Ups and Downs--The Bipolar Diagnosis

I want to thank all of the people who commented on my post What is Bipolar Disorder.  Your comments were tremendously helpful.  The descriptions of what it feels like to have this illness were incredible-- vivid, heartfelt, almost a mix of poetry and misery-- the stories were told in a way that I don't often hear in clinical settings.  So, thank you.  And if you're someone who doesn't read the comment section of blogs, I would urge you to make an exception for this post.  The comments speak to what an intelligent, educated, and articulate readership we are lucky enough to have join us here, and the commenters make the experience of difficult mood states come alive in a way it is so hard to do with words.  A little bickering (it wouldn't be Shrink Rap without that!), but I want to point out that the issues that inspired the bickering are exactly the concerns we address in figuring out the usefulness of the expanded bipolar diagnosis.


That said,  I wrote my article for Clinical Psychiatry News, called Rethinking Bipolarity.  If you click the link at the end, it will cycle you back to the What is Bipolar post.  Let me know how I did?

And thank you, again.  Thank you also to Dr. Dean MacKinnon, of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center and author of Trouble in Mind for previewing the article for me.