We deal with depression and damn well know that we are not acting like we should. Same with any level of mania, wheter hypo or full blown mania. We have to accept that is it happening, there is nothing we can do about it. When everyone else around is 'over reacting' and we wish they would just calm down and let it be what it is, when everyone around us is pushing us and blaming us for it happening... Yeah, dissasociation is the best key defense. Getting used to what would otherwise scare the hell out of anyone not suffering from a mental illness demands disassociation! The degree of disassociation that it sometimes takes to get through an episode, or even cycling can be applied to times when there is no need for it as a means to cope with undesirable situations. So yeah, I think that anyone with a mental illness that affects them like this is guilty of doing that. It's a tool that we use for survival. But it's a tool that can take over when it's not needed. As far as being diagnosed with a condition, I think we are all ranking high on the scales of having a dissosociative disorder, but that's out of survival, it's cuz we are bipolar.