Your symptoms seem pretty textbook to me.

The only thing that strikes me as being different from "textbook" is the length of your hypomanic episodes. You said only a handful of days...I believe that the "official" diagnosis requires you to have these symptoms for about a week? I'm not entirely sure though, everyone feel free to correct me on that.

As far as what to expect. At least you had some warning. I walked into a pdoc's office one day for depression, and after three weeks of antidepressants, I was told that I'm bipolar, which was a huge surprise to me. I'd known bipolar people and I didn't think that I was anything like them.

As far as meds go, sometimes they suck, and sometimes they're wonderful. Hopefully you and your psychiatrist will have good communication so that this will not be too much of an issue for you. Medication has basically saved my life, and even though it has been a rough journey, I don't regret taking them one bit. You will probably be advised to make some lifestyle changes as well, in order to control the frequency and severity of your episodes. I was also recommended to a therapist, but you already have one so that's not an issue.

Good luck with everything.