I agree with Bulldozer. I decided one day to quit all my meds...cold turkey....effexor, lithium, risperdal....I ended up in the hospital five days after...I was manic for those five days and it felt great...I felt like my old self and my boyfriend didn't even notice because he thought it was the old me....but the fifth day was horrible...my friends were petrified. They had never seen me like that.
Now there are days where I have late nights and I forget my pills....and the next day is absolute ****. So...I try not to forget but I won't stop just like that either. It isn't nice to be put in a hospital room with absolutely nothing in it because they are afraid of what you will do with anything.....I mean it is an empty room.....with a chair.
There are times, where I think maybe I am not bipolar after all, I don't need these...but then my friends and boyfriend remind me of the hospital....also my boyfriend and I get into fights when I forget my meds.....both because he is angry I forget them...and second because I have a fuse less than a centimeter long!!!!!!!!!
IT IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA to just stop taking medication. I came off Depakote, 1000mg and had to do so over a period of 3 months, I still felt pretty ****, I became dizzy, had terrible migraines and my anxiety levels increased. At first I felt great - the risk of coming off them is that you can either become incredibly manic or incredibly depressed, don't be fooled by a period of feeling ok. These medications are working directly on the chemicals in your brain so of course they are going to make a difference.
I dont know about that medication, but i have been on so many different meds... you would feel a difference by now if it was doing something negative i think... i have just stopped taking meds quite a few times, and it hasnt ever really effected me... atleast it has never made me any worse than i am without meds... so it likely isnt a problem... they say its not good to just stop taking med, but from my experience its not that big of a deal... it might be a big deal if you were on the meds for quite a long time... i have been on high dosages of meds for a year and then one day just stopped taking them... i get pretty depressd, but i dont find that any differnt from my regular life when i a not on meds...