A Misdiagnosis: What’s Next?

This past week, I experienced one of the darkest periods of my life which has left me in a pile of medical bills, lost friends, and rash behavior. It had been going off and on for years but was never bad enough to the point where it affected each and every part of my life negatively. I was not able to go to work, my friends were getting tired of my antics, and I lost way more than I ever could have imagined. As a result of this, I consulted a new doctor who told me the news: I had been misdiagnosed for years and was in fact bipolar.

So what comes next? At first, I was really shocked about everything. I had a range of emotions from guilt of how I treated others during my manic episode to relief that I finally had something that worked for me. I started thinking of how other medications had not worked or had made my condition worse. All of that made sense to me now. I started thinking of the future and what I could accomplish now.

Have you ever been misdiagnosed before? If so, what steps did you take? Are there cases in which a diagnosis may be good or bad?