I suppose if one had found the right meds, they might not be paying much attention to this subforum. Nonetheless, I was wondering how long people here have endured a bad stretch to find something that works. For me it's been an 8 month long bad stretch, and I anticipate longer. I sometimes wonder if it will ever end. I'm spinning my wheels all the time about meds and my bad mental states. In my case, I have a sort of depression/anhedonia and some cognitive and sleeping issues that have been bothering me while I've been on these meds. I don't have any psychosis or mania, so the meds have been working in that regard. I take risperidone 3 milligrams and lithium 600. The next foreseeable change may be trying to change out risperidone for olanzapine. I don't know if I need an antidepressant or not, they might just make my symptoms worse, but I functioned very well for 2 years on Ability and Effexor with no mood stabilizer.