So the only family member I still talk to is my mother.  Go figure a bipolar guy with strained family relationships--it's all their fault anyway (I'm probably hypo atm...).  I was taking to my mother on the phone at 2am tonight about my latest psych appointment and how everything is progressing after my big new diagnosis.  We were discussing my new med, lamictal, and the plan going forward when my mother all of sudden goes, "Oh, yeah, I took that for a long time."  Apparently she'd put together her own ritual one night with some mat cutting knives, and pulled back for some reason.  Then for whatever reason ended up with psych who put her on lamictal and "something else."  Now, I've been suicidal, and I've been on antidepressants, anxiolytics, and ADHD stimulants most of my life.  There's no way I'm ever going to judge someone for any drug they have to take to feel right--as long as it's something they're actually working with a professional to achieve a clinical result.  

But then my mother followed up her story with the one thing that I do get judgy about in mental health.  I asked her whatever happened to her with the lamictal, thinking family history could be a good thing to know if she had to stop for some reason.  She just stopped.  She took it for a long time, felt better, figured she probably developed an "immunity" (tolerance) to it, and tapered herself off.  That she's aware of no one has ever evaluated her for bipolar, but if her non-compliance isn't exactly how bipolar kills a bunch of its victims I'll be damned.  I explained it to her too.  If she'd developed a tolerance to the meds she wouldn't feel "normal" she'd start feeling the pathology that led to her needing the drugs.