in eire bp is considered a chronic mental health condition, i don't think self diagnosis or non-professional diagnosis is suficient enough. no, if anyone feels they have a condition as serious as bp then a professional opinion based on sustained medical or psychiactric observation should be sought...then appropriate treatments can be put into place.
bear in mind that we with bp don't always know better than the pdocs, and we need admit that we are prone to episodes that render our normally good judgement, somewhat impaired.