1. It really helped to have that objective set of eyes on me on a regular basis. My therapist was my reality check and helped monitor my symptoms so that I was able to reach out to my pdoc at the earliest sign of problems rather than those symptoms being allowed to get too far along.

2. I also have PTSD, and the history and issues associated with that absolutely required a great deal of therapy work. Honestly, the PTSD-related problems caused me far more problems than my bipolar symptoms. Once I had worked through my PTSD issues, the bipolar issues remaining have been entirely manageable.