my irritability and anger is from nowhere. That's the difference. Some days if my kid spills milk, I'm like whatever. Other days, I fly into a rage. I don't like to be touched during mania unless it's sex. It's really hard because I have kids and my oldest wants me to hug her and sit on my lap. I feel like she's hanging on me during these times and I get all fidgety feeling.

I am normally (rather to the world) a pretty easy going laid back person but get me in an episode and things that normally wouldn't bug me, make me go off the deep end. In fact, I've started texting my husband things like "if i get pissed later, please read this text to me to remind me I'm ok with this" when he goes out with friends. It's totally unpredictable that way. But it seems that while I can't control it, I have learned to direct it differently. I might get crappy later but I won't obsess about it and dramatize it so much.

I think that if you talk to people dx'ed with bp and have irritability, you'll find that their irritability is different than the normal persons.