Does anyone else that has bipolar?

I have never identified myself as bi polar. I agree it is am illness just like any other. People with diabetes say they have diabetes not I am diabetes.

I'm just like it is what I have it doesn't have me. It's what I have, it's not who I am. I have schizoeffective disorder and sometimes I am very hard to deal with when I am not on meds, like right now. But for every second I spend suffering I spend every other not letting this affect me in any way, but it does. I fight just that much harder. All day every day until people realize that I am still the same person. I am still going to do what I have to do and more. People need to gain some knowledge about these diseases and just understand.

Personally, I don't really care. I will use both. I will say "I have bipolar disorder" and I will say "I'm bipolar". For me, it's just a matter of how I say it at any given time. I don't police my speech that much because it actually happens to be something that pisses me off and sends me into a manic rant (the whole PC thing, that is).

Just like people telling me to say I have manic-depressive illness instead of saying that I have bipolar disorder. To me, all I'm concerned about is whether or not the person on the receiving end knows what I'm saying. Doesn't matter how I say it as long as it's understood. Bad enough people expect us to use the "correct" terminology for all sorts of other things. Besides, "manic-depressive illness", even though it's a more precise terminology, just has way too many syllables for me to bother with.

Frankly, I think it's just too much energy focused on something trivial to expect me to use the correct terminology for stuff like that. I say it how I say it.

I hate it when people nitpick my speech. It's my disease and I'll call it however I feel like it at the time. Just a bunch of bulls**t semantics, if you ask me. Pointless to even discuss it at all.

Who cares as long as people understand the main point that I'm trying to get across?

If it's important to you, then say it how you want to. I won't try to stop you. But I don't like it when other people try to tell me how to discuss my own mental illness. I'm going to say it whichever way comes to mind first. I say it both ways and it's really quite random as to which way it comes out of my mouth from one instance to the next.

I think it's just nitpicking, personally. It's like expecting me to remember to say "dwarfs" or "little people".

I'll call 'em midgets any time I please, thank you.