Like Beth, I find exercise has the best effect for me when I'm mixed. The Xanax didn't work for me at all: it made me feel drugged, but it did nothing for the desperate feeling of frustration and anguish. Seroquel and other sedatives were equally distressing for me.

Doctors talk about anxiety symptoms in a mixed state, but I have to say in my experience I have had very few of the symptoms that I know when confronted by true anxiety related to a worrying incident. When worried about something, I get sweaty palms, increased heart rate, pounding in my head, a knot in my stomach, and a feeling of dread I associate with the impending incident. In a mixed episode I experience none of that, but I feel like screaming everything out of me, as if there is some unseen tormenting thing inside me that I can't gouge out, a demon or petrol in my veins, and there is nothing - not a single drug - that can alleviate it for me. It only passes with time, and with the love and patient understanding of those who love me through the episode.

Edit: Antidepressants had a lot to do with causing the mixed episodes, I believe. Since I have been off SSRIs, I don't get that poisoned feeling.

Ironically, or perhaps interestingly, I find a delicious coffee soothing, and it doesn't cause me more distress when I am in a mixed episode. However, many people claim they experience the opposite.