For context, I've had almost exactly the same set of diagnoses as you, except my manic episodes were shorter so they called it type II. I largely agree with yo

For context, I've had almost exactly the same set of diagnoses as you, except my manic episodes were shorter so they called it type II. I largely agree with you - diet, exercise, close friends, time in the sun and so on are fantastically useful and underrated. They solve a lot of things. That being said, even when I had lots of close friends and was in fantastic shape, I wanted to kill myself. SSRIs stopped me from thinking about suicide every single day of my life - they literally changed my life. Lithium largely fixed the mania. If there are real, objectively bad things happening and taking a drug can stop them, I'm all for it. I definitely think that psychiatrists don't know WHY a lot of things work and I think they way they diagnose and treat patients is basically just "try these and see if they work" but I don't think it's worth throwing everything away just because the solution needs a lot of improvement.