halloweenwitch; I don't know how long you were undiagnosed and symptomatic, but I went 10 plus years running on the high of hypomania and then explaining the depressions away as being burn out. After being diagnosed I felt like I no longer knew who I was. I always identified with the hypomanic me: highly driven, endless energy etc. etc.

It's only been in the last year (I was diagnosed in 2007) that I have welcomed the stability and finally understood how damaging the hypomania can become. Certainly I no longer have the highs that I had before, but I also haven't experienced the debilitating lows that I experienced prior to being diagnosed. I do still experience symptoms of the bipolar, but it's not as severe as before.