Fear of Down Phases?

So I have not yet been medicated for bipolar disorder, but my therapist and I are talking about it and trying to help my parents understand and all that. In the meantime, however, I have noticed that one of the biggest problems in my life right now is my looming fear that I'm going to go into a down period.
It's interfering with schoolwork and sleep, because I end up doing everything I can to hold onto my feelings of happiness, even if it means blowing important things off. I've also been laying awake at night, unable to think of anything but how empty and miserable down phases feel. I was wondering if anyone else had experiences of feeling anxious or fearful about going on down phases, and if they managed to figure out something that worked for them in dealing with the fear? Thank you!

In past I had diagnosis for depression; in my opinion caused mostly by enviromental reasons. Back then it seemed that downfall would go on and on.. Although even then I would describe it as 'ups and downs'.

Then it slowly shifted to BP, and I learnt - from my own experience - how it works in constant wave.

So what kept me going for years before giving in and getting medication was knowing that after each abyss of down-wave, eventually the mood would lift back up again. Other than that, I give you one advice to think of: don't bother getting stressed over something you can't influence.

Hey Moose. You sound young, when I was young and I didn't quite understand why I had these phases of ups-and-downs I would fear my depressions also. I to this day don't look forward to my crashes from my manias, but I don't fear them like when I was a young man. What I started telling myself when I was diagnosed and my psychiatrist helped explain the disorder was that when comes the lows the highs will be back. With the right psychiatrist and therapist, it has helped to learn how to function through a depression even though I still struggle sometimes (a lot too). I actually would consider the manias to be more difficult to manage. I think it may benefit you to find a psychiatrist personally to help your mind at night from worrying about the downs but definitely something I'd bring up with your therapist first and parents to see if they think you would benefit and are ready for meds. Sometimes insomnia is really difficult with the mind not shutting off, it's kind of like to me like a car that won't ever shut even no matter how many times you turn the key to the off position if you get my automotive analogy. Anyway I am done rambling. On the forum keep talking, we all here struggle with Bipolar too and are always here to talk.

Take care,
Jake