I was diagnosed in June. Since then I've been keeping a mood tracker in an Excel Spreadsheet. That way I can show a graph to visually see how I'm doing. I put down a few words for each day, then give it a score from -5 for so depressed I'm suicidal to 5 for so manic I'm off the wall. I find most days are from -2 to 1.

I also have a separate journal that I type in - in Word. I have arthritis and carpal tunnel and I can type for a lot longer than I can write.

I spoke to my T about it and she said to sort out which moods are from the BP and which moods are situational. The moods that are caused by situations in my life are normal if they aren't too high or too low (not hugely over-reacting that is). For example, it was 90 degrees in my apartment 2 weeks ago and my daughter and son-in-law brought me an air conditioner that they had been storing for me. There was a piece of metal in the hole where the air conditioner went, and I needed the building manager to come take it out. He didn't come for 10 days and I got really irritated. I didn't allow myself to take it out on him or my landlord ( because then he would never come and I might get evicted), but my mood was so irritable I couldn't stand myself. My T said this is normal, and any normal person would have been mad too. So my BP didn't cause me to be mad, and I shouldn't count it. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes, but she walked me through the process.

Also the DSM-IV uses set of criteria to tell if you have a disorder. That is, if you are consistently hypomanic all the time for 4 days or more, you may have BP II. If the manic mood lasts for 1 week or more you may have BP I. If you have major depression, the DSM-IV says it lasts at least 2 weeks.

Go here to see the criteria for BP mania and depression:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/sym...ic-depression/

I don't know anything about rapid cycling and how it works. I don't have it. Sorry I can't help you with that one, but there are others here who can.

My point is:
1. give your moods a score - use a number system you are comfortable with.
2. sort out normal moods that any person would have from unreasonable moods that could be caused by BP.
3. if you have a hypomanic or manic mood consistently for at least 4 to 7 days, or consistent depression for 2 weeks, there may be a problem.
4. don't make it so complicated that your T or pdoc won't have time to read it - they are very busy people.

Hope this helps a little.