BonsaiGuy, I'm glad you're doing well on your medication mix. I hope you remain better and hopefully feel even better yet.

I'm pretty happy on my current mix and have been on it for a long time. For the most part, I'm stable and have been, save times of great stress. I still have some barriers to overcome to be more productive and "tougher", as my husband calls it, but those barriers are now less to do with the bipolar disorder and more psychological issues that no medication can erase. Only therapy. As for breakthrough episodes, as I wrote, great stress can bring them on. When that happens my Seroquel XR is manipulated. Coping skills learned should help in prevention, ideally, but it can be difficult. I am more sensitive/vulnerable than people without a mental illness.

Right now my only medication that gives me side effects worth mentioning is my Seroquel XR. It does slow me down a bit, and at doses of 450 mg and above can challenge me in terms of bigger appetite. Though I'm not certain, it may also contribute to increasing my cholesterol. However, I do not put all of the blame on Seroquel XR. Unlike for others, it hasn't caused me significant weight gain too far above what I might have experienced without bipolar meds. I'm serious! Nevertheless, being on lower doses of Seroquel XR does make losing weight easier for me. It is also crucial to take this med at a certain time and fall asleep by a certain time. If I do, I do well and enjoy 7-9 hours of good sleep.

A couple of my other meds had caused some side effects in my early treatment on them, but time and lowered doses fixed that.