How to decide?

How do you decide about taking meds that mostly helps your bipolar systems but cause physical problems versus staying on the meds and some how deal with the side effects? Why do we have to decide between mental and physical health? Nothing is ever easy.

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For me, it's a matter of realizing that psychological pain is worse that physical pain (within reasonable limits, that is). When I'm feeling stable it's easy to forget this. I inflict a lot of pain on myself & others when I am unmedicated. I don't want to go there ever again. I also have to remember that those hypomanic periods I enjoy so much also put me in danger. While many psychotropics have side-effects, working with your pdoc to find the "lesser of evils" is the best way to go.

Exactly what buddha posted. Unfortunately, as much as is known about the brain, even more is unknown. In an ideal world we'd have no terrible physical side effects from meds. Until then, we just have to weigh the benefits against the risks.

I feel like the mental pain can be so much worse than the physical side effects that I just put up with it.