I'm right there with ya, Dan. Been less than a year since I was diagnosed, and I'm still dealing with the fallout.......and yet, I am SO much stronger than I was then. Now I can tell the difference between a normal, "bleah" mood and a crash, a bad day and the beginning of a dysphoric mania. I don't catastrophize as much. I understand my triggers and let the people around me know that I'm not doing well, instead of lashing out in a rage or a torrent of tears.

All of that is a huge victory for me. I've wondered all my life why I was always just a few degrees off, why I had to learn everything the hard way.....now I know. And as much as the diagnosis changed me, I realize now that it wasn't necessarily for the worse.