Wow, thanks for the welcome, everyone! Much appreciated - nice to not feel so alone in this.

I'm a little wary of the bipolar meds because of the many nasty side effects. Just the idea of gaining even more weight makes me want to cry! The last pdoc suggested just staying on Wellbutrin for now because it's been helpful at managing symptoms for 10 years, but when I was seeing her I was at a more or less "normal" mood level. I kinda melt into a puddle of useless overemotional goo within 24 hours of stopping it, so I'm pretty consistent about taking meds. Many years ago when I was on a fairly high dose of Prozac it gave me auditory hallucinations and basically kicked off a long-lasting nasty hypo/manic (mixed?) episode. I know that's considered medication-induced, but I'm wondering if it means they'll give me a bipolar I dx instead of bipolar II?

I keep thinking, "OK, so I don't sleep more than 3 hours a night for a week at a time. But I know my body is tired, even if my brain just won't shut off, so that's not really hypomanic, is it?" But then I think, "I'm not getting more than 3 hours of sleep a night, I feel great, turn into a social butterfly, start having brilliant insights, and get more work done in a day than my peers do in a week. That's just not normal." I don't know which seemingly rational argument to believe, but I guess that's what tdocs are for!