My personal experience is that bipolar depression is in many ways the worst. If you've had a manic phase, the crash is horrible.
Glad you're seeing a psychiatrist, bipolar disorder needs one. And of course you know that alcohol interferes with the effectiveness of mood stabilizers, right?
The ten counseling sessions could be brilliant.
Keep in touch and try and keep the perspective that, like all depression, this will lift. It feels like now is forever, but its not.