Im not sure. I usually just tell whatever new therapist I have my diagnosis and they either agree or dont.

Like right now my therapist is wondering if I have schizoaffective with bipolar 2 as the mood disorder instead of bipolar 1. With PTSD heightening my emotional reactions when I am hypomanic.

Im not sure this counts as a “new” bipolar diagnosis though. Its the same condition just with a different name.

So I guess Ive been “diagnosed” like this- 4 or 5 times. Ive been moving a lot so I dont tend to keep therapists for very long. A year at most usually- sometimes less than 6 months, and different therapists have floated different ideas.

My last therapist diagnosed me as schizoaffective bipolar type. The psychiatrist I was seeing at the same time had diagnosed me as the same at about the sams time. Not sure if these count as individual diagnoses too- for example.

So I dont know. Thats my answer to this question