These are the tools I have to keep me still sitting here. They may not work for you but they have freed me.  


1. stop taking medication made for something else that just happens to work on you.  
controlling manic moments in fleeting windows is a poor reward for being stuck with a drug your entire life that has some pretty awful side effects.   
Why are we taking medicines to stop brain seizures when our brains are not seizing?

" There was not enough time to do any significant studies on other possible uses such as in bipolar disorder before the patent ran out. Hence, there are very little data pertinent to its efficacy or effectiveness for bipolar mania or depression. What data are available are at best inconclusive,1 but [*Maudsley Prescribing in Psychiatry*](https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Maudsley+Prescribing+Guidelines+in+Psychiatry%2C+13th+Edition-p-9781119442585)*,* citing 8 pertinent reports, rate it as “probably effective” for mania—the only medication with that rating in a table of 13 off-label possible alternative treatments.2 "  
\[[Source](https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/oxcarbazepine-does-it-have-a-role-in-bipolar-disorder)\]\[[list of side effects](https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-17984-5005/trileptal-oral/oxcarbazepine-oral/details/list-sideeffects)\]\[[withdrawal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csUuBpFUzk0)\]\[[cost](https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/oxcarbazepine-does-it-have-a-role-in-bipolar-disorder)\]  


If you put all that together the cost far outweigh the benefits.