Well, I know that when I have anything going on that really triggers me, I obsess relentlessly. This can last anywhere from a few mere hours to days, weeks, and even months. The obsessivness dominates as racing, repetative, irritated thoughts that I have to act on with research or any other activity toward resolving the issue. I also frequently have intrusive thoughts which are not pleasant and they come and go depending on my cycle.

You can be mis-diagnosed with any mental illness technically, since diagnosis is based on . Usually the misdiagnosis for bipolar is that they tell you that you have major depressive disorder. Another major possibility is that mental illnesses go together in little clusters. For example I'm diagnosed Bipolar NOS, generalized anxiety disorder, schizoid personality disorder. (I'm a NOS because I had to stop treatment during the diagnosis period and never got around to finding out what was the actual I or II but I'm guessing I'm a I.)