Medication:
Few subjects are as important in bipolar disorder as that of medication. It is the source for many of their greatest hope, but can at the same time be the source of greatest torment.
There are some people who possible manage bipolar without medication, but they are very few and very far in between. If you have bipolar disorder you will need as part of your treatment to have some effective medication. In some ways it is a little like swimming in very deep water with high waves with a 500 hundred pound weight on you. Medication if it is effective removes the weight and quiets the waves. The water is still deep.
Many people are tortured by side effects. All the medicines used to treat bipolar disorder have heavy duty side effects. In partnership with your doctor work to deal with them. Don't give up.
The first and most important rule of medication is make sure that the person you are listening to knows what they are talking about. I don't. I am not a doctor and my level of medical knowledge is low. But I do want to point you in some directions that can help. As I find more and more sources I will add them to this section of the website.
Your doctor- Above all else tell your doctor what is going on with you. Tell him what seems to be working. Tell him what is not.
The best website I have found that deals with medication is healthyplace.com Go to the section titled psychiatric medications/patient information. Everything you might want to know about almost every drug used to treat bipolar is there. I strongly advise you to check it out.
The book Bipolar for Dummies also has a very good chapter on medication. See chapter 7 in the book.