I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Both Bipolars include deep, disabling depressions. I won't argue with that.

What I will argue is the severity and dangerousness of the "ups." Last weekend my mind was racing, I was seeing things, hallucinating, hearing things, and so physically agitated that I wanted to climb the walls like spider-man. I was having the worst anxiety attack of my life. I have also been hornier than I have ever been in my life and I have damn near made some very stupid choices in relation to that. Even on heavy doses of klonopin I'm still only sleeping 3-4 hours per night, and I am still entirely unable to focus on or accomplish anything. I am MANIC. In sum, this entire experience has been nothing short of completely terrifying.

I won't say that you're not suffering. I'm sure you are. However, by definition, Bipolar I is the more severe form of the disease because it includes MANIA, which is more severe and generally more disabling and dangerous than HYPOmania.

I had been taking mood stabilizers for six years, but I recently discontinued some of them to see what my baseline would be without them. Yes, I was still taking an antidepressant - wellbutrin - which is known to have the lowest risk of causing a manic switch. I took a series of various antidepressants (including wellbutrin) for several years before the BPII diagnosis and never experienced a manic or mixed episode. This was something completely new and out-of-the-blue.

I WAS bipolar II. Now that I've had a true manic episode, I am now bipolar I. Knowing that I am capable of mania and psychosis scares me much more than the idea or experience of hypomania ever did.

Yes, they are different, but they are not equal. I appreciate the distress that bipolar II can cause a person because I've spent plenty of time there. I don't see you as being any "less" or "inferior" because I know from personal experience that your suffering is just as real.

However, we are not the same. Perhaps we will have to agree to disagree.