In order to be diagnosed as having bipolar you have to have manic or hypomanic epiosdes. For Bipolar 1 all you need is one manic episode - that means severe enough that you might have been hospitalized for it. For Bipolar II you have to have had at least one hypomanic episode and a depressive episode. If you look at the list of symptoms for hypo(mania) and compare it to ADD there really aren't that many in common. You can look both of them up on psychcentral under conditions.