You definitely need know for sure. I'm newly diagnosed so I can't talk about long term management but I can say I feel so much better after getting on medicine. I was diagnosed after I was manic for a number of months and had allowed my life spin completely out of control and now have to deal with the consequences. With the medicine and regularly seeing a counselor I've "fixed" everything but two things. You don't want to wait until you hit rock bottom or worse yet attempt suicide (which was one of the things I tried)