bipolar disorder?

Bipolar is a confusing illness. It's often misdiagnosed and given the wrong definition. Bipolar is supposedly the same as Manic Depression. Extreme highs and lows. But that's not the same as Clinical Depression which is just periods of extreme depression without necessarily the highs and lows. Anyway, there is a Bipolar I and II. Bipolar one is the extreme one. Bipolar II is the mild one. I think if either one is bullshit it is Bipolar II. Bipolar I if diagnosed correctly is very serious and very real. People get manic and go buy thousands of dollars worth of clothes and then get down and don't leave their bedroom for days, stuff like that. I'm not a doctor but if you're ineterested go read up on the two types. But, in the psychiatric community, you almost need to be able to diagnose yourself. This doesn't apply to everyone obviously, but still you cannot believe everything doctors tell you. You have to take the responsibility to educate yourself on your own illness because you know yourself better than anyone else. When my panic disorder first started I was told it was just Depression, even though it was textbook Panic Disorder, a very obvious and specific illness, and I argued wth my doctor until he told me maybe I should see another psychiatrist. Just educate yourselves, that's my advice for the week. But the problem with us obsessive types is we tend to diagnose ourselves wuith everything we read about. That's where a doctor can help to get us back into perspective. Anyway, that's all.