“Does bipolar medication change your personality?”
My friend has bipolar disorder and is taking meds. Does bipolar medication change your personality?
6 Answers
Sometimes. Particularly lithium causing flattening and decreased creativity. Goal is to be healthier version of yourself. Don’t worry, Won’t have radical change in interests and values.
Personality is innately yours, so medication does not change one's personality, but it can help stabilize you so that more of your winning personality will shine.
No
I wouldn’t say that the usual meds for bipolar disorder “change” one’s personality. Rather, they allow the better and more socially effective aspects of one’s personality to emerge stronger - while at the same time, the more problematic aspects of one’s personality will then recede. For example: if one were bipolar on the manic side, and were grandiose or given to outbursts of anger, treatment with mood stabilizers like lithium or lamotrigine or depakote would reduce those abnormal tendencies and restore one’s personality along more normal and agreeable and adaptive lines.
It depends, but what Bipolar medication is "supposed" to do is help the individual balance out their mood. Instead of extreme highs and lows, derived from a chemical imbalance, there should be more emotional stability. Personality is a consistent mode of being so if the medication is helping to achieve that then yes, there will be a more stable personality that emerges which would be a change.
This link is insightful:
https://www.sharecare.com/health/bipolar-disorder-treatment/will-medications-bipolar-disorder-personality
https://www.sharecare.com/health/bipolar-disorder-treatment/will-medications-bipolar-disorder-personality
