just found out I have bipolar, now what??

Look to those who gave you the diagnosis for a treatment plan, stay away from Google - never a good idea

Hi Gwen,

It's difficult to have a new diagnosis. I was diagnosed with depression for 25 years including post partum after the birth of my oldest son. Finally 7 years ago a shrink that knew me well saw the mania. I devasted being labeled bipolar, there is a lot of infomation on the internet. My doctor put me on a mood stablizer (Lithium) and I've done very well since. 

See what you can find online, I live in Canada and there are lots of resources online. If you get stuck ask on this site or get ahold of me and I send you my private email.  Best wishes to you and good luck. 

Wikipedia is often a good starting point for an overview of things like bipolar disorder. Then, if you want more details, you can follow up some of the references, or go to some expert sites on mental health issues like bipolar disorder.  Its also worth reading up on psychology, so that you know more about the mind, and how can it malfunction. But, you have to remember that 'bipolar' is ultimately an umbrella-term for a wide range of variations in mental processes across many different kinds of people. In short, you need to get to know yourself. For instance, you can start with a daily-diary, monitoring your moods, sleep, and other mental states. good luck

Badnewsbrain has some good ideas for learning about bipolar disorder. I think that there are (Internet) organizations in the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA those sites will have further resources.  My doctor suggested reading autobiographes when I was first diagnoises.   Kay Redman, Stephen Fry (youtube), Patty Duke, Margaret Trudeau and Carrie Fisher come to mind.  All the autobiographes were useful to me, they normalized the illness someone, of course those are the rich and famous...but the behaviours a similar to ours.

  I don't know what age range you're in, I think I'm a lot older but if you want to find younger BP's I bet you can. It is always a shock to get such a diagnoisis, I have no doubt that an intelligent woman like you will find further resources. Let me know how you do - I use a free site for BP, Mood Tracker to follow my ups and downs, sleep, meds... it's easy to use and a helpful record to use with the medical community.  Best to you,  Karin

I'm confused, why don't you ask your drs who gave you your diagnosis? If they have diagnosed you, surely they have given you a treatment plan and are available for questions and concerns? I'd be very surprised if they haven't offered these things, there should be no need to Google for advice when your drs are there for you. Don't quite understand why you prefer Google to healthcare professionals,

I do. if his experience was or is anything like mine, you go to see your GP in awful distress about depression, mania and/or insomnia etc; you get a referral to a psychiatrist; they diagnose you with bipolar or whatever, and prescribe you meds; and you go home and back to your problems.  I was given no additional help beyond this diagnosis and prescription, no information about my condition, nothing. Thank Chaos for google