In my case, I did find a med combo that kept me fairly stable. Over time, I even had it trimmed down a bit to eliminate excess and meds that gave me totally intolerable side effects. I suppose I do have some very minor side effects still, but they are not intolerable. In fact, as time goes by they become even milder.

A very important place I got to was knowing when therapy was the remaining element to get me where I need to be. Sometimes there are challenges that medications alone can't fight. I know my meds are doing the best possible job for me without me doing the extra work. Now I have to do that extra work.

I was taken off a couple meds that were just too harmful and unbearable. I was taken off Lithium because it was not particularly effective for me AND affected my kidneys and gave me more uncomfortable additional side effects than any other med. I had to go off Geodon because nothing fully relieved the akathisia it caused me. Going off Lithium was an easy but slow process for me. Geodon was much harder because of withdrawals and resulting mood instability. But a Seroquel XR increase eventually did the trick. My other bipolar meds at their current doses serve me well with insignificant side effects. I've also gradually learned how to live well on the Seroquel XR.