surfzulu, that's inspiring to hear that things can actually get better with this disease and medication after 20 years. I am 10 years into my diagnosis and feel quite exhausted but also have other health issues beyond mental health and the combination is tough to deal with sometimes.

I agree also with what you wrote about people ending up on multiple meds at the same time. These medications are poisons to various degrees and it's important to minimize exposure especially long term.

I haven't found any med that really deals with my depression but I think that is fairly common with bipolar. Also won't take benzos. My father got an addiction to xanax. He's also an alcoholic. I stay away from both. I read that benzos can increase the risk of later dementia too.

We are all guinea pigs in terms of finding out what the side effects of these drugs are after taking them for decades in multiple combinations with other drugs.