My pdoc put me on 250 mg of Depakote starting today. I've stringently avoided this med for 20 years b/c a lot of bipolar people call it "Depobloat." I've heard stories of people who've put on 40 pounds in 2 months. The doc has a plan (he didn't tell me this -- but he told the pharmacist and prescribed it this way) to raise the dose to 250 TWICE A DAY == 500 mg a day.

Does anyone have experience with Depakote? How did you control your weight?

I've been good about controlling my weight. (I was too thin until I was about 21 or 22, when I started gaining.) The first time I lost over 20 lbs I was only 21 or 22 years old. Then two or three other times, the most recent (fifty years after the first time....) being 5 years ago when I lost 22 lbs. I keep my weight stable, within 5 pounds up or down. Preferably within 3 lbs up or down. Lately I have been craving sweets. In the past, I could simply stop sweets until my weight went down to where I like it to be. Now, I can't seem to manage that. Tomorrow my partner and I are going out to a restaurant, where dessert is included in the price of the meal. Ice cream, yumm. I'm going to skip it. Monday my guy is having a small party, and I'm bringing brownies. I'm going to make a pan of them this weekend. Such a sweet life!!!

PS When I was 11 the doctor took me off chocolate,nuts,fish and spinach because of acne. For 11 years, I did not have these things -- not even ONCE. In fact, the week this all started (i.e. stopped!) I was at a church retreat at a camp. A plate of home made brownies was passed around the table. I took one. Then, then plate came back around, I put it back. I was 11 years old so you can see that I've been really disciplined. Lots of practice. Of course, I'm not the only person in the world who has lots of practice with eating discipline. I know a lot of people with diabetes who follow doctor's orders; and one young man who has grown up with so many allergies and reactions that he has a highly limited number of foods his body can tolerate. He's in his 20s, and now has been missing days of work b/c of illnesses. So sad. He is considering applying for Social Security Disability -- but he loves his job, loves to work, has a strong work ethic.