Difficult to say. Probably lean more towards disorder because the extremes of my mania and depression have interfered with my quality of life (since menopause particularly) but I think I went undiagnosed for years and was often manic/hypomanic and would normally work 80-100 hours/week (up to 124 hours in a single week) not because of financial need but because I was obsessed with my job as a critical care nurse. I was the only nurse who spent her lunch breaks in the medical library. That part of me might have been more personality though because when I recently asked my nurse manager for a job reference to return to work she said I had always had a thirst for knowledge. Which I do. If I had many more years to live (and lots of money for tuition) I would go back to school and study cosmology. The Sciences fascinate me.

So it is hard to say exactly because even if it is "disorder" I have learned ways to deal with it (mostly).

I call myself a night person but the DSM says I have a delayed sleep phase disorder. Is it really a disorder when I can work 12-16 hours a night (used to anyhow) and excel at my job? The disorder part is when I would have to revert to "day mode" and be alert and ready to teach ACLS classes at 8am on the weekends. I loved the teaching but being there in the day was a struggle. They did finally let me start offering some "mini" ACLS classes during the night shift for the night shift nurses but they had to do the 8am thing too if they wanted official certification.

Anyway I like Hooligan's answer.

I am me and my meds help adjust parts of me to a more desirable being but still, I am me. What Hooligan said...