I think the key is finding a doctor you trust and one who understands bipolar & psych meds, whether it's a pdoc or a family doc. I've had some very bad pdocs in the past (one flat-out told me if I quit psych meds, I was sure to commit suicide), but I've also had some very good pdocs and one truly exceptional pdoc. As with any doctor, there are good and bad doctors though I have noticed the practice of psychiatry tends to have more than its fair share of bad apples.

But really the ideal is to trust all the doctors on your care team who prescribe you any meds, be it a family doc prescribing a statin for high cholesterol or a pdoc prescribing meds for bipolar.

It's when you have to keep looking and looking and looking for a good doc (and often those will have insanely long waitlists) that it gets frustrating.