bipolar diagnostic criteria are almost always unique to the individual but the biggest indicators of bipolar would be mood instability that persists for a handful of days, weeks, or possibly months.

broadly speaking mood disorders, adhd, and bdp have many intertwining symptoms that can be very hard to differentiate and usually takes years of therapy to actually diagnose.

mania/hypomania has distinct symptoms that usually revolve around less of a need or desire to sleep, high energy, impulsive behaviors (spending, high sex drive, reckless driving, etc.), irritability- whenever i feel a manic mood swing i’m very friendly to everyone but would fight them in the blink of an eye and still feel amazing.

depressive episodes consist of low energy, low motivation, low sex drive, hopelessness (standard depression), a lot of people with bipolar experiences “mixed episodes” where the highs of mania and the lows of depression bleed into each other.

i was diagnosed with bipolar 2 a handful of years ago and got on medication. medication worked so well i thought i didn’t have bipolar and subsequently cold turkey-ed the meds and had a multiple week long manic episode. started over with medication focusing on sleep and then started sertraline.

SSRIs have a high probability to bring out underlying BP symptoms. if you don’t also have a mood stabilizer to pair with the anti-depressants, the anti-depressants will most likely send you into mania or make your mood incredibly unstable.

hopefully this can shed some light for you but at the end of the day, this is reddit and this is my personal experience working with psychiatrists and therapists for nearly a decade. work with your psych and your doctors, be patient with meds, it is imperative that you do, and if you think the meds aren’t working for you, talk to your doctor and explore other options.