I went almost a year on nothing but anti-depressants and Seroquel as a PRN and for sleep. That was when I was diagnosed with MDD. After I switched both doctors they both came to the same conclusions and my diagnosis was changed to BPII and put on Lamictal. It took about 48 hours and then it hit me and I felt like I had just drank 20 Red Bulls and couldn't sit down. It wore off after a few hours, but it leveled me out for the first time I can remember. My psych described it like this "When you're making a cake and all you have is flour, you're cake doesn't work because you're missing the egg. Lamictal is the egg for bipolar." That's his way of saying I could have taken every anti-depressant on the planet and none of them would work for long, because I needed a mood stabilizer. After the initial bungee jump from Lamictal, any effects I feel are when I can manage to stay in the "safe zone". So I guess it is kind of working in the background. I think of it as the egg that's keeping my cake together.