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.

I didn't consider that, actually. I wasn't aware that some people experience mania or hypomania in the form of anger/irritability. I also have had an issue with AD's making my fuse shorter and lead to isolation because I was tired of lashing out on friends and family.

I feel doctors tend to worry more about the mania then the depression. When the client is usually more worried about the depression.

This is EXACTLY how I am feeling about my current pDoc. I didn't realize it before, but I started catching on. I go to see him and I am in tears over how miserable I feel and how bad my depression is and he doesn't change a thing. He added a stimulant at one point but that's the most he's done. I swear to him the Depakote is making me more depressed and he refuses to take me off it. His initial explanation was "Depakote will decrease suicidal impulse".

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.

I agree, I've done so much research but the problem has become my doctor not listening to me. I think I was getting better when I was on a mix of Wellbutrin and Lamictal, but I wanted to stop Lamictal because of the dangerous drinking risk and the "rash" issue made me uncomfortable, since I'm very sensitive to meds in general.