I usually can control how "intense" I appear to the outside world. I have bipolar II, however, so I have not had full-blown mania. And my hypomanic periods tend to be fairly mild (fast thoughts, intense euphoria or irritability, fast speech, slightly more sociability...and that's about it. No overspending, no wild sexual adventures (physically; my thoughts definitely aren't always pg-13 when I'm hypomanic!), no impulsive decisions to travel across the country (though I have thought about it...)

Besides frank hypomania, there are other "non-manic" markers of bipolar disorder that you and your t should look for. They include:

-cyclothymic temperament (fast, usually untriggered, mood swings that can occur several times a day/week. The swings are not severe enough to be full-blown mood episodes.)

-intense daydreaming (only saw this one written once, but it describes me perfectly)

-intense baseline psychomotor activity (I think this means "rather fidgity" but I could be wrong)

-social anxiety at baseline (again, only saw it once but remembered it because it describes me)

-"atypical" rather than "melancholic" depressions-if you have this, then you are more likely to oversleep than be insomic,and more likely to overeat and gain weight. These symptoms are called "reverse neurovegative" because they are the opposite of what is seen physically during a typical, melancholic depression. Hypersensitivity to social criticism (which can look a lot like BPD), a heaviness in the limbs (a bipolar depression classic!), and mood reactivity (you are able to feel temporarily a little bit better when presented with positive stimuli, "better" being defined as "half of your depressed mood".)

-your depressions may have "mixed" features. You may be mostly low, but hypersexual and energetic enough to have an affair during depression, for example. Or you can be so low that you think everything you write is crap, yet so energetic that you cannot stop adding ***** to your pc post on subtle bipolar...

I hope that this helps.

"Hypermanic" seems to be the child of "hyperactive" and "manic"....seems a bit redundant to me.