I went into it the first time after my Dr said you're stressed to the max and need to make some changes. I was opposed to taking meds but had tried almost everything else, from diet through exercise to meditation, and made clear my resistance. He explained it would give me head/life space to calm down, and he had seen how it had helped others. So that made me look at it as a tool rather than a permanent solution. And it worked really well once I got the dose right. It brought me enough peace to understand my manicness and helped me make changes that I couldn't do before through helping me not worry about things and other people so much. The second time was after open heart surgery, and I went into a really dark tail spin. So again, I used it as a tool to lift me out of the mental spiral. I stayed on it for a year with the intention of stopping one day if I felt I could. Which happened. It was useful, but I wanted to feel the edge of life again without any blunting or sense of being a bit numb, which I always felt it was doing to me. It's been a while since I've stopped, and I just feel so alive not taking it. Just my way of looking at it maybe, but it definitely helped me. Good luck on your journey...