Treating Bipolar Disorder with SSRI vs Being Unmedicated

For the last several years, I was prescribed increasing dosages of Zoloft to treat my worsening bipolar disorder. Only recently did I meet a doctor who told me this was probably amplifying and worsening my already fragile state of mind. I've slowly been weening off Zoloft for the last several months and it's night and day. I finally feel emotionally stable for the first time in years, maybe a decade or so. It's wonderful but also quietly frustrating. At no point did any doctor warn me about this poor match of medication to illness and I'm just left baffled.

I know this might be unanswerable on some level, but do you think being on SSRIs left me worse off than had I been on no medication at all?