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i have most of those labels and know tons of others personally who also do.

I too am bipolar, and i too have never had a manic episode. HOWEVER, that is because i am bipolar II (not bipolar I) which means i only have experience hypomanias.

Hypomania....simply feels good and happy and ....more energy.

it's often quite hard to pinpoint......since it simply just feels so good and great to the person.....until they drop.

That's when the depression hits.
That is the first thing that the typical bipolar "thinks" has been going wrong.
But, the depression comes after the hypomanias......and most bipolar IIs are the bipolar types that go so far down (instead of the other type that has most issues with going too high instead) that it goes into a major depressive episode.

first major depression usually happens around college age.
my second one hit me 7 years after the first (which i hadn't known what had truely been going on in college other than i was sick and the docs were all stupid b/c they kept giving me anti-biotics and sending me home).

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one last thought....i see mental illnesses much like how my new therapist views them.

That none are so cut and dry that we can say....i'm bipolar II, with rapid cycling, end of story (which was what i thought my 'diagnosis' was for quite a while).

the more i learn about everything....the more i can see that mental illness is as different as each of us are different from each other. Each bipolar I or II doesn't experience everything exactly the same as the next correctly diagnosed person.

And.....if there's one.....you're pretty much guarenteed there are at least a couple more mental health issues for each person with a mental illness to be ultimitly diagnosed with multiple diagnosis.

and you can see that symptoms from one, like bipolar, flow easily into other issues like OCD.

So the truth is, IMO, that "mental illness" is the only current and totally correct term for any of us struggling with these things.....and that everything stems from that with as many varieties and numbers and directions as rivers and streams stemming from the same ocean.

just some thoughts from a sleepy mentally ill person (who tried twice tonight to go to sleep after 36 hrs awake, but couldn't make my brain shut up). lol

p.s. i agree....finding a good therapist you like and seeing that person as often as possible (idealy once a week), is a great step to try and put into movement for yourself.

p.s.s. i current psychiatrist recently put me on a fairly new med called "Luvox" b/c he thinks it will specifically help me with my obessing issues. After a couple weeks, the jury is still out and i'm still not on optimin dose levels yet either.

p.s.s.s. So yeah!!! I can personally relate to everything you have said here.