I don't know if with schizoaffective disorder if it has to be bipolar 1 or not. I think that my situation is more like yours that I have more of bipolar 2 rather than the full blown mania. The only thing that I have that is part of bipolar 1 is the grandiose delusions. Otherwise I don't do anything horribly dangerous when I am in mania and it is sometimes even beneficial to me to have it because I am hyper productive in my manic episodes. I do spend a bit more like I am an artist and once i spent $400 on a pastel set that I didn't use. Its been years so that amount might be a bit off. I don't spend tens of thousands or anything like that. When I am building balsa model airplanes at the same time as being hypo manic I spend a few hundred dollars on model kits (they are about $20-100 a piece) and I don't use them for a long time in fact I still have some from that episode and its been years! I also rapid cycle into many episodes a year but mainly depression and if I am manic (or hypo manic for that matter) I crash into a depression after that episode is over. Its been like that for years and that is more typical of a bipolar 2 diagnosis and I have schizoaffective disorder. The reasons why the amounts i spend is lower than a typical manic episode is the fact is that I don't have much money in the first place so this is huge for me. I also talk extremely fast while hypomanic. As I said before 99% of my episodes are depressive. I know though a long time ago for some odd reason the doctor diagnosed me as bipolar 1. How I was first diagnosed as that has a funny story to it. The psychiatrist flipped through pages of the DSM and landed on bipolar 1 and she said, "yep, this fits you perfectly." I think she also made a comment on how I talked was like mania. I also talk 24 hours a day. Back then I didn't realize that bipolar is even a possibility in me because I didn't see the ups in myself only the downs. But looking back in college, I wrote constantly and it was clear at times i had delusions and thought I am going to be a billionaire and thought I was going to change the world. Sometimes I think my art is so good that I am going to make millions even though most artists starve. I have a lot of people helping my art in real life (this is not a delusion) and I still make nothing with my art. Some people claim to love my art but no one buys any. I also know someone who is clearly bipolar 1 and I am not like him at all. He hasn't been formally diagnosed with it though. He always comes up with these ideas that will make millions (he claims) and then he doesn't follow through with anything. he has clear manic episodes followed by depressive episodes. he is not schizoaffective to my knowledge though.