Was anyone else treated for bipolar before being diagnosed?

This is just a passing curiosity I have and I'm wondering if anyone else had this:

A few years ago I had what I now see was a couple month long hypomanic episode. After I had crashed and talked my way out of hospitalization, my pdoc prescribed me Lamictal without saying exactly what it was for. The word "bipolar" was thrown around a bit, but I wasn't diagnosed until a year later.

Is this something that normally happens?

Often, they do not like to put labels on things immediately.Or at all. There are many reasons for this; insurance, could have something to do with your age or they want to be sure before giving you a dx, etc.

I think a lot of people with bipolar disorder are treated for the anxiety and depression that comes with it before a certain and accurate diagnosis is made. If people are like I was, I only ever went to a doctor when suffering from depression or anxiety. Other than one time in my teens when I might have reached full blown manic, all my hypomanic days were what I thought to be "normal". They did create behavioral issues, but I ignored their ramifications.

A psychiatrist finally diagnosed me with "manic depression" and wanted me to take Lamictal, but I refused it and stopped seeing him. I only started bipolar medication (Lithium) when hospitalized for the first time. The hospital doctor consulted with my old psychiatrist and the diagnosis of bipolar disorder became firm.

Yes this happened to me this year. Cyclothymia and biplolar were both discussed with my family doctor and I was started on a couple different meds which I stopped taking due to my own denial. Was referred to psychiatrist who I saw in Oct and she diagnosed bipolar 2 and put me on lamotrigine which I am adhering to.

Yeah that makes sense, I suppose. I didn't think of that.

Way back at my first diagnosis (23+ years ago), I was prescribed something for bipolar as the final step in confirming the diagnosis (based on how I responded to med).

I was always BP II so no question about the Dx from the get go....