"i took depakote 500mg for a week then increased my dose to 1000mg after the next week. the next day i began having terrible stomach pains and pains in my kidneys, especially after eating. i emailed my doctor and he told me the side effects would subside but they didn&#039;t. they actually got worse and the abdominal pain would linger all day and night. i also had a hard time sleeping, i would wake up every 1-2 hours and sleep less than 6 hours a night, along with having very vivid dreams. the dreams later got more and more violent/terrifying and i began to fall into a very deep depression, one i had never felt in my entire life. i stopped taking this medication after three weeks. i will never take this medication even if it saved my life."