Reply #7: They probably say bipolar due to lack of knowledge.

[Larissa238]

Most people think of depression as a minor thing if they don't have it. For them, the only real mental illnesses they know are bipolar and schizophrenia. So when someone wants to say that someone is mentally ill, they use one of those two labels. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say "Hey, that person looks like they have schizoid personality disorder"? So, in that, they take the two labels they know, and use that. If someone is acting weird, they are schizophrenic. If someone has mood swings, then they are bipolar. Of course, the ones of us who actually know what that means gets annoyed, but until people learn what bipolar and schizophrenia are, to start, and then what the other disorders are, then they are going to keep assuming.

Besides, a lot of these people want to feel like they know something, so they throw around medical terms that sound like they could be associated with what happened. (like, saying Benoit had "roid rage" when what he did was very deliberate and does not seem like an act of rage, but he did do steroids, so it must be roid rage, since that's the only thing they know to associated it with so it must be right.)