I know it's scary but the sooner you get a treatment plan and a professional support system, the less chance this has of negatively affecting your life. I would suggest trying to get a referral to a psychiatrist as most general practitioners do not have the experience or skills to properly treat Bipolar. Therapists can be very useful for dealing with certain things but they do not necessarily know anything about medication or the biology of mental illness.

You will still be able to do pretty much anything you want except for joining the military. Things with shift work or long hours might be a problem, but it depends on the person. I know that for me having a regular schedule is key, but there are highly successful Bipolar doctors and lawyers. You just have to be aware of how stress is affecting your mental health.

As far as social life, yeah it might change a lot, but it's mostly things that are healthy for you anyways. You'll have to give up any recreational drug use, as well as alcohol. It also helps a lot to eat healthy and not get too sleep deprived.

I had a happy childhood but once I became an adolescent Bipolar basically dominated everything in my life. It did not help at all that my mother is herself Bipolar and this led to an extremely chaotic household. It slowly ruined everything. I somehow still made it through undergrad but I was a shell of a person by the time I finished. Chronic migraines, various addictions, no financial stability, a string of broken relationships. I hit bottom one summer when I was hospitalized three different times and thrown into the criminal justice system rather than being treated effectively. Only the extreme efforts of my influential father and my current psychiatrist were able to save me from the terrible fate of court-ordered rehabs (which were worse than nothing for mental health, only obsessed with making me religious and guilty for past drug use).

Now, things are great. It feels weird to say that. I was quite ready to end it all on several occasions. But I am back in school earning a graduate degree, paying off debts, great relationship with family. I think that if you are Bipolar, living without treatment is barely living at all. I feel like this is a new life, a better life, the one I was meant to have. Best of luck :-) try to find a doctor who you trust and who will advocate for you. This doesn't mean you agree with everything they tell you. You have to trust they know what they're doing to some extent. That's why I recommend a psychiatrist who has experience treating severe mental illness.