Hi Dan,
You're always welcomed here. I have bi-polar, anxiety, arthritis & crohns disease. I bounce around quite a few of the boards here.
I was on depakote and it worked really well for me. I understand about the cravings and weight gain. I had gained a little more weight that I was happy with and asked to be put on something else. It took a very long time and I almost considered going back on it just to have some type of stability in my life. Thankfully I finally was able to adapt to another drug.
Hope you continue to do well on it. Not everyone experiences the weight gain.