ty for being so nice to me guys... i appreciate it.

i'm ready to pop a gasket. You all might want to duck for cover. i'm not mad at anyone in this forum, so no worries.

i have had to listen, TWICE in as many days to some blow hard tell me how my illness is a fad. Fantastic. The first was just dense as my MIL's xmas fruitcake (ironically)... just ignorant i guess, under-informed. Funny how those who know so little seem to say so much. He basically made a comment about how bipolar disorder sure was a popular thing to have nowadays. @#!%^!$!!... oh yes, so popular, like a guchi bag.

the second person was more aggressive and twice as ignorant... had a bad experience, got diagnosed and has decided it was wrong, etc etc etc. Good health to him really... hope he is right and his docs were wrong. WHy? Becuase this illness is a **** of a thing to have.

i'm thinking "fantastic, how about just keeping your crack medical knowledge to yourself?"

just because a doctor gives ME a wrong diagnosis, doesn't mean that EVERYONE with that diagnosis has also been diagnosed wrong. That's narcissistic to think that one person is more right that all the doctors and people who do legitimately have it. Sure there has been more media coverage and with it there will always be a rise in the misdiagnosis problem. Always.. with every disease. Some doctors are lazy, some are academically smart but otherwise stupid and some are just plain crooked. Just like any other demographic. It does not mean that every doctor is wrong, lying or an idiot. To say so or even think so is paranoia.

i spent 3 yrs on that river in egypt too... med-free and did great.. then it creeped back and bit me. Not every bipolar person must be on meds life long and anyone can decide to risk it and some will be ok, some won't be.

i'm just really super sick to death of people making their own experience be representative of everyone else's. YES, share... tell me or anyone your own story, but tell it like it is, as it happened with you and not as you now determine it applies to the whole world.

there might be a lot of people faking bipolar disorder... doesn't make mine fake. There might be a lot of people so messed up in so many other ways that they grasp anything as an answer... doesn't make that problem apply to my illness. There are.. and i know some personally.. people who try to help themselves in some warped way by researching disorders and deciding they have bipolar disorder because it sort of fits and it sounds better than cyclothemia or hormone issues, or something less media-glamourized... doesn't make my bipolar disorder any less real. There really are people who are seeking an excuse for their life or behaviour... and this illness becomes that excuse... but most of them are doing sub/unconsciously and telling them they are won't help them at all.

people can find healing or peace or health in many ways... not everyone will agree... but THINK before you open your cake-hole... there are real people who suffer and they struggle day to day with their own problems... try not to pass on your own fears and ignorance because they do not need it.

i'm sorry.. i had to rant.