BP varies greatly among people. And you forget to take into account the Doctors who diagnosed these people. Lots of the time Doctors are wrong with diagnoses (especially with something as complex as BP). And statistics show that a correct diagnosis of BP takes quite a long time - I've read an average of 8 years for most people. I didn't get a diagnosis of mixed manic until 17 yrs into treatment. (I had every other ******* diagnosis in-between.)