"he watched his clock the whole time"

He watched his clock because he is not interested in therapying you or your permanent recovery, his job is to get you pharmaceutical drugs of some kind.

It is obscene how callously health care pros hand out a mental health Dx of bipolar these days.

In the old days, at least when I was Dxd with bipolar, it was after weeks of inpatient and it was a consensus diagnoses based on the observations and opinions of several mental health pros.

Nobody should receive any mental health dx in the first outpatient visit. They simply can not know enough, and have performed enough tests and reviewed all your history to make a clinical Dx in an out patient setting. That is so irresponsible.

You had an car accident that required surgery. Your body and mind was shocked during the accident, and then violated again with surgery. You need to heal your body fully. The trauma of both the accident and the surgery leaves echos in your flesh, in your soft tissues and your nerves. A therapist or a pill can not do that for you. It's no wonder you have depression, your body is telling you to stay slow and go easy to repair itself, and that depression is your bodies personal communication to you that you need to be gentle to yourself. Being hurt and in pain for long periods is exhausting and frustrating but it does not mean you have a mental illness.

In terms of physical therapies that will have a positive and healing effect on your mind as well as your body.

If money is no object, you should try Rolfing, Alexander Technique and or Feldenkrais Method.

In addition you may want to see an acupuncturist or a qi gong practitioner who will teach you how to mobilize the soft tissue in your body and strengthen your nervous system.

Your best bet there would be to learn chi gung from people experienced dealing with deep tissue trauma.

If you have limited funds like I did after my accident, learn tai chi, it will not only gently get all your parts moving again, but in the process you may spontaneously dissolve any triggers you might have picked up from the aftermath of the accident. At the very least it gives you a tool to go inside and manage your body, mind and feelings. If you learn tai chi from a reputable teacher, then your practice will help you heal your entire being from your trauma. If tai chi is too involving for your schedule, A simple chi gung set then, would be the answer.

Your recovery is on your hands and it's up to you to see it through. In a world where it may be hard to find a genuine healer and not just someone eager to over Dx bipolar or push another Rx.

Self therapy and self healing techniques are invaluable as you will be able to turn to them again and again in the future.

If I were you I would consider yourself extremely fortunate if you find a therapist or psychiatrist who is focused on genuine healing and permanent recovery from mental health issues.

In my personal experience, most mental health care pros are people that hand out labels push drugs and try to convince you that you are powerless over your mind,body and moods. That is not healing at all, nor is it true.

Good on you for sticking to your guns and refusing meds. That stuff just keeps you sick.

best wishes,
Jane