All meds have some side effects, some people are more sensitive than others. You can google a "mood stabilizers" and read about all of them.
Lithium is what they call the "gold standard" and it does work. It can cause tremor in your hands, excessive thirst, clumsiness, spaciness.
The anti-convulsants are the others.......Depakote, Tegretol, Lamictal, Neurontin,Topamax. They have some of the same side effects as Lithium.
If you go to about.com they have a great section on Bipolar and meds.
Some people take Lithium and do very well on it. I started on it and it really did save my life, but after a few years the side effects were just too much for me, but I was also taking Depakote with it because my moods were very unstable at the time. The combo of those 2 + antipsychotic meds was just too much for my body, the side effects from all of them were making me physically ill. I had to get off of them and I cleaned myself out and I changed mood stabilizers. That can happen, many people try all different combos till they get it right.
Don't worry about taking meds, sometimes they are very necessary! But after living with this illness for awhile and learning how to manage & cope, you may eventually be able to take very low doses of meds. You will get there eventually.
Right now you need to feel better and live. Research Lithium and anti-convulsants, and talk to the Doc.
(((HUGS)))
