Confused?! Do I have bipolar

Hi- I was diagnosed with bipolar about two years but I am still not convinced I have it. I decided to join this support to talk with others about the disorder. Long story short about two years ago I was at work and had what appeared to be a nervous breakdown. At this point I was having trouble sleeping and was going on the 3rd day of no sleep. So I decided to take myself to the ER the night before bc I could not sleep hoping they would give me something to help. They did nothing so the next day I just went to work extremely tired and tried to push through the day. This is the day my "break" happened. My company called an ambulance and I cooperately got inside frightened as to what was happening to me. At the hospital my symptoms got so bad that they had to put me in a seperate room. I felt like I had no control over my body and could not stop anything I was saying or doing. It was the most frightening thing I ever experienced. I remember the doctor and nurses coming in to ask me questions about is any one in my family bipolar and at the time I was thinking what the heck are they talking about. So in the end they told me I had a manic episode and then immediately diagnosed me with bipolar. Then put me on a large dose of lithium which I stopped a few weeks later bc the side effects were so bad. This was hard for me to accept so I sought out a psychiatrist for an eval later on. The doc told me he didnt think it was bipolar but that "one manic episode is all it takes to diagnosis bipolar". To this day Im still confused about the event that occurred and if I actually have bipolar. I will say this that I have had a horrible pattern of spending lots of money and putting myself into serious amounts of debt, then paying it off and getting into debt again never breaking the cycle. All in all I just feel a little lost and confused about the whole thing. If anyone has any insight or advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!