I appreciate the replies very much.

I'm asking this question because I am, have always been, an intensely passionate person. I mean, intense, electric, extremely emotional, hyper-sensitive, I feel anything and everything very deeply. I'm highly empathetic. My therapist keeps encouraging me to accept my "passionate nature", that it's such an asset, etc.

Okay. Sooo, what I don't understand is, why am I being diagnosed as having BD and taking 5 meds? My "passionate nature" doesn't come and go; it's the way I am all of the time, and the way I have been from childhood. My emotional intensity does get really extreme, much of the time. For example, I'll be watching a movie and cannot stop crying. Or I read a quote from a great novel and I cry and can't stop for a while. Or I get tremendously angry at some injustice I witness.

I've been confused about this for years, and I remain confused. (I do not, btw, have BPD.) I've asked my pdoc and she's said stuff such as, "When you first came to see me you spoke of having music playing in your mind and it wouldn't stop". Well, okay. But ask any musician and most of them will say they have music playing in their mind that doesn't stop. If I was a famous musician, would a pdoc want to medicate me for hearing music in my mind?

I appreciate any insight into my original question. I will speak with my therapist about this, but I'd like to go into my appointment with info from other people who are dx'ed with BD.