if you are unmedicated, I envy you because:

• you have a narrow waistline
• you are your own sexual self, without pesky side effects
• you can fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night on your own, unassisted
• your thyroid works without an addition of synthetic hormone
• your skin is clear without creams and facewashes - by itself
• you are not afraid that a weird drug interaction or an accidental OD will poison or kill you
• your hands do not shake

Add on!

Many of those side-effects can be minimised with the right meds. I'm sorry if you have to go through all of the above list

Oh, I can't always sleep. I just deal with it. The day goes by whether or not I sleep so, better make the most of it.

To add:

Don't have to see the doctor once a month.
Don't have daily reminders of being "ill".

All but two of those apply to me. I don't have shaky hands, usually, and my skin is clear, most days. I would add:

Don't have meds that lose effectiveness, and then have to find another good combination.
Don't feel guilty because you have passed on the bp gene to atleast one of your kids.

As my signature says, Levoxyl takes care of the thyroid problem, and Tazorac+facewash almost take care of the acne if applied religiously every day. Lowering the dose of Depakote almost took care of the shaking hands. Metformin does not take care of the weight loss.

Very true. I forgot about those. But an unmedicated bp can still pass on the genes.

Yup, the first thing I do when I wake up is take Levoxyl (synthetic thyroid hormone), which is a constant reminder that I am ill and have to take side-effect-fighting meds.

They that would not suit me. I need at least 7-8 hours of sleep. I would have sought medication if I could not reach this number on my own. My former p-doc even thought that I need 9, but recently 8-8.5 has been sufficient.

I can even get anxiety if I have not slept enough.

So no, I do not envy that part.

Probably not relevant to everyone here, but a big issue for me:

You can get pregnant without feeling extremely guilty for taking meds.

Of course, you always have the option of compromising your own well-being by not taking (enough) meds. I managed to get the "best of both worlds" by taking an inadequate amount of meds: I got to feel guilty AND my mental health was destabilized.

EJ

That is a biggie; I forgot.

You don't have to fork over thousands of dollars for the rest of your life to buy medication

Well,incidently, I suck at sleeping. I do it properly for 1 week a month and overdo it when depro. Risperdal helped me to fall asleep but not stay asleep, and even that conked out after a few months... For some reason the pdocs who treated me, didnt think my insomnia needed to be treated as a seperate problem...

That is so strange because success at BP treatment rests on proper sleep!

I know riiight! that's what I also thought, but my pdocs seemed to have come to the conclusion that I naturally function on less sleep. I average at about 4 1/2 hrs... What they failed to understand is that i DONT fall asleep unless I MAKE myself go to sleep. Except for during that 1 week I mentioned...

I envy you because you can access your brain without whirring, skips, bumps, pops, blank-outs and just plain bad files!

I took... Isotretinoin in high school - and have never had acne come back again. Something to consider, if you have the time/interest? I found that the side effects of the treatment were greatly overstated (dry lips, sensitive skin - I live in Africa, I get that anyway).

To add to the list - you can measure your days and weeks in any way you want, not with measured time periods and intervals, constantly refilling prescriptions every 30 days.

If something feels wrong, something strange is happening or something seemingly medically wrong is happening to you, you can seek medical attention without worrying its "just a side effect".

You don't mix up words, you don't lose words on the way to your mouth, ringing in your ears, dry mouth, buzzing in the front of your brain and worst of all: you don't get woken up at random times during the night by a flash and explosion in your brain!

Maybe not all of the above is from my meds, but I have reason to believe they are!

Ah, I get anxiety too from not sleeping, even weird deja vu that turns into this whole other universe paranoid thinking but, I cope without medication because I can tell myself it's just because I didn't sleep, time goes by, feelings pass and focus on some task at hand. My mind is all kinds of crazy. I just like it better that way.

- you don't have to visit your local pharmacy about three times per month!
- you don't have to fill out drug reimbursement forms (I am very grateful for benefits, but the forms are just annoying)

- you don't have to be told by your boyfriend, "that's embarrassing, put those away" while he drinks his beer and whiskey and smokes pot.

I've gained a lot of weight due to medications, but have to say that I've gained more when un-medicated. Very, very long periods of atypical depression (sleeping too much, eating everything in sight, not leaving the house, zero exercise etc) packed on the pounds. If I hadn't have gone back on the meds I'm pretty sure I would have ended up dying from some obesity related illness by the time I hit middle age.

Apart from those long periods of depression, I can't sleep without sleep medication - even when Im not on any psych meds. It's just part of the bipolar for me.

The thing I envy about un-medicated people is their ability to do that! When I'm not on medication I am a mess & can't function at all.

You can drive anywhere without difficulty.

You can be in crowded rooms and not be overwhelmed.

You can go to stores with florescent lights and not need to wear sunglasses (even at night).

You don't have to be concerned about what you eat for fear it will cause you to retain water you simply can't get off.

You don't have to be reminded by your own self that despite the best elixir of meds, you are not 100%, nor do any of them perfectly fix your ailments.

You don't have to seriously consider never having children for fear of passing on your genes (which go far back on both sides of the tree).

You're ignorant of what it feels like to not want to die, per se, but to simply no longer live your life.

I have had 5 hours (not even at a stretch) and I've had a horrible day. I really need my sleep to function and be reasonably happy.

I lose words; my p-doc says it is slowness from Lithium.

I do not medicate anxiety induced by lack of sleep either (it would not even work), I would just rather not have it, period. Sleep is a must.

I must say, I do not understand why you do not seek sleep aid treatment (not mood stabilization but sleep aid which will in turn stabilize moods - that is the way it works).

I have had another "might as well have erased from life" day. I have slept at best 5 hours, and not in one stretch. I could not exercise in that state. I was cold all day long. I ate incredible quantities, partly trying to get warmer. Not at all my usual eating pattern. I managed to do something a few times that deserved the praise "good catch!" at work, but that is just my attention to detail working non-stop despite everything. I could not do anything creative. I did the mundane tasks, trying to be very careful, and that was it. I did not start on any new projects - nothing requiring creativity. I was just sitting at work looking at the clock and hoping for time to go faster. And I was sitting - shortening my life span. I was too tired to stand up and work standing, which is what I usually do for more than 60% of the time. I avoided people because I did not want to be seen yawning and with weird-looking eyes - they are weird, I know, I looked in the mirror. I had to be introduced to two Indian guys, and normally not a big deal, this became quite a chore.

I continued taking Lithium and Prozac for several weeks before discovering I was pregnant. My child is now 20.

I do worry about passing on the bp. He was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's when he was little, but I quit medicating him because I decided the doctors were wrong about both of us.