I think about a year after my initial bipolar diagnosis is when I got slapped in the face coming out of my first full blown mania (had some hypomania in the past, but just chopped it up to not being depressed--which I also minimized) in the state hospital with some knowledge of how bipolar affects people. I've had times (a loooot of times) since then where I question if I actually have bipolar, but those are short lived.

Are your (hypo)manic activities more hyperfocused on a project or scattered/jumping from task/activity/project to another constantly?