I don't talk about it much, but if I do, I usually say I've been diagnosed bipolar because to me that's all it is...a diagnosis used to identify a specific type of treatment. Outside of the medical model, I am just myself, making mistakes and screwing up; but I take responsibility for that as myself and not a diagnosis, even if it contributed.

Besides, who knows what it will be called in 10-20 years, or what the true cause of symptoms are. Maybe we're all something different, with different causes, but bipolar is the smallest lump of symptoms they can identify. I'm finding a lot of physiological issues are underlying my symptoms; and I'm getting as much, if not more, relief from alternative medicine as I do from my meds. I don't ever want to settle for I am this, or I have that. Not while we're still in the dark ages of mental health treatment.