When I was diagnosed I was actually so glad. I had been through a year of really poor treatment by a pdoc who thought that it was impossible to be able to work in healthcare and have bipolar, much less severe bipolar, so she kept treating me with drugs that made things worse.

I really already knew what was wrong and the diagnosis just verified it. I had figured it out a few months before and knew my therapist agreed. I knew that it was going to change my life and that certain parts of my life were different forever. I had decided some time before that if I was diagnosed with anything similar to my father I would not have children. I think some people are fine with that; I had a very strong family history besides him and knew genetically it was fighting some bad odds and that I personally wouldn't be a good parent with the particular symptoms I had.

The pdoc who diagnosed me is a specialist in bipolar and I think part of the reason I felt good about the diagnosis is that I walked out of there knowing a good bit about MY disorder and prognosis and what he thought would help treat me, although he felt that at that point in time I wouldn't achieve a prolonged remission. So far (12 years) he's been right although right now is the best I've ever been.

I was able to go through the overwhelmed, surprised, denial part of it all before I was truly diagnosed so that all did happen, but before it was certain.

I seem to be constantly sending people to this website the last few days but PsychEducation | Treating the Mood Spectrum was/is very helpful in understanding it all, particularly for bipolar II. I'm BPI and get a lot of it so I'm sure it's really great for the people it's intended for.