How long did it take you to accept your diagnosis?

Even after almost seven years, I still have some trouble accepting my diagnosis. It's been a long time since my last full-blown manic episode and the memory has faded...maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought?? For the longest time I believed I was just in some existential crisis that was lasting a long time, but I know better; I just don't know that bipolar 1 is the right dx for me. I have been diagnosed with it four times though, so I suppose I ought to believe it.

I guess I have been questioning the diagnosis, while remaining compliant with treatment. My new pdoc has given me the same diagnosis. I had been wondering if she'd diagnose something different. It takes awhile to wrap my head around it. Thanks for this thread!


WC

I accepted my diagnosis in like a minute the moment my doctor told me I had an anxiety disorder it was like yup that explains so much. I was also pretty accepting when my therapist told me I was Bipolar 2; like that really explains a lot; and my terrible depression.

I was also pretty accepting of medication like just drug me to make me feel normal; but I was also working full time and didn't want to lose my job for something I really couldn't control and medication makes it a lot easier to control.

After being diagnosed it took a while for meds to work and of course I got discouraged and wanted to flush the large percent of them; but I'm stable again and I really like that feeling.

It's been years and I still go back and forth on whether they are right or not. Regardless of whether they are I definitely benefit from being medicated so maybe they know of that which they speak

I guess by accepting a diagnosis I was implying taking meds, particularly APs and/or mood stabilizers.

Not sure whether I have bipolar or sza or perhaps my illness changed from the first to the second, but the medications are the same except sza leans more on the AP and I accept the propensity for delusional thinking, paranoia and auditory hallucinations will be there til the day I die, plus and all consuming state of anxious anticipatory dread.

Mood stabilizers didn't keep me out of the hospital at the doses I was able to take them so but I honestly don't think I will be hospitalized if I am on antipsychotics anyway what would they give me that I am not already taking except more of the same?

My diagnosis was a no-brainer. I had a severe psychotic-manic episode that forced me into restraints and heavy sedation. There was no way to deny or question the diagnosis.

I was heavily sedated and put into isolation but not restrained. Their actions just fed into my paranoia. Because I get neurological disturbances also when i am having an episode, I thought i had headaches and neurological issues rather than a primary psychotic disorder.

It seems so simple in retrospect to accept but it wasn't easy because I was predisposed not to believe it.

I read a book when I was seriously depressed at the beginning called, "Depression and How to Survive It." Such originality, I know. It was an autobiography of the life and times and mental illness of British comedian Spike Milligan. I remember thinking about how amazingly his story fit into mine. Well, joke was on me as Spike Milligan was bipolar in a big way and his calling his autobiography "Depression and How to Survive It" was... I don't know.

I guess what I'm saying with that anecdote is that I was more geared to accept bipolar as a diagnosis from the beginning because depression wasn't accounting for everything symptom wise. The challenge was convincing others to look at it and take it seriously. It was more of an uphill climb than one would expect.