I don't like the term "disease" at all. I always imagine a disease to be eating away at something, and although I can concede that I feel like this 'thing' in my head *is* eating away at my sanity sometimes, there's something about the term "disease" that sounds almost unclean.

I always preferred the term "bipolar" to "manic depressive". To me it sounds less frightening to an "outsider". In my mind, "manic depressive" indicates that we are always out of control, crazy people. Although I can see Jamison's point that we don't simply experience two poles of mood. "Bipolar spectrum disorder" is a good one as it makes it clear that it's possible to experience a wide range of moods. But then again I don't like the connotations of "disorder"!

It's difficult, isn't it?! There is no one term that will fit everyone, which I guess is the problem with illnesses of the mind. Our minds are all different.