grizmom - i think you've raised a very important fact that we all need to remember. While we do suffer from BP, we are still human. Stress still takes its toll on us. And it's normal to experience the blues. While we may not be able to discern the blues from depression, we need to really be honest with ourselves, and realise when we have been through an experience that a "normal/healthy" person would also consider stressful.
It will make us more tolerable of our meds' functions and also more tolerable of ourselves - I think we are sometimes too hard on ourselves, and also get too frustrated too quickly.