Hi infinity, and welcome!

I am so sorry to hear how Lithium made you so sick. It's those type of experiences that make some people swear off taking meds. I will tell you based on my experience though that it takes time. Besides the AD's and Lithium, have your doctors tried anything else as far as meds for mood stability?

There's a lot of trial-and-error, as others have said, but I will say that there are some medications out there that do not require the same kind of monitoring as Lithium (i.e. all the blood tests). My new pdoc really does not like to use it at all these days, unless someone has been on it for a while and when most other options have been exhausted (since there's a lot newer meds out there).

I definitely know the struggles of trying to find the right combo as far as it being effective and well-tolerated in terms of side effects, but hang in there! There's lots of options out there, it's a process.