What Troph said, it goes a long way. I recently stopped taking my meds for bipolar disorder after ~20 years. My Psychiatrist was reluctant but we'd been discussing it every visit for the last 5-6 years. She reluctantly agreed and gave me guidance on a 3-month taper that I promised to follow, and I did- to the exact timing she told me to. I hadn't missed a dose in 20 years (doses which had fluctuated up/down occasionally) but felt I'd grown enough as a person to handle most everything without needing to be constantly medicated. I was a tiny bit apprehensive about it and swore I'd be honest with myself, though part of me knew that wouldn't be a possibility if I went too far off the rails. Anyway, I'm 5 months into beginning the taper, and 10 weeks into not taking any medication at all. The last 6-8 weeks of the taper was keeping it at a non-therapeutic level so that I could experience life without any help but still be able to ramp back up immediately if needed (something you can't do when lamictal is completely out of your system). All went pretty well... and then I hit a 2-week stretch of the worst depression I'd experienced in over a decade. It was fucking terrible, most days for a couple of weeks I couldn't get out of bed until mid-afternoon. Fortunately it coincided with a time I was between projects, and honestly that may have fed it since I'd been on a 3-year run of craziness (but not manic craziness). Ultimately I got through it and shit has been good for a while now. For the first month or so after ditching the meds I was really fucking edgy and short tempered ("why are people so fucking stupid?") and then some depression set in. Fortunately the finesse of learning to manage it over the last couple of decades came into play... and knowing when to persist and just fucking get through it was valuable (mindfulness, physical exercise, meditation... just generally looking out for yourself). Anyway, this is just some random hammered rambling but wanted to say hello and share some experience after following this thread for a long time (both incarnations) but never posting. Best wishes to you all.