It took a lot of time for me. It took my family and close friends accepting it, it took a lot of therapy visits, it took seeing my improvement on meds and in therapy... For me the acceptance came gradually. I came to believe I was Bipolar, to trust the mental health professionals, I slowly became able to distinguish me from the symptoms. The last part I still struggle with. I don't know that I will come to a point where I'll just know what is the symptoms and what is me... but it gets easier.
Hang in there.