I was diagnosed after being hospitalized last summer. I've tried a few different meds, but none of them "felt like they worked."
I haven't taken any or seen the doctor in a few months, not really intentionally I just didn't make an appointment and convinced myself I was OK!
I'm starting to think that I should go back on them though... This isn't the first time I stopped them either, so I hate to keep crawling back after stopping them...
Needing to make an appointment every month and stick with it is unreasonable, lol, I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that consistently every month!
Anyways, how many times did you think you were cured and stop taking meds? If you have meds that work well, how could you tell?
I'm a "mild" case of BP2, unsure of the exact diagnosis as doctors here just slap bipolar and specify the episode. It might be cyclothymia, I don't really care anymore but it doesn't matter because it seems under control. I'll spare the details but my psychiatrist gave me the freedom to play with the dosage of my meds. It's a special case.
That said, the first time I was diagnosed with depression and put on a common AP/Antidepressant combo for my country (it's terrible but the AP alone actually worked for me after re-evaluation). I decided I was better and stopped them cold turkey. I've never cried so hard in my life. After that I learned my lesson and took my meds. I try to take as little meds as possible to maintain my mood, as sometimes meds themselves can be the culprit.
I can think straight, sleep well, feel emotion without it being blunted, and live my life normally. It's a fine line to walk and it took a lot of trial and error. Flupentixol worked but it tended to exacerbate my mania shortly after stabilizing me. Pregabalin shoots me into mania the next day, SSRIs do that too. Carbamazepine almost worked without side effects but only for a short while. I might give it a try again but I don't like how it messed with my liver. Aripiprazole gave me all the side effects at once. See the pattern? Trial and error. **I've had most of the above for at least 1-2 months before deciding they don't work with regular psychiatrist visits. **
Currently low dose quetiapine handled my hypomania (mostly poor sleep, irritability, and hyperfocus on interests). That came after a six month depressive episode is which got taken care of by Trazodone, and interestingly enough, did not trigger mania.