I'm on my meds, but this is such a difficult question to answer. I think my meds put a cap on my moods. Keeping me from going too high or too low. I still cycle a bit, but not severely. I also believe they significantly reduce my paranoia. Like I said, I still seem to be hitting hypos and in the past have had mixed states and depression while on meds. They were bad meds. For me, self care is as important as my meds. I'm not the picture of health and wellness ....I don't live as well as I should. It is my goal to get very physically healthy if it's possible and to live a pretty strict life when it comes to following self care. Then I may try to go med free. For the time being, I recognize my strong need to be on meds and have that cap on my moods. I don't trust mental health docs and psychiatrists either. While the science behind it is good, it's far from perfect or concrete and so much of what they do is guess work. I need concrete ideas to feel safe sometimes.

Best of luck with your decision and I hope you find the solution which works for you.