I'm really glad to hear you've found a real professional who will take you seriously. It took me many years to get the right treatment. Once that happened things really started to move in the right direction for me. I saw in another post where you talked about feeling very angry and so on and that echoes the sorts of things that I experience, i.e. long depression followed by a brief high and then agitation and anger for no apparent reason.

I just want to toss in my 2 cents and let you know things can get better. It may take time to find the best treatment for you, but try to be patient (no pun intended); I certainly hope the med your doc has prescribed works well for you but if not there are lots of others you can try until you find one that works. I had to go through several before I saw real lasting improvement. I'm having a rough time right now but I believe it's temporary.

Don't give up!

P.S. I totally agree with Suze. Depression meds never did anything for me but turn me into a zombie; in fact, it was the total lack of results on those types of meds that helped point in the direction of BP. Lamictal is all I take and it has worked really well up to now. I know that everyone reacts differently to different medications but I hope your doc will consider Lamictal as an option ahead of lithium.