Medicated, I have also had a diagnosis of Bipolar II changed to Bipolar I. And my current doctor didn't even register that there was a big issue in the new label - and he is a very good and caring psych - the best I've had - incliding as a diagnostician and with the meds.

But I think that part of the problem with all this is that these labels, otherwise known as diagnoses are very fluid. Every edition of the DSM will have massive shifts in labels, manifestations of the various labels, treatment, you name it. So today I may have one disease and tomorrow if there is a new edition of the DSM I may have another. So while getting the right diagnosis helps, getting the meds right for our OWN individual conditions is the really important thing.

I flipped out when I heard the new diagnosis of Bipolar 1, but the reality is that I had the same condition/s that I did the day before.

I also have a view and several clincians have supported this, that Bipolar I and Bipolar II are not distinct, separate illnesses. Rather there is a pole (excuse the pun) between them where any of us might sit. Well that's ovious even on a single diagnosis of any mental illness - there can be very mild versions of major depression for example, and versions that are so sever that people take their lives.

Of course on top of all of this, Bipolar per se is SUCH a complex illness, way outside the undersatnding of "normies", family, friends, employers, wider society - andn frankly, even the best psychiatrists - we are so early in the path to real understanding. The vast majority think Bipolar is about being "up" or "down". IF ONLY. And any Beeper really understands what I mean by "IF ONLY". Mixes states, rapid cycling, panic and anxiety, psychosis, paranoia and of course the ideation and actual suicidality. It's a very cruel illness. It has taken absolutely everything from me.

That's just my thoughts - everyone's thoughts are valid.