It's hard to tell. I had a really hard time with my daughter graduating from high school. I had frequent bouts of crying, severe depression, panic attacks and SI. I asked my psychiatrist to prescribe just one or two pills of something to keep me from spiraling and let me be able to be at her graduation. I was really losing it. He said no...it wasn't a bipolar thing...it was a situational thing and normal life transition. It caused hard feelings on my part but that's how he, as a doctor, saw the difference between something fueled by bipolar disorder versus something fueled by situational or external things. I still disagree and he's acting totally opposite with my daughter gone to college (a normal life transition) by adding an AD, increasing another AD and increasing my benzos plus seeing him every 4 weeks and calling in once a week.