Well there are a lot of physical symptoms associated with Bipolar. That you can actually notice, restlessness, speech pattern, sleep problems, you get the idea, but to the untrained eye they may get overlooked, not quite the same as a swollen wrist. However lots of physical illness can not exactly be seen either... cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases... at least not all the time. So it's sort of a flawed thinking, seeing what we want to see.

Only you know if it will be worth telling her. Maybe right now isn't the best time to tell her. The dx is still fresh to you, you have enough stress at the moment with taking time off work new meds etc. If it were me, I would probably wait until I was in a better place with it myslef. I'd wait until I had more time to comes to terms with the dx, adjust to the meds, and have worked out a treatment plan, and until I felt strong enough that if there was going to be any nay-saying that I would be able to handle it.

I hope that if the times comes and you do decide to tell her that she will try to keep an open mind and let you help educate her enough that she can be of some support for you.

I think sometimes with parents part of the real problem is that they don't want to except it because it's their child. They don't want to admit their child has problems, or that it might be a reflection of them or their parenting. Guilt and helplessness, sometimes easier to pretend.

Your mom probably realizes there are MI's, most people do believe that schizophrenia exists for example, but easier when it's not your own child to accept.