To me, it's side effect free and I can think well on it. I'm taking 300mg, too.

1) isn't it great if this is it! Bipolar can be a hard animal to diagnose. Most are labeled off as depressed and left at that.
2) family has nothing to do with you getting well sweety. If anything, they can make things worse. It's your recovery, not theirs. They probably are pessimistic about the whole thing because they've been watching you go through all this with no real good ending. This might be their way they of showing their frustrations through disapproval because they've watched you go through so much of everything else in the past that they are afraid that this is going to be another failed attempt by another lame doctor to peddle his pills.

Only time will tell hunny. They'll change their minds once they see things are getting better for you. They are just overly concerned. That's my take on it, but I'm not there so I don't really know them like you do.