Hi i am about to change meds and wondering if any fellow peeps in the house have any experience on this? Im day 11 not drinking and crqvings have been ok (i do eat more sweet things! But ill firgive myself for that) ive been given a choice between switching mood stabilsers or to try quetiapine, i know we arent experts and i see my psychiatrist tomorrow but just seeing if anyone had stories/experience to share as i want to be resilient and get back to work when i can many thanks 
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Welcome Kelly,
I am sure there are people having the same background as you do. I am sorry that atm you didn’t get feedback for your questions. Sometimes putting your thoughts in the main checkin thread can help finding people but it can be also overwhelming due to the number of posts there:
And congratulations on your 11 days. That is a huge achievement 
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I have not been diaganosed with Bipolar (i have another diagnosis) but i have been on a variety of mood stabilizers as well as on seroquil (quietiapine). I found seroquil to work well as far as stabilziing my emotions but did not like side effects at all. It left a bad taste in my mouth (a copper taste, almost as if i had eaten pennies) and was sooo groggy and tired from it… all the time. Maybe my dose was too high idk but i was always so tired. And it made me want to eat (in fact i used to call them seroquil munchies bcuz id get up at random hours of the night and eat everything in sight). Bcuz of the extra eating and not being as active, i gained weight. It does work well for people but for me it wasnt a good fit. Even tho my moods were level, I couldnt function well being tired all the time and craving food and gaining weight.
I am on a mood stabilizer now that works very well for me. It has taken quite a few different meds to get here but my moods are more stable and not as extreme. Im more focused and have energy and just feel more “level”. If that makes sense. Your psychiatrist will hopefully go thru the pros and cons of the meds so that u can make a good decision 
Also… HUGE congratulations on 11 days!!!
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Hi Kelly.
Congratulations on your 11 days sober. That’s awesome.
My son was a bipolar addict. Now he is 10 years sober and stays on his meds and is living a great life with his wife and new baby.
It was a very difficult start that first couple of years when he would go off his drugs, because he didn’t like them, self medicating with booze and other drugs, and waking up in psychiatric wards a couple of times.
It took him awhile, through his psychiatrists direction, to get the right mix of meds for his bipolar condition. But he has been doing it for ten years now.
Staying clean and sober. Communicating with his psychiatrist. Doing therapy. Staying on his prescribed meds. And getting sleep at night and working his program works for him. I think getting that sleep at night is real important for him.
Anyway….
Sorry I couldn’t answer your question but I wanted to weigh in and at least bump this thread back to the top. Hopefully someone else can join in for you.
I’m glad your here.
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Super helpful thank you 
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Awww thank you and very helpful
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Aww thanks for that! I post in that thread everyday but will take a look for sure!
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