I agree with the others...you really owe it to yourself to get a referral to a pdoc. BD only gets worse with age--if you can get control now, you'll be MUCH better off. Example: Dr. Kay Redfield Jameson has been head of the Psychiatry Dept at Johns Hopkins for many years, and has been on lithium for 30 years or so...then there's me, just DX'ed, who has bounced around from job to job for 30 years.... Am I smart enough to be a Department head at Johns Hopkins? Maybe...most of my old gang all have their Ph.D. But I sure haven't been stable enough.

So, work really hard now on learning to manage your condition; it can make a HUGE difference in your life!

Your friend,
DJ