I was diagnosed years ago now, like ... at least 4 years or so. Nobody ever thought to tell me about this. I started complaining about brain fog and forgetfulness and whatever else, and a couple of the various shrinks were like "oh yeah that's normal for when you're depressed" without elaborating, and I had to research it all myself.

What the hell. Seriously. And I don't/didn't have bad shrinks either. One wasn't super great and was a bit wet behind the ears, but I can only conclude that they haven't figured out on the ground that they need to be proactive rather than reactive with bipolar, and inform clients what's going on up front once diagnosed. This is not happening.

That being said, I read a lot of bipolar research in peer-reviewed journals, and researchers are starting to figure out - especially after a recent study in which they asked bipolar people about their experience of treatment and its shortcomings - that they need to be more proactive and more integrated, because just being reactive and trying to stop symptoms only, does NOT cut it.

Since the research is going that way, maybe we'll see significant improvement in clinical tx in five years?