My official diagnosis is still (somehow...) Bipolar I, plus some ocd-ish stuff. My counselor leans towards Schizoaffective, manic type. I'm guessing that the clinic I go to puts the psychiatrist in charge of the official diagnosis.

In the community, I'm regarded as a "nothing special, typical 'mental patient,' Schizophrenic," etc. Can't complain. At this point, I'm on disability. Granted, a lot of that is because I live here, and I'm slathered in labels, stigma, etc., so I highly doubt I could get a job, much less one that would keep me going and cover treatment, etc.

My parents and I have reconciled. I thank God for that! They're good people. On the practical side of that, they're now considered "upper class hippies," for this area, anyway. I don't spend tons of $$$ or whatever, but their status provides some much needed "breathing room." I was driven out of an apartment in a nearby city, so I'm living with them right now. Ideal? No, not really, but still: I am blessed.

Labels, labels, lables. I sometimes wonder if my parents and I would have reconciled w/o some sort of serious mental illness label involved. Like I wrote above, they're good people, its just something I think on, now and then.

What's the -real- difference between a community-wide label of "Schizophrenia" vs "Bipolar I" ? In my case, "Schizophrenia" is a label that simply means: he is --not-- a member of this community. Its DSM-speak for "non-entity," basically.

ugh. thanks for reading. :-)