Sorry for a long post for such a (comparably) short original post. If you read all of this, God bless you my friend.

Hey guys, I think maybe I am realizing something. For so many people curious if they are actually “bipolar” or not, I think maybe a possible reason why it takes “so long” for some patients to be “diagnosed” as being so-called bipolar is because some psychiatrists, doctors and whatnot maybe actually do not want to recognize those very elevated moods as an abnormality (that would be great, as being less invalidating) along with the patients, but rather more the depressions as abnormalities of course, because it is of course the depressions that are so uncomfortable and distressing. I hope this is the case, because those very elevated moods are, I am certain, what to cling on to because of course that is when one feels the most alive and learns from life and can learn from mistakes if they do anything “stupid” while in manias, while also, God willing, the person in mania will get as little amount of judgement/attitudes of scowl as possible from their environment, as the manic person will probably just reflect that and either lash back in anger (possibly creating somewhat of a perpetual disaster - yikes! Something has got to give, who will be the one to pour out love first? I tend to be spiritual, God bless us, show us how to love, please) or shut back down in depression, and they do not need to be there in depression, it does virtually no good for the person. Why place the weights of burdens of the worries of others from the environment onto that person who just wants to be validated, loved? People in manic phases need to be VALIDATED, cared for, loved. Anyway, people with these “mood disorders,” the doctors probably empathize/identify with them on the same level as the patients, the distress, and just want to recognize the depression, that huge “flu in the soul” (sometimes I refer to what depression is) Now, when a “bipolar” diagnoses comes in, at first, the patient might then be glad they got their “condition” recognized, however, after some time, their manias/hypomanias/elevated moods, whatever, in those moods, the patient will probably go in-depth with themselves and life, probably find new perspectives, attempts at healing, reaching out, and if in that process they get rejected or misunderstood, and then if the patient complains about being “so irritable”, then the doctor will then look at it as, “well now I am treating your condition as ‘bipolar’ and not ‘depression’. DARN! Depression is really the bad news/downer, and not really the elevated moods associated with my so-called “bipolar”! So why the "bipolar" diagnoses? So, I also said that to say this- it is really DISTRESS, of any sort, and that is actually depression, dysphoria, anxiety, etc., that should be really taken care of and worked through, and that we shall live peaceful lives! Anyway like Innerzone above me said, I agree as well - it is not so much the name as effective treatment, right? And, all these “abnormal” moods actually probably are just coping mechanisms that have stemmed from underlying personal disturbances or problems which the patient probably does not want to directly deal with at the time being.

Now if any of that whole above theory/statement is invalid, and some doctors are really not that thorough/in-depth with their patients, and actually do not realize the patient IS affected by these HIGHS and LOWS that can be termed “bipolar” in their medical/psychiatric language, then I just wonder why/how they got their position as a pdoc in the first place (no, I am kidding…no one is perfect, even doctors, it just shows they are human like us and it just shows that psychiatry is not much of an exact science at all indeed, and that we shouldn’t really rely on them 100% for any “labels” or for a total “cure all” at all). However, perhaps their field can be used just as some of many “tools” in life to help us identify and work through our issues/distresses/whatever you may call them.

Anyway, back on track, whatever your case may be bigbear68, I hope you get whatever answers your curiosity is looking for, and I hope you get better, get through your downs, I know they can be irritating.