For me it was the impulsivity. For you it could be something else.

By definition, Bipolar is periods of highs and lows, mania (bipolar I) or hypomania (bipolar II), or mixed episodes, alternating with depressive episodes. It's also possible to have just manic and not depressive episodes, but less common. Many people with Bipolar spend a vast majority of time in the depressed side, not manic.

Symptoms of mania and/or hypomania include:

- Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity

- Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)

- More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking

- Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing

- Distractibility (e.g., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)

- Increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation

- Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., the person engages in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

Anyway...I'm sure you've probably heard the symptoms before, but just take a look, and think, what describes me? What am I like?

And it wouldn't hurt to simply ask your pdoc - WHY is he/she so certain that you are Bipolar - what signs are the most important to them?