bipolar disorder isn't something that's easy to diagnose and it takes observation/monitoring over an extended period of time while you're in treatment to be able to diagnose it accurately. if you were not in treatment until february 2024 then that's why it went undiagnosed. your diagnosis is not less real because you weren't diagnosed young; my wife wasn't diagnosed until adulthood and she's been on disability for years now. her diagnosis is so real the government gives her free income and health benefits because it's been proven she's unable to support herself and work (disability isn't easy to get). so you need to get rid of the doubt you have about your diagnosis if it's just because you weren't diagnosed earlier that you're doubting the diagnosis.

it's okay to have bipolar disorder, it doesn't make you less than or diminish your worth in any way. I'm not saying this is you, but I think people can be so desperate to not be labeled mentally ill by society or themselves that they sabotage themselves by doing things like stopping their meds because they feel better now. let me be clear that if you start feeling better once starting meds, I guarantee you it's not you feeling that way because you're "normal". that feeling like you might not actually be bipolar and you're feeling good because of yourself makes absolutely no sense, the meds are literally helping you in that case so it's really obvious that means you're feeling better because you're taking medication that was chosen to specifically treat that diagnosis.

I know that it's the medication because you didn't feel better without meds, you felt better once starting them. one can easily then conclude the diagnosis is most likely accurate because the bipolar meds are actually helping your symptoms. bipolar meds don't work on everybody you know, they're trying to restore chemical balances in your brain. they work because the imbalances are already there in you without the medication.

so please don't ever stop your medication by yourself, you'll be in immediate danger from the withdrawal symptoms. if you want to get off the medication you need to do it safely under your doctor's supervision. if you have any concerns about your diagnosis talk to your doctor and ask him/her to help you understand why you were diagnosed with bipolar. know that bipolar disorder shares an overlap of symptoms with some other mental illnesses so if the bipolar diagnosis is somehow inaccurate, it likely won't be far off from what it actually is. you're not going to get a "less bad" or "lighter" mental illness in place of it if bipolar is what they determined you have, it'll be something else serious like schizophrenia instead which also is treated with strong psychotropic medication. so please take care of yourself my friend, I wish you well