What’s the best thing to prevent manic episodes?

I’ve tried quite a few things in the past, first just APs then they added Lamictal and it did nothing to help my manic episodes. So then I got put on Geodon with lithium and that seemed to work back in 2018-2019. I went off the lithium because I didn’t think I needed it anymore.

I was alright for quite a while, but this past year I’ve been having mini manic episodes that last 3-5 days. They’ve gotten quite dangerous, I online shop and spend money I need for rent and groceries, plus I don’t sleep. I’m coming down from an episode right now.

I had an urgent appointment with my pdoc yesterday and her solution is to go back up to a therapeutic dose of lithium(1200mg) I hope and pray this does the trick because when I come out of my manic episode I crash hard and need like 4-5 days to recover.

But you guys are scaring me about lithium being poison to your body, What else would you recommend or have personal experience with?

Right now I take Loxapine(old generation AP) plus Geodon(atypical AP) and now back on 1200mg lithium plus some other meds

I was on Valproate for a while.

It’s pretty good.

Ultimately, your pdoc can suggest something in place of lithium.