In my experience, having a lack of confidence may not necessarily be a bi-product of but a contributor to bi-polar. While I have always lacked confidence, it seems exasterbated by bi-polar. To me, it seems to magnify many issues, be it insignificant and manageable before bi-polar, and makes them seemingly impossible to get a handle on. This can apply to a lot of things. Shyness becomes social anxiety, hesitation becomes self-doubt, and perception delves into confidence. Bi-polar makes you perceive to be less than 'normal' people and the social/media stigmata of it is always leaving one to 'prove' to be on par with their peers. This lends one to double and triple check every day actions that were seemingly so simple before. It's a vicious cycle that I have found gets easier to cope with medicine AND a solid foundation/continuance of counseling. Hope this helps and makes sense. Again, this is MY opinion and perception, so it may be different for others.