You Just Received A Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis…Now What?
- Kassie Love
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Written by: Jordan Kadish
Reviewed for Accuracy by: Kassie Love, MMFT, MPH
You’ve had a long and exhausting journey with bipolar disorder. After years of struggling with symptoms, seeing clinicians, and researching your symptoms, you’ve finally received a diagnosis and can put a name to what you’ve been dealing with. This is a relief—you finally feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for your mental health. However, you also feel overwhelmed and lost. Now that you know what your diagnosis is, what should you do about it? There are a bunch of treatment options on the table, so which should you choose? Most of all, you wonder how to navigate this all on your own. If you feel this way, know you’re not alone.
It is normal to feel confused about the next steps after receiving a mental health diagnosis. While it’s comforting to know what you’re struggling with, it can feel isolating to go through treatment alone—especially when it comes to making initial decisions. Thankfully, there are people there to support you through this process. This blog will help outline treatment options and next steps for caring for yourself when you have bipolar disorder.
Understanding Bipolar Disorder
Perhaps you are aware of what you have been struggling with, but aren’t quite sure how these symptoms are classified as bipolar disorder. Understanding bipolar disorder—or any mental health disorder, for that matter—can be difficult. Especially if you’ve been dealing with symptoms for most of your life, you may struggle to distinguish what is a symptom of a mental disorder from what is simply you. Regardless, taking the steps to better understand bipolar disorder and how it may affect you is key to personalizing your treatment plan.
Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings, from emotional highs (called mania or hypomania) and lows (called depression) (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2024). Mania is marked by high energy, irritability, and euphoria. Hypomania is a less extreme version of mania and usually lasts for a shorter amount of time. Depression is marked by low mood, fatigue, and lack of motivation.
There are three types of bipolar disorder: bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, and cyclothymic disorder (Cleveland Clinic, 2023). Bipolar I disorder occurs when a person experiences mood swings between mania and depression that last a long time—typically, depression lasts at least 2 weeks and mania lasts at least 1 week (or requires hospitalization). Bipolar II disorder is marked by periods of depression lasting 2 weeks or more, as well as hypomania. Cyclothymic disorder is a milder form of bipolar disorder, in which individuals experience shifts between mild depressive states and hypomanic states for at least 2 years (including shifts to “normal” states in between episodes) (Cleveland Clinic, 2022).
Symptoms of bipolar disorder may vary from person to person, but typically involve the following:
Manic episodes (NAMI, 2021): Marked by high energy, feeling overjoyed or excited, euphoria, irritability. May require hospitalization. Typically lasts one week. Significantly affects the ability to function in day-to-day life.
Hypomanic episodes (Cleveland Clinic, 2021): Same symptoms of mania, but less extreme. Lasts at least four consecutive days. Does not impair day-to-day functioning severely. Does not require hospitalization.
Depressive episodes (Collier, 2023): Marked by low mood, loss of interest in normal activities, fatigue, feeling worthless, poor concentration, and moving slowly. Lasts at least two weeks.
Treatment Options
If you have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the best next step is to look into treatment options. Treatment may look different for each individual, depending on their healthcare professional’s recommendations, but the most common treatment for bipolar disorder is a combination of therapy and medication (Mind, 2022). Your healthcare professional will likely prescribe two different types of medication: one that helps treat depression during depressive episodes, and one that helps treat manic/hypomanic episodes. Likewise, they typically recommend talk therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which can help you learn how to manage depressive episodes when they come. Unfortunately, no treatment is foolproof and 100% effective. This is why a combination of treatment approaches is often recommended for mental health conditions.
Personalized Care Plan
You and your healthcare professional will work together to create a care plan geared toward your personalized concerns. This will likely entail a combination of talk therapy, medication, emotional check-ins, and the creation of a crisis plan. Emotional check-ins can help you monitor how you feel day to day and quickly recognize if an episode is coming on. Likewise, crisis plans can ensure that you know how to handle a mental health emergency or start feeling extreme distress. You should feel encouraged to share your personalized care plan with important people in your life, like your family, friends, loved ones, doctor, and therapist.
Receiving a bipolar disorder diagnosis can feel validating, scary, and confusing all at the same time. Embrace these emotions instead of avoiding them—this reaction is completely normal. The most important thing is that you follow your diagnosis with a personalized plan for treatment, which your healthcare providers will support you with. You are not alone.
References:
Cleveland Clinic. (2023). Bipolar I vs Bipolar II: Breaking down the differences. Cleveland Clinic. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/bipolar-1-vs-2
Cleveland Clinic. (2022). Cyclothymia (cyclothymic disorder). Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17788-cyclothymia
Cleveland Clinic. (2021). Hypomania. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21774-hypomania
Collier, S. (2023). Bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness or manic depression). Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/bipolar-disorder-manic-depressive-illness-or-manic-depression-a-to-z
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2024). Bipolar disorder: Symptoms & causes. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355955
Mind. (2022). Treatment for bipolar disorder. Mind. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/bipolar-disorder/treatment-for-bipolar/
National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2021). What is mania, and what does it mean to have a manic episode? Here’s what experts say. NAMI. https://www.nami.org/in-the-news/what-is-mania-and-what-does-it-mean-to-have-a-manic-episode-heres-what-experts-say/
Kassie Love is a psychotherapist specializing in more intensive mood and emotional regulation needs, as well as unusual thoughts and experiences. Visit here to learn more and see how you can improve your mental well-being.
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