I'm not criticizing anyone (as I realize that what I am suggesting can be really difficult), but maybe it would be a good idea for us to model a nonjudgmental attitude towards MI when people (who don't know that we have bp) make ignorant comments. For example, those who work in the health field could challenge their colleague's prejudiced remarks about a patient with MI with questions and facts. "Why are you afraid of this patient? Less than 1% of people with MI are violent towards others", and "1 in 4 Americans suffers from a mental disorder. Do you really hate an entire quarter of the population so much?" are examples of things you could say back to them. As long as we stay silent, the ignorance will persist, along with the cruel attitudes and words that stem from it.

Yeah, I agree that depression is accepted more because it is more common. I also think that part of it is due to the fact that most people don't know about psychotic depression. Psychosis scares people who don't understand that breaks from reality are not constant, can be recovered from, and don't often entail violence against others. This may be part of why schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (I think most neurotypicals think of psychotic mania when they think of bp) attract so much prejudice from ignorant people.

Venus, I understand your point. Most of the time, we should be grateful for having food, water, shelter, and political stability. But when depression gets so intense that we would honestly rather die than continue, I believe that we are worse off than those dying of starvation. I'd rather feel physical pain than psychological pain, and I'd rather die a physical death than a psychological one. And if I had to define serious depression, I'd call it a living death.