I am a 56-year-old English philosopher who has had a bipolar 1 disorder diagnosis since 1994 on the basis of having had a manic episode preceded by several months of depression. I began taking mood stabilizing medications at this point and have continued to do so ever since. During this time there has been no recurrence of the mania or depression. There is then a sense in which I have come to cope with my bipolar 1 diagnosis by taking medication. Indeed, during this time I have been happy to think of the medication as causally responsible for this fact. But this is really only half of the story. For there is an important sense in which the medication did not help me to cope at all.