Sorry you have to wait until Jan. Time goes so slow when you're terribly depressed. I'd spend the time reading about bipolar as much as possible and the different lifestyle things you can do and ways other people handle it. Maybe it would make you feel like something was being done while you wait for meds. (if that's what you're going for). Keeping a journal might help kill time (for you, not to show to anybody).

I've only had two really bad episodes of depression (several times of general melancholy brooding, but not the real hard stuff). After I finally got through the last really bad one, I hoped that I'd never have another because I'm not sure I could get through it again. I find my depressions much harder to deal with than the mania. Fortunately for me (in a not so fortunate kind of way) I get manic way more often than depressed.

I'm about as much of a hermit as a person with a spouse and kid can be and I love my time alone. When I'm told I'm keeping to myself too much. I go for long walks alone, and that seems to appease the naggers since it gets me out of the house. It's like an isolation dance - we're isolating we're walking, we're isolating we're walking...

When I was depressed and too tired to even read, I was between docs and I used to fantasize about some amazing new doc or T that I was going to get and have conversations with this imaginary person. Sometimes they helped me figure out what I really wanted to say. Like getting a practice run in before the actual meeting so I get more accomplished and say what I've already planned out. (Clever, clever people with note my inability to be spontaneous).

If you're not too down to read, I'd read books, books on bipolar, books on bipolar depression, books on psych meds, books on therapy, books on tape if you're too miserable to read it yourself. And you have the net to get all that great information (and you can get it alone in a small dark room

Cheap books to be found on ebay, amazon, and half.com, even barnes&noble online sells used copies too. Cheap audio books too, cheap journals for writing in, or a cheap voice recorder to moan into. Type in bipolar and see what you get and all for 9.99 plus shipping and handling...Comes right to your door so you can stay comfortably isolated.

Hang in there until January. If nothing else, just keep breathing in and out. Check in here, so we know you are....good luck...