I know the side effects are weight gain but its kept me alive. I am bigger than i was and so are others but its stabilised my moods for longer periods. Your dose of 500 isnt that high either.
Its a hard decision to make but id rather be sane! x

Coming off your meds can be dangerous. I hate Depakote as well and have been on lithium for some time now. If you really want to get back some of that spunk ask your pdoc about lamictal or lithium. I think you might be pleased with these, but please use extreme caution when extricating from any mood med.

I hear you about the weight gain. I gined close to 75 pounds from it in 4 months time. Don't come off of it alone though...you have to come off of it gradually so you don't get more sick. My pdoc actually started me on a low dose of Lithium, while on Depakote. As I came off the depakote she increased the Lithium...so I slowly just felt better. Once I came off depakote, the pounds began to come off by themselves.

Good luck. Be smart about your medical decisions.

Follow doctor's advice in coming off. Tell doc you are stopping. As you ramp down, you should ramp up with something else though. Have you tried Lamictal?

My doc added depakote to my wellbutrin and lamictal. I did notice a mood brightening I think, but I was fat as a house and it messed with my female issues.

Depakote gave me 60 extra pds and thinner hair.LOL My hair is thickening and well I'm working on the extra fluff.I am on lithium and it is wonderful.I do have side effects from it though but not really weight gain and hair loss but hand tremors.Lamectal is good too i don't have many side effects from it either.Good luck .:)

i was only dx ed in Feb and was skeptical. After my hair fell out, I went off my meds for three months and then realized, the dx was correct.

Now i am on 250 mg (from 1000) combined with cymbalta at 60 mgs (supposed to be 90, for anxiety.)

There are a lot of people who have found a great medication for them. I would say, try another med. To avoid any weight gain and any further weight loss with depakote, I was thinking about Lamactil, but my free clinic has to find out if i can get that with a voucher.

In the meantime, i have added prescription folic acid to my Depakote, for the hair loss, and then when that is gone i will get a 50 mg b complex with folic acid, to avoid needing the prescription folic acid.

Then i might up to 500 mg of depakote, but not if the 250 continues to work.

Find a doc who is committed to finding you the rt med, or force your doc to change your med. It's your body and yoru right.

YOu can live a normal life with energy and level moods.

I just started depakote in late march and have gone from 100 lbs to nearly 145 lbs none of my clothes fit anymore. Between the cost of new clothes and gaining weight in general how depressing is that? Well I guess we all know how depressing it is. I hate my meds makes me sick everyday to even swallow them.

I was wondering if you have tried going down to 250 mg. daily. This may be more tolerable with less flattening of your emotions. Please talk whatever you decide to do over with your psych doc. If you quit abruptly, you could go into a real bad swing.

Don't ditch your meds without letting you pdoc know! You may just need some adjusting or maybe a different med? I ditched my meds in the past and regretted it when I crashed. Being bp and not being on meds is life threatening.....off meds will only last for a season....eventually you will crash!