Keep this in Mind...If You Want to Go Off Meds

Someone posted a good question over on one of the Myspace bipolar groups. The upshot was, "I went off my meds because I don't want to take them forever. Now I feel fine. Do people fully recover from this? Or is this a short-term fallacy?" I used to ask myself the same question all the time, when I was in the early days with BP. Except that I was too damn scared to go off my meds. I knew what I could get like--and I didn't want to end up in jail or in a psych unit. I value my freedom far too much. Anyway, for what it's worth, I posted the following reply to the question:

I'm afraid, like others say, that you are seeing a short term bump. Very, very few people have full symptom remission forever. The people who do best with this long term--and it's the long term that counts--are people who stay on their meds, even if they are aggressive with their docs on what they will take and put into their bodies, etc. I strongly recommend getting back on your Lamictal, unless you are having side effect probs with it...in which case talk to your doctor. I am skeptical as hell about some meds...but if you are BP, then you need to be on some kind of a mood stabilizer at a minimum. Sorry, but that's the deal...And i base that on over 16 years of delaing with BP and meds, as well as about 300 interviews I have done with people with mental illness.

It's the long-term that counts and making the long-term work requires some short-term sacrifices. Taking meds is one of them.