For many years, I felt like people were abusing my kindness or goodness and it would make me angry and paranoid. I would rant and rave and not be able to think clearly or to cope. Perhaps I'm not all that good at dealing with people, but that's the way it usually went.

My wife and I are in the process of selling our home to buy another one. I take Depakote now and I can be much more measured in my thinking without taking things personally. We just lost a deal on our home because we couldn't come to terms with the buyer - they wanted us to change this, update that, fix this, etc. They were just pimping us down so we told them to take a hike Back to Square One we go.

BD (before Depakote), I would say all sorts of kooky things. Now, I'd like to think I'm more even. They asked us for a counter-offer and this is what I said -