Jenn, thanks for your reply. I've tried Depakote before and it actually worked fantastic at keeping my moods stabilized and I had no rapid cycling at all anymore. The problem with that med was the side effects. After being on it for about 3 years, I finally convinced my pdoc to wean me off of it. Actually, I didn't give her much choice, I told her I was coming off of it, much to her dismay and pleading.

I also tried Lithium before but only managed to stay on that one for 2 weeks. The tremors were so bad that I was completely unable to function normally. It also made me nauseous. When I went back for my first follow-up visit to my pdoc and he saw how bad the tremors were he immediately took me off of it. So, I wasn't on it long enough to know if it would do anything for me or not. I'm thinking of retrying it and seeing if I react differently because I'm on Effexor XR for the 2nd time around and this time I haven't had the brain zaps and crazy dreams/nightmares that I had the first time, so I guess we can react differently when a med is retried. I like the idea that you are losing weight on it but I thought weight gain was more common.

Anyway, thanks for your input. Still putting thought to this and haven't even approached my pdoc about it yet.

Good luck warding off that depressive cycle and hope that you get that situation under control very quickly. I know how very hard it is for you.

((((((((((((((( Jenn ))))))))))))))))