Why do meds hardly ever work?

My meds seem to cause episodes as opposed to prevent them. (I know you can never 100% prevent episodes, but I'm just saying my meds are more or less useless.)

For example, Abilify f***ed with my eyesight at first. Then once that side effect subsided, it was doing a good job of lessening my depressive symptoms.

When I upped my dose recently, it made me hallucinate, I became sad, I lost interest in things, it gave me sui thoughts, etc., and yet, I had loads of energy, needed much less sleep (2-4 hrs), and couldn't stop pacing. How useless! I stopped it on my own because I couldn't handle it.

Can any of you guys relate?