I am in the Zyprexa camp for quickly bringing mania to a close. Another possibility is Oxycarbemazpine.

I don't take conventional mood stabilizers anymore as I just get side effects without any benefit in reducing hospitalizations.

I am on Zyprexa just right now as a short term measure because my sleep has been interrupted by early waking and I don't want to go through the hell of another episode. I get a kind of dysphoric, paranoid mania and can wreak financial destruction too.

In my experience, you need to take a dose that is sedating to start to bring the mania under control. Zyprexa causes metabolic problems for me so I don't like to take it long term. For that I have Rexulti and I had done well on it for a year without any problems until my sleep started to fall apart.

Sometimes it just seems my life is an inescapable hell. I spend time here and also on a cancer forum, because i have been diagnosed and treated with one of the dreadful ones, lung cancer. Then i see that people can have full lives anyway or some to be in a state of constantly falling apart.

I think mania does damage to the brain so I would endeavor to bring this to a close as soon as possible.