I haven't been diagnosed as bipolar but I'm being watched for increased symptoms. I had a therapist tell me once that she would rather be diagnosed as OCD than bipolar, and I have struggled with SEVERE OCD before. So for her to say that was like, whoa. I think many people are diagnosed with some form of depression and I think because of that, many laymen are misinformed to what it actually means to be depressed. They just think you feel sad. Because it's such a common diagnosis to them, they don't take it as seriously. Also, people with bipolar often show symptoms much more disruptively than people with just depression. I'm not sure if anything I said has any scientific evidence to back it up but just some thoughts I had.