[Mini2018]

At what point do you just give up constantly changing meds, unsure whether the next med will be better or worse? My liver hates what I'm on now, doc wants to change, but it'll just be something else. They've fried my thyroid, kidneys not happy, livers not happy now...I mean seriously, when do you just give up changing drugs and accept a bus could run you down tomorrow anyways?

I'm bummed depressed right now, couldn't give two hoots about living...idk. I'm just so over this

Personally — and this is just me — if a med helps me in any way, shape, or form, I like to keep it, even if it means adding more meds. For example, lamictal does NOTHING to stabilize my mood. NOTHING. However, it gets rid of my extreme agitation and it's the only thing that ever has, so I keep it. I'd rather not try another mood stabilizer like lithium, depakote, trileptal, etc and risk it failing me because then I'm worse off than before. I can take an antidepressant for the depression and an antipsychotic for the mania (and the psychosis outside of mood episodes).

So it's a risk vs reward thing, and I'm just not a risky person

The liver is important...if you can take something else, do try it.

It takes a long time to get meds right...it is frustrating.

[Guiness187055]

I take a ton of meds but each one does a certain thing and I am stable for the most part. Just lazy.

[Unrigged64072835]

I'm the most stable that I have been in a while, even with side effects. I only have a few options left so I'll save them as a last resort.

I had a lot of incompetent psych nurses that could never get my meds right. Was always having symptoms. I finally found a competent one and just started (in the last 2 months having anxiety.) She doesn't want to throw meds at it.

But I was very stable for like 2 yrs. I hope you'll get there. It took me awhile to get stable tho.

In my case, I did find a med combo that kept me fairly stable. Over time, I even had it trimmed down a bit to eliminate excess and meds that gave me totally intolerable side effects. I suppose I do have some very minor side effects still, but they are not intolerable. In fact, as time goes by they become even milder.

A very important place I got to was knowing when therapy was the remaining element to get me where I need to be. Sometimes there are challenges that medications alone can't fight. I know my meds are doing the best possible job for me without me doing the extra work. Now I have to do that extra work.

I was taken off a couple meds that were just too harmful and unbearable. I was taken off Lithium because it was not particularly effective for me AND affected my kidneys and gave me more uncomfortable additional side effects than any other med. I had to go off Geodon because nothing fully relieved the akathisia it caused me. Going off Lithium was an easy but slow process for me. Geodon was much harder because of withdrawals and resulting mood instability. But a Seroquel XR increase eventually did the trick. My other bipolar meds at their current doses serve me well with insignificant side effects. I've also gradually learned how to live well on the Seroquel XR.

Originally Posted by BirdDancer

A very important place I got to was knowing when therapy was the remaining element to get me where I need to be. Sometimes there are challenges that medications alone can't fight.

This is such an important point, and so often overlooked or minimized. Thank you for bringing it up, BirdDancer. (And good on you for doing the work!)

So often (both here and IRL) I see people struggle with issues they think meds will solve that are simply beyond the scope of what meds can do. It is sad (and frustrating) to see people reject therapy out of hand while they search in vain for the magic bullet...

The other thing worth watching out for is switching meds too quickly and not giving them a real chance. That happens a lot too.

It's kind of hard to answer your question . I mean, I have certain meds that have stayed pretty consistent over time and others that have changed. It's a mixed bag. I don't sweat it. I've heard BP described as a "moving target", which is why we tend to need med changes from time to time. Nature of the beast.