Happiness is when you are content because good things are happening in your life. For example, you feel happy because you are in a good relationship, doing well in school, working on your long-term goals, etc. When everything is going more-or-less according to plan, and you are pleased with how your life is. That's happiness. For example, after I got into medical school, I was EXTREMELY happy several months. I was happy all the time, and happier than I had ever been in my life. I would just go around telling everyone who would listen how happy I am and how awesome life is. It felt like hypomania, but it wasn't, because there was a *reason* for my happiness. I had just achieved something I had been working years and years toward. So it MADE SENSE that I was elated and euphoric.

Hypomania is when your level of happiness doesn't make sense. When you are happy for no reason. When you can't explain WHY you're so happy. When your life is in shambles, and by all rights you SHOULD be upset, and the 'normal' you would be upset, but for some weird reason you're not upset. Typically, you get really excited over dumb, inconsequently things (like for me, I would get euphoric every time coupons arrived in the mail). Your mood doesn't match your circumstances.

Mania is more like you get sucked into obsessing over something, typically something stupid. You end up doing self-destructive things in pursuit of that obsession (like spending lots of money). You are frenzied in your obsession....it's all-consuming...and the feeling is more one of excitement than contentment. You're not exactly *happy*. You're just....driven....by your obsession. Giving in to the obsession brings immense satisfaction...it's like a drug. You keep going for hit after hit, and you can't stop obsessing. It's like you're trapped in a loop, and everything else falls by the wayside. It's like you have tunnel vision, and nothing else matters. The fact that the rest of your life sucks right now just doesn't matter. You're not intersted in that. All you care about is your obsession.