lot of us are on not just a mood stabilizer but also an antidepressant or two because once our mood stabilizes our "baseline" is to low. Then you got the other diagnosis that may need antidepressants ( I also have SAD). My personal opinion with myself is being solely treated with a mood stabilizer only fixes half the problem. So I will not go to a doctor that refuses to give bipolar an antidepressant. I feel doctors tend to worry more about the mania then the depression. When the client is usually more worried about the depression.

Most drs are to busy so you have to do your own research often. Is there an antidepressant that helped. It took 2 yes of messing around with meds to bring my husband out of his depression. He's on an AD, an AD booster/AP, and a low dose mood stabilizer. His main problem is depression. I'm on a low dose mood stabilizer and a low dose SNRI and a high dose SSRI /AP my problem with bipolar is the mania.