I had some early clues - insomnia, up and downs, hypersexuality (though in this case it was masturbating, which they don't ask you about), overspending, an eating disorder (usually accompanied by depression or bipolar).

They diagnosed me with depression, I think because my weight was their major worry, and they didn't stop to ask question s until later.

I recently got the medical records from my old pdoc of 10 years. After 1 year, maybe a bit less, she changed my diagnosis from post-partum depression to bipolar II. I guess I should have clued in when she gave me Abilify; I never even knew. Then, I had a big, major break, hypergraphia, emailing people at 2 AM like it was no big deal (about business related matters and such), going like I had an IV straight of strong coffee shooting into me, several day of no sleep, interrupting everyone trying to talk to me, talking loudly...it was bad.

Yeah, since the pdoc witnessed most of that, I ended up Bipolar Type I. I think it might also have been part of why my eating disorder was so focused on the extremes of overexercising, why I didn't just collapse on the side of the road during those long runs I did several times each day, that part of it was driven by the hypomania.

That episode nearly got me thrown in the psych hospital, but my husband begged the pdoc for some stronger sleep meds (and she was a big believer in sleep bringing mania down) and a couple of days, and the next time he brought me there, I still wasn't normal, but I'd gotten back to hypomanic, which was a huge improvment.