My Name is Sanjeev Koul. I am M 48, engineering graduate, from Jammu India. I have been abandoned my wife and daughter since past 7 years and have no contact with them whatsoever.My wife is a TGT in Kendreya Vidyalaya and my daughter is a medical student but unfortunately for me both have neither any understanding nor any sympathy / support for mental illness.My wife charged me with wilful deception in marriage by hiding my mental illness before marriage and thus on same grounds created hatred for me from my daughter as well.Her close relatives are MD Doctors and fully aware of my illness but they all hate , ignore and disrespect me because of poisoning by my own wife. My family has had positive Psychic history as my mother and her relatives have had positive history of mental illness. I have been suffering depression, mental illness since i am 17 years old. When I was 22 years old I had a major depressive episode as a college student having hallucinations and pyranoa. However, i was for the first time diagnosed Bipolar Mood disorder at AIIMS Delhi when i was 30 years old.They gave me Lithium but i think it was incomplete and erroneous diagnosis as they missed the main medication ie Vanlafaxine Hyfdrochloride for antidepressant as i am more depressive than maniac due to which i did not benefit much and left this medication after few months until i was finally treated at PGI Chandigarh. Whereas I have been diagnosed for Bipolar Mood disorder and treated accordingly; I understand that I am more towards depressive side of bipolar mood disorder ie Bipolar type 2 rather than maniac type. Sometimes I feel I could even do away with lithium as mood stabilizer or at least reduce it so that I could sustain on venlafaxine hydrochloride only to counter depression which appears to be major part of my illness. I have had unstable job / income due to my illness until i have been under treatment of PGI Chandigarh since past 10 years ; after which my mental health as well as stability of employment / income / quality of life has improved and I have managed to be financially independent as a successful Professional. Currently i am on Lithium 1000 mg and Venlafaxine Hydrochloride 75 mg daily.Clonazepalm 0.5 is prescribed SOS for sleep. Sometimes during high stress / depression i increase Venlafaxine Hydrochloride to 300 mg / day for few weeks until i feel better. Now comming to the issue and the purpose for seeking your advice that in past years 10 Lithium has caused me weight gain from 52 kg to 102 kg.Also i have developed fatty liver with SGPD value going to 136 u/l instead of normal value of less than 50 u/l. I have been a NRI for past 10 years and this high SGPD value is causing me problems for clearing medical for visa for overseas employment . I am member of bipolar disorder forum which is a Facebook group of Bipolar patients worldwide and has mostly patients of western nationalities as its members .I have been informed by many patients that they have changed successfully from Lithium to Lamictal which is an effective mood stabilizer with no side effects causing weight gain or fatty liver issues. Therefore , I seek your advice , support and accordingly a prescription so as to change from Lithium to Lamictal or other mood stabilizers which do not have side effects of weight gain or side effects on Liver i.e. cause fatty liver like Lithium. I am scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia shortly where I shall be working in a remote desert site with no access to medical support etc and therefore need to leave well prepared in advance.