Dianne, I know a woman who want's diagnosed with bipolar unti a few years before she died. I recall speaking with her and she was so happy to have an explanation for the way she acted her entire life. She was grateful for the diagnosis and took her medicine faithfully. Prior to that diagnosis she was always treaded for depression and while those drugs helped they didn't do the trick that the Lithium did.

Drugs frighten me, but we have to look at the quality of a person's life to determine if they are necessary.