I'm with dumbfounded, I'm not fond of the term, bipolar either. I think it trivializes the disorder. When people hear the term, they don't associate it with the fact that a lot of people with bipolar disorder will attempt suicide and a large percentage of those that do, succeed. They just associate it with people being "moody." They want to say, "Snap out of it," as if you could have a cup of coffee and everything will be OK. What the term, bipolar really trivializes is mania. Once again, they think it's just a matter of being really happy or really irritable or even really irresponsible. They don't understand that when you jump up on a table and start screaming that everyone in the room is a moron, you couldn't stop yourself from doing that any more than you could stop a train by standing in front of it.

I'm also with everyone about "mood disorder." It makes it sound like a bad case of PMS.