i am also newly diagnosed. the funny thing is that i was a mental health counselor for 4 years and worked with bipolar people. my problem in accepting what i have is that i have seen the severe cases. the ones with psychosis and i have always thought i might be but my symptoms were not as severe as the people i was working with. i just thought the anger and rage and irritibility i always struggled with was poor coping on my part. i had problems with promiscuity but i was always drunk at the time so i thought again, blame it on the alcohol. but my therapist told me that the urge to drink is a symptom of the mania and the poor judgment that went along with that was also a symptom. so now i have come to the conclusion that i do have this and i have accepted it. in response to your post about having a life sentence. the way i look at it is this : Thank God that this is an illness and it is not just you having a messed up life. Thank God that this illness has treatments that have been proven successful. i try to relate it to medical illnesses like a person with diabetes. that doesn't make you a bad person. you have symptoms and you take meds for them. the meds control the symptoms and you can still function. maybe that will help you with your acceptance. but please do not think this is your fault. i am guilty of thinking that i've done something wrong and i'm being punished but this is the illness talking. you can email me if you want to talk more. i was diagnosed in may but have had symptoms since i was a preteen. always in denial until now coming to terms with this. it's not a life sentence it is an opportunity to learn more about who you are. i think you can get my email from my profile if you like. if not respond on here should you want to talk.