For three years Beverley Dick found herself being passed from doctor to doctor, consulting with nursing colleagues and being misdiagnosed by GPs.

Her own medical background led her to self-diagnose that she had bipolar disorder but her fellow health professionals were not as quick to agree.

Although she had known for years before that something was not quite right, it was not until 2011 when she went to see a psychiatrist that she put the pieces together.

It took another three years for the nurse from Dennistoun, Glasgow, to be properly diagnosed.

She said: "It hasn't been a great experience. There have been a few aspects where I have really felt badly let down.

"I think that's really quite common with many people with mental health and specifically with bipolar affective disorder."

Daniel Smith, a leading professor of psychiatry at Glasgow University, explains: "Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder caused by a genetic predisposition.

"It interacts with various risk factors to bring about episodes of depression which can be quite severe; but can also bring about episodes of mania, which is the opposite of depression.

"At the core of the disorder is instability of mood that can cause severe problems for the individual, which is associated with all sorts of bad outcomes in terms of recurring depression, even suicidal behaviour, and admission to hospital for some people.

"But the message we want to get out is that bipolar disorder is highly treatable, there's lots of very effective treatments available, it's just the awareness of those treatments aren't great and we want to extend that message further."

It is not a rare condition and is said to probably affect one in 50 people with 2-3% of Scots diagnosed.

If doctors can get the diagnosis right at an early stage, Professor Smith estimates "it can really help a long term prognosis".

But while this is a key issue the notion of being diagnose bipolar remains stigmatised, with many people even reluctant to let employers know they have the condition.

At her first meeting with the psychiatrist five years ago Ms Dick was told she did not have bipolar disorder.

One GP even claimed her symptoms were akin to that of a hypochondriac (someone extremely anxious about the state of their own health).

Ms Dick said: "It can be a difficult condition to diagnose and from my point of view mental health conditions can have some similarities.

"But I think the fact that to many my symptoms were slightly under the radar, so I was being treated for anxiety and depression and it took really a few years for me while I was in the mental health service and actually seeking help from a psychiatrist before I really had my first main symptom of bipolar.

"Although during this two year process there was a couple of occasions where I had actually suggested I was bipolar but she always said no.

"Then it became very evident one year when I became very unwell and I was admitted to Parkhead Hospital under the mental health act, sectioned, and I actually said to the nurse I think I have bipolar.

"I didn't think at the time I had the condition but there would be some incidents in my life where I felt that could possibly be bipolar.

"I think I had the same idea as the general public, that to have bipolar you have to have severe mood swings which is how you get diagnosed to have bipolar. And everyone has peaks and troughs in their mood but for people with bipolar it's more severe.

"But to me it doesn't always have to be the extreme like mania or severe depression and that's why I think it's harder sometimes for psychiatrists to pick up because they can't see the wood for the trees."

Professor Smith said that during any state of mania, people are:

A new essential guide is being released, marking the start of Scottish Bipolar Awareness Week on September 19, which is hoped will help clarify the signs of the condition.

Patients and families of those with bipolar disorder in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area will get the guide first as part of a group cycle package of information.

It is hoped this will be expanded across all of Scotland's health boards meaning better knowledge of what to look out for and improving communication - something Ms Dick feels from her own experiences is imperative to a diagnosis.

She added: "When you're really in a bad place and sometimes if you're on a lot of medication which affects you it's really quite hard for the person to sometimes communicate really well.

"And not everyone has got good listening skills, and this is including people in mental health.

"I feel that it's ultimate that people improve communication skills and listening skills to actually listen to what the patient is telling them. Sometimes the clues are there, they just don't seem to pick up on them quickly enough.

"It was very frustrating because I was really suffering very severely from depression, anxiety and panic attacks. And I was being medicated at the time but my health was getting worse.

"It's not just for the person but the families as well; the families go through a terrible time for people with mental health, particularly for people with bipolar.

"But once I actually had the diagnosis it actually made sense to me and it was in a way a relief to finally know what it was that was causing the symptoms."