Dear Jennie,

My experience with people diagnosed as bipolar is that it is not unusual for them to manifest symptoms of an illness that is commonly considered "worse", particularly schizophrenia. These folks are treated with some of the same meds that are used for those diagnosed as schizophrenic. My layman's opinion is that all of the so-called "mood disorders", and schizophrenia, and many other psychoses, are instabilities of the same system, and, ergo, amenable to treatment by the same meds. The mood disorder meds are used principally to treat mania rather than depression. If the mania that an individual is exhibiting becomes so extraordinary that it can be considered megalomania or profoundly dilusional, it can as easily be described as schizophrenia. I don't believe that there is any reason for distinguishing bipolar disorder from psychosis other than degree.