I don't mind sharing my personal experiences, but if I share negative ones, I want people to know that there are wonderful ones for every medication that has scathing ones, including for Depakote and Tegretol, and other frequently bashed medications. For example, I have taken Tegretol XR for over 8 years now, and never want to go off of it. And I take a rather high dose at 1400 mg per day. It gives me almost zero side effects. I say "almost" only because I think, but am not certain, that maybe it makes me slightly clumsier than I was before medications. But then again, maybe I'm just clumsier now than in my early 30s over 15 years ago. I do recall a couple initial side effects over 8 years ago, but they disappeared. Sometimes good things come to those who wait. Besides this, it ended what was almost 9 months of musical and voice hallucinations that were disturbing. I'm also a HUGE fan of Seroquel XR, a med commonly bashed.

So, about 10 years ago I was put on the combo of Depakote and Invega. I know Invega gave me at least one super nasty side effect, but I am 98% sure that Depakote did, too. I was put on that combo after about 4 years of almost constant mania and mania with mixed features, some with traumatizing psychosis. Those led to about 7 of my 10 hospitalizations. The Depakote and Invega combo finally wiped out my mania for a long time. Pretty impressive, huh? However, they left me severely depressed. That lasted over one year, and yet I was kept on that combo. It got so bad that I was not leaving my bed almost at all, and I gained 30 lbs. After previous urging, I finally accepted ECT. They stopped my Depakote during the ECT because you generally don't take an antiseizure med when you want to be having seizures. I had 7 treatments, only remembering maybe 4 of them. It helped. I was released, put back on Depakote with the Invega. I refused maintenance ECT because of some scary memory issues, but more because I had no one to take me to them outpatient.

I became depressed again on that med combo, plus the Invega side effects scared me (which I won't mention). I ended up in the hospital with my first pure severe depression. They overhauled my medications (goodbye Depakote and Invega). After some tinkering, my depression ended and I was either stable or delightfully managebly hypomanic. I lost 40 lbs in 6 months on a low carb diet that I would never have been able to do when depressed. I felt like hot ****!

As a side note, in addition to the weight gain and depression I had on Depakote and Invega, I had become pre-diabetic, had high cholesterol and triglycerides. After the diet on the new combo (Lithium, Geodon, Lamictal, Navane), all of these were normalized. Also, when on Depakote and Invega, I noticed the growth of dark chin hairs, more arm and leg hair, and hair elsewhere that I didn't want it. Talk about horrible! I read that that is a possible risk for women on Depakote that isn't really an issue for men. Luckily, after years off Depakote, this issue eased quite a bit, but for some women it doesn't. It can turn into full blown polycystic ovarian syndrome (see
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) | PsychEducation), which is an occasional side effect of Depakote in some women.

I hope this didn't scare you too much. And I didn't even go into the Invega side effect.