I spent most of three years with a 'wastebasket' bipolar diagnosis (bipolar NOS, also known as "not otherwise specified"). Then I really flipped my cork and got upgraded to bipolar 1, oddly enough when I landed in the hospital with suicidal ideation/intent. It's all just different grades of illness and it's based on your history with mania---it only takes one episode of full-blown mania to earn the BP 1 label, even if you never have another.

Try not to get too hung up on labels. A good doctor treats patients according to their symptoms and not what is written on some bureaucrat's tally sheet. And the meds are pretty much the same no matter what "flavor" you have.