Thank you for this message. It's nice to have that uplifting spirit :)

I think the only person that can let it define you is yourself. As I've never defined myself by my disorder no one else who has come across me, including medical professionals, has done so either.

Agreed

I agree completely with that!!.....xo

Sidebar. I disagree. When you say I "am" bipolar or "being" bipolar. You are letting it define you. Always say I "have" this illness. Because saying "I am bipolar" makes you the face of the disease. Whereas saying you have the illness makes you the one in control

Yes!!!!!!

BP is a label and so only describes aspects of a single dimension of our personality. The danger is when those manic or depressive aspects take over our outlook and we identify with them... instead of the total package we look at ourselves one dimensionally.

Since when does saying you have a disease mean said disease defines you? Just because you say you're BiPolar it doesn't mean it's running your life, its semantics. People say, "I'm Diabetic" its just how people normally say they have BiPolar Disorder.

Moobbust, I'm sorry but I completely disagree with what you said: BiPolar is not just a label....its a disease that has a profound effect on each patients life. To treat and manage BiPolar correctly you have to mix it in with your daily life, because its a life-disease. It doesn't mean that's all people identify with. I don't introduce myself as, "Hi I'm Kat I'm Bipolar" like that's all there is to me....with friends or meeting new friends, its just, "Hi, I'm Kat." at work with other Professionals in my job and field, its "Hi, I'm Kat, the Accountant". I never qualify or quantify myself through the fact that I'm BiPolar...in 28 years it has never been a defining part of my Personality or Professional Life, hell or just being a Mom.

I never look at me and just see a BiPolar patient, but I also know that I have a disease with no cure, and it is imperatively important that I treat it daily so that it stays as stable as possible. That's not over-identification, its treatment and flare management.

Hey no need to be sorry Kat... I love reading your views and often change mine after considering what others have to say, you included. The older I get the the more I discover I don't know! A non-pathologizing view is not really my own invention. I accepted the view as part of my studies over the last few years. Here is the first journal article I saw about it.
http://www.derekscott.co/rs/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/A-Personal-Journey1.pdf
I don't take things as gospel but as opposed to this the new DSM is described as pathologizing nearly everyone [I'm pretty sure thats an exaggeration] i.e.
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-is-anyone-normal-under-new-dsm-criteria-051813

So with the stroke of a pen in the DSM 5 whole new sections of the population became pathologized getting new diseases [I'm taking the mickey a little here, oversimplifying :-)]. Gee beuracratic doctors have powerful pens! So I admit to being a little flippant about their categories and calling them labels, but I think calling disorders [extremes] diseases is at least equally misleading... even if not intended that way. So I figure all I am doing is going some way towards creating balanced discussion. Thanks for sharing and the food for thought. I'll go away now and reconsider my view more carefully. Take care.

Some therapists go a bit far in explaining away the 'label" as if we see that and its all we are. I've never done labels, not with my son who had severe ADD as a child/teen, not with my colleagues and not with any patient. People, especially depressed people who can pick a single word out of an hours conversation, tend to hone in on the label....Its not easy but sometimes you have to get it in your head that "I'm not a label" i'm just someone who has an illness and needs to be treated for it....such is life. In my experience labels can be very damaging.

I completely agree that the DSM5 is a very harmful tool. Even as I go through the depression boards on this site or the bipolar boards and see people react to every single emotion, any change and think it needs fixing or medicating....it drives me a bit bonkers.

We are humans, we do have emotions, normal everyday emotions. We don't need to be medicated each time we're sad or down or low, same as we can be happy and in a good mood without needing that tampered down. We've gotten to a point where people panic at the first feeling of a sad or bad mood that they're depressed. Teens who have a bad day or school's not going well....are depressed.

People forget that we have emotions that are normal, we're supposed to be sad at times, supposed to be angry or upset, supposed to be happy. You don't need to be medicated every time your emotions change. Its a scary world we're moving into where nobody seems to know the difference.

I agree with this. Bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses do not define a person. These are just health conditions a person is coping with. I think the societal stigma is ignorant and irrational, and just a fabricated thing.