*shrugs* If you experience actual mania and not hypomania, then it's bipolar 1 and not 2.... that's the difference between the two. Diagnostic wise and experience wise. They are different.

I have bipolar 2. I do not dismiss nor diminish my challenges which I face. I just recognize that I do not lose touch with reality as I do not have psychosis or actual mania. In that regard, I consider myself lucky and thus consider myself to have a milder experience. I never said that bipolar 2 is less horrible. In my first post I said I consider it more mild because it's easier to hide (and never said it always could be... just that it's easier, because you can recognize that you're off-your-normal).

Just like there are major and minor depressions. A minor depression is more mild than a severe one. Doesn't mean that it doesn't suck monkey balls or that the person who is experiencing the minor one is suffering less... just that it's more mild.