I've known that something wasn't quite right for my entire life. When I was a kid, I would have periods of elation and wanting to do ten things at once and then periods of deep, dark depression. When I was in my teens, I would be hypersexual and engage in absolutely inappropriate sexual behavior, even for a teenager. I suffered from bouts of extreme rage, as in standing on a table and shouting at the top of my lungs.

What drove me to the doctor was waking up from a long manic phase in which I left my family for a much younger woman, ran up mountains of debt, and generally acted like a complete a-hole.

Red Panda, I got my diagnosis in about the same amount of time. My doctor went through the DSM IV interview, gave me my diagnosis,and went over my medication options. The couple of times I've been hypomanic since then, I just about convinced myself that he was wrong and thought about going off of my meds. But I've managed to get past that.