So, what if I were bipolar? What would that mean?

*raises hand* I'm fully functional and responsible! In fact, I'm one of the most responsible people I know If someone was to call me incompetent, I'd be deeply hurt and likely cut off all contact with them for having so much prejudice - and clearly they didn't know me one iota!

Your family and that one doctor are indeed quacks Those of us with bipolar and other diagnoses are not quacks Simply definition to keep in mind, haha!

You know what, I think it's pretty ironic that "we are the crazy ones". I've met a lot of really interesting people on this journey. They fall across the spectrum in terms of their mental health. Some of them, frankly, scared me. There was one guy in the day hospital program who liked to talk a lot about guns and the fact that they had to terminate him from his job (it was a really lucrative blue collar automative job) because of implied threats to supervisors. One day, he and the other two guys in the program at that time I were in the "relaxation room" prior to the waste of time "relaxation therapy" session, and he whipped out his cell phone and played a sound bite - bang bang bang - it was gunshots he had recorded. Scared the three of us, and I went to the program nurse after and said "I know you can't discuss other patients with me because of HIPPA, but I want you to know that X is doing and saying ...." It was scary. Worse case scenario.

Be back soon with the opposite examples.

I've also met some people who are "very high functioning" as they call it. My current psych wanted me to attend a group therapy session for working professionals, but ironic, it was held in the middle of the day (weird, huh) on Thursdays. So I just couldn't do it time-wise. I've met various people who do have "normal" lives despite various conditions, bipolar or depression or whatever.

Then, there are the "famous" examples, like the schizophrenic law professor Elyn Saks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/op...upid.html?_r=0

When I found this article, I must have read it two dozen times on the spot - it gave me a lot of hope to think that someone could be very successful despite a pretty serious condition.

I have to do this in shifts today, I'm in the middle of a big project.

FFS. The police have a registry of mentally people so they dont mistake them for smartasses drugged beyond pain and shoot them dead or break their teeth out.

It's not healthy to identify with any diagnosis, anyway.

Well, that is the legal theory. Of course, I fixate on the worst cases - we have had a couple here in the past few years. Shootings by cops of unarmed mentally ill, and one just last week strangled in a chokehold at a mall.

I don't know how to not identify with PTSD or fixate and flee from bipolar.

Johnny, I think it is important for me to have a 'diagnosis' that works for me, because then I can find the best way forward to make a difference and improve my situation. When I disagreed with my 'diagnosis' my new T at the time actually agreed and we got it changed. He was already planning in his head the treatment and we continue to discuss it going forward.

I refuse to even think about alternatives....what is the point? I completely understand your fears, but hun, you are worrying about something that is not actually happening. Focus on the facts. You have a PTSD diagnosis, you are working with a trauma specialist, you will over time improve. Who cares one bit if it may 'look' like another diagnosis......seriously half of the bloody DSM could apply in parts to most anyone if you really wanted it to.

You deserve to have peace in the now......tell that negative committee that meets in your head to sit down and shut up and allow to just do today! You need and deserve this.

(I do know that is a huge ask, I struggle to not worry, it is part of our common struggle with PTSD, but seize as many of those moments as you can..ok?)

Yes, you are right about the DSM - sometimes I think it is meaningless, the emperor 's new clothes. Because there are essentially the same symptoms for so many disorders as you point out. Gee, depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia - which of the 498 disorders that all share those are we talking about?

Plus there is nothing objective, they can't draw blood or put an endoscope in or do an MRI and diagnose any of this stuff right now. So it is just the opinions of the so-called experts, and those opinions shift like sand dunes in the Sahara.

Right now I don't deserve today. I had a bad turn of events, I know I will get over it, but it throws me back to the 15 year old trembling, choking back tears while his father screams at him.

Johnny I do hope all is well and other too significant has happened. I also hope it will resolve in an easier fashion than you may now feel.

Sending caring support as always, we are all here for you.

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Thank you, Jane. Ditto.

You would not necessarily need medications, if the illness is relatively mild or you may just opt to take them when you experience depression and/or mania. Having Bipolar doesn't keep you from leading a functional life. There are definitely much worse mental health issues out there to have than having Bipolar at a low level

Not necessarily INSTEAD of PTSD. Some of us have both. And then some.

I did a little research and discovered most people who have panic attacks are bipolar, too. Statistics range from 60 to 80%, depending on what you're reading.
Those two disorders frequently travel together.

I agree totally with the rest of this post. The way I look at it, I've been this way most of my life, way before the labels.