Are you taken seriously as a high functioning bipolar?

I'm not high functioning right now. I tried working a seasonal job this summer, and it hasn't worked out well (although last summer I did pretty well working less hours). I've been hospitalized about 10 times in the past 3 years. I managed to graduate high school but failed half my college courses due to symptoms. The college atmosphere was terrible for my bp/sza between staying up late at night, stressing out over assignments, and having unlimited access to drugs and sex.
My mom wants me to go on disability because right now I'm totally dependent on her and if something happened to her I'd be screwed. I would like to work, but I just can't handle it right now.
But I'm almost never taken seriously. My current pdoc knows I'm low but doesn't think anything about it because I'm not manic, so I must be safe.

You should be eligible for vocational rehab services through your state. You can be working and get services to help optimize things so that you can continue working as successfully as possible. It is called slightly different things in different states but does the same thing. I worked with them when I was doing ok and continued when I was not well at all. They had some recommendations that made work easier and also provided some training to my managers in how to make things go better for me.

I also think you may want to explore a treatment team that believes you no matter where you are and what you need.

Thank you. I will look into that. They suggest a college career counselor . I am not going to walk in to some random college asking to speak with a career counselor.

Yeah, voc rehab is much more what you need than a career counselor. They can provide training (my former assistant got his associate's degree paid for through them), equipment, assessment (I had an occupational therapist follow me for several days at work and then provide recommendations and education), and a lot of other stuff. If you go in with some ideas of what might help you be able to manage better I think it probably goes better; I was initially evaluated for a computer, both to increase speed and because I have a condition that causes double vision and made some paperwork very difficult. That didn't happen for me but that was partly because things were going to computers anyway at that point.

It does take time to get in a lot so be prepared for a waiting period.