I used to believe it was highly over diagnosed. I also used to believe BP 2 was a bullcrap diagnosis altogether. This was mainly due to the fact that I was dx BP 2 and I never believe it because I never felt like I got traditionally manic. And I didn't believe in hypomania. I was struggling with trauma when I was dx'ed and I blamed my problems on that. And honestly a lot of my problems with depression DID stem from the trauma and from the way I was raised so I full on denied any other possibility. I felt that people used BP 2 as an excuse for bad behavior and that doctors used it to push drugs on people who didn't need them. I felt people used medication as a crutch and refused to do any real hard work in therapy so they could continue hiding behind the BP 2 label.

Weeeellll all that came around to bite me in the butt. I still believe it might be over diagnosed because pills are much cheaper than therapy and insurance companies would rather pay for meds than therapy but coming here has shown me BP 2 is very real and just as debilitating as BP 1. Hypomania is real, and I know that now because I have experienced it. Looking back I realize I was experiencing it all along, it was just more of an angry and irritable mixed state rather than the euphoria I expected it to be.

Now I'm no doctor but I still feel like it's over diagnosed in adolescents and I think some doctors are chucking some pretty strong meds at teenagers while their brains are still developing...but I guess I can't really say because I'm not in that situation so I don't know what the parents are going through. I just work with the disturbed teens so I see their behaviors in school and I see why someone might want them medicated.