I'm with you on the issue of "everyone" having it because they have mood swings or they just think it's "cool" to be bipolar. I agree with you, it's not. So many people I know have said they were without benefit of a proper dx or even having gone to see someone. They say it because it's the new "in" thing. If they want, they can have mine. In reality, I was dx'd a long time ago, but wasn't told until I was 31, when I found out on my own. Then my father told me it had been mentioned in the report he received from the psychologist he took me to at 17. I was very angry for a while. My family has blamed me for the way my children were raised, and the way my life turned out, but I feel if I had known and been allowed to make the choice to be medicated as it was suggested all those years ago, my life would have turned out differently. There is nothing cool about being bipolar.