I have been on it for awhile now, since my dosage bad been upped I am feeling more stable. I have put on weight, I used to be one of those people that could eat and eat and not gain weight even when I wanted to, now the weight I gained is not the kind I wanted to gain. If you problems with being tired during the day then depakote can really make it harder to stay awake I know it has for me, but it has helped with manic outbursts and irrational behavior. For me also my antidepressant wasn't doing the trick for my OCD obsessive suicidal thoughts but, the depakote didn't help with that even though the doc acted like there was some potential that depakote may help since suicidal thoughts are part of the manic side effects if a person with undiagnosed bipolar is put on an antidepressant.