I wasn't surprised - it tied things together for me and once I did some research on my own and understood BP, it all made sense. I really didn't know much about BP until someone said "you might be bipolar". Thus, looking back on my life, my behavior connected closely to someone who has BP2.

My diagnosis was sort of forced upon me. My wife *made* me go see someone because I was getting worse and my strategy of "I'll figure it out on my own" wasn't working. Furthermore, my excuse of "this is who I am" was wearing thin. So my p-doc sat me down, asked me a bunch of questions about behavior, history, and family history, and just let it sit for a while with no diagnosis......just some ideas about BP or BPD. I was initially prescribed Depakote and that helped but things were still a bit edgy. After a few more meetings, he decided on BP2 and put me on lithium which has worked well. Now I'm in CBT therapy and that's going fine too but one day at a time.