i find i have an addictive personality when my meds arent working. when i am manicc. i must have gambled over a thousand dollars in the past month and shopped at least that much. thankfully i am stable much of the time. the thing is finding the right meds and staying on them. i had to go off one due to side effects and that is why i am where i am. i havent been here for years. and it took years to get stable. a lot of playing wiht different meds and side effects, putting up with **** doctors, but i finally found a patient one and we found the right ones. if lamictal and lithium helped a lot but you were still having manias you shouldnt have stopped looking. dont settle for helped a lot. it is possible to have full remission or pretty damn close. i was down to two hypos a year, that is about 500 dollar spending sprees in high risk language, before we added anoter med that knocked them out all together. no mania for over two years. that was after no mania for a couple years on another mix before a pdoc pulled one of my meds. so it is possible. you just have to be persistent insistent and advocate for yourself and stay on your meds. good luck to you.