But would you say your separate GAD diagnosis is helpful? GAD could in some cases just be a "anxiety, unknown cause and pervasive", not being very meaningful. Like unspecified mental disorder (to give an extreme example).

I was saying they are clustered just to say how there is a rather clear and not some murky, inconsistent result. Internal consistency is probably quite high, so it is unlikely that answering two questions will have such a big influence (but they might have too much still).

As for anxiety, it seems to be the/a major cause of pathogenesis, you actually showing/developing BP, given some vulnerability. It might be that in some cases anxiety alone (so not gene mutations) results in biochemical changes, creating that vulnerability itself as well.

In many ways, the (physical) ability for mania is used as a "automatic"/autonomous defence mechanism (not the, at least typical, personality type) against anxiety.