I have been med free for 3 years now. Like lunaticfringe, it took years of hard work in therapy to process through my history, to deal with the PTSD symptoms in my case that were complicating my bipolar symptoms. It took being cooperative with my pdoc and therapist while I went through that work over the period of MANY years before I was truly stable enough long enough to consider weaning off meds with the help and support of my pdoc and therapist. You have to be at that place where you have found stability, have worked through the issues that have complicated healing, and have acquired the personal skills to healthily manage and cope with the daily symptoms that may still creep up. If you try to go med-free before those things are in place, most likely you will not be able to successfully do so. Having the patience to wait until you really are ready is difficult. You can't run a marathon if you haven't done the work and training to build the skills and stamina for that kind of endurance race.