Thanks for your reply, wildflowerchild. He was on Depakote briefly to bring him out of a manic episode. It did make him feel irritable and emotionally flat, but those feelings went away within a few days after he went off it.

You're probably right about the stopping and starting being bad, though when he stopped the Zyprexa he had no intention of going back on it. His plan was to try a new AAP or mood stabilizer if he started having mood issues again, but of course he didn't get to follow through on that because of the severe insomnia. He did try Benadryl and even Klonopin to sleep, but they didn't help. :/

The only other AAP he's tried is Risperdal, which he had a near-fatal bad reaction to. Other than the brief course of Depakote to stop a manic episode he hasn't tried any mood stabilizers. I had heard that they were often worse than AAPs for "brain fog" side-effects, but maybe something like Trileptal or Lamictal would be a better choice, always assuming the insomnia didn't continue on them.

Thanks again for you response. I'm sorry you're still dealing with bad side-effects yourself.