Nothing irritates me more than this diagnosis, except perhaps that 'Oppositional Defiant Disorder' BS (Is there an authoritarian parenting disorder? Nope). While I have a different view of mental disorders and the whole 'brain theory' (and an elaborate one at that, rather than a simple "IT DOESNT EXIST!"), there are certain diagnoses that just strike me as a 'cop out' in a way.
As far as I know for this diagnosis, you don't even need to have been manic to get it. You just need to have been 'hypomanic' once, meaning 'not depressed or manic, but simply in an elevated irritated state' in the middle of depression. Irritable breaks from depression aren't normal, or a normal part of being depressed at least? It's like they slap it on anyone suicidal as an easy diagnosis when they do not fall cleanly into pure 'depressive' but also are clearly not manic, and not only that, they use it as a catch all to basically dismiss the legitimacy of the person's crisis. They did it to me too, five years back. Therapist agrees that I am not bi-polar in any way, but rather that I suffer from existential depression and anxiety (not that I give a crap about labels either way).
Worse yet, it carries the huge stigma of bi-polar disorder even if the person is absolutely not manic in any way. It was apparently the new 'chic' diagnosis in the 1994 DSM-IV release and they're jonesing to include all these splintered additional ones in the DSM-V which is being release in 2012. You have issues that drive you towards suicide? Bipolar type 2. It doesn't matter how legitimate they are.
I don't have as much of a 'the whole mental health system is trash' view as I did before, but I seriously think that this kind of labeling is just lazy, misunderstanding, and harmful. I'm sure people in 2200 will realize this, even if few realize it today.
As far as I know for this diagnosis, you don't even need to have been manic to get it. You just need to have been 'hypomanic' once, meaning 'not depressed or manic, but simply in an elevated irritated state' in the middle of depression. Irritable breaks from depression aren't normal, or a normal part of being depressed at least? It's like they slap it on anyone suicidal as an easy diagnosis when they do not fall cleanly into pure 'depressive' but also are clearly not manic, and not only that, they use it as a catch all to basically dismiss the legitimacy of the person's crisis. They did it to me too, five years back. Therapist agrees that I am not bi-polar in any way, but rather that I suffer from existential depression and anxiety (not that I give a crap about labels either way).
Worse yet, it carries the huge stigma of bi-polar disorder even if the person is absolutely not manic in any way. It was apparently the new 'chic' diagnosis in the 1994 DSM-IV release and they're jonesing to include all these splintered additional ones in the DSM-V which is being release in 2012. You have issues that drive you towards suicide? Bipolar type 2. It doesn't matter how legitimate they are.
I don't have as much of a 'the whole mental health system is trash' view as I did before, but I seriously think that this kind of labeling is just lazy, misunderstanding, and harmful. I'm sure people in 2200 will realize this, even if few realize it today.