As a mental health professional, my pet peeve is others who misdiagnosis bipolar disorder. It happens with alarming frequency. No one ever seems to know which bipolar they have, either. There is Bipolar 1 and 2, cyclothymia, and schizoaffective, bipolar type. These differences actually matter a whole lot. I, for example, am cyclothymic — but in a million years I would not be able to claim that I am Bipolar I, as the difference between the two is the difference between a firecracker and an atom bomb.

Frequently I’ll hear a client tell me “I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar, depression, and manic-depression, and anxiety.” Sigh.

Best practice is to identify the one dx that best accounts for all symptoms.

Great article. If you’d like, you can help me build my mental health publication called The Sixth Axis. It is small, but scrappy.