I have not yet read everything in this thread, so excuse me if I repeat things.

My T and I discussed the possibility of me having bipolar disorder at one point (I have severe depression and anxiety and my father had bipolar II). We eventually decided that it was the PTSD and ADHD symptoms that were mimicking aspects of bipolar. But in the process, we had to sort through symptoms and what they may mean.

Bipolar I symptoms include:
- severe depression (possibly with psychosis)
- rapid changes in mood (going from severely depressed to manic within days)
- mania
- fast talking
- extreme anxiety
- restlessness
- extreme creativity
- psychosis or paranoia
- mental confusion due to thoughts moving too fast in your head
- feeling like you don't need sleep
- feeling like you can't stop talking
- flight of ideas
- starting many projects at once
- grandiose thoughts or inflated self-esteem
- increased libido
- dangerous or risky behavior
- high impulsiveness, possibly creating many long-term difficulties (lots of debt due to shopping, getting physically hurt due to risks, gambling debt, etc...)
- mixed mania, which can appear in two ways: 1) being both depressed and manic at the same time (such as being very restless and energized yet severely depressed) or 2) extreme anxiety and paranoia mixed with depression (the flight of ideas and high energy mixed with the negative thoughts of depression)

Bipolar II symptoms include:
- milder forms of above
- no psychosis
- no mixed mania (or if present, it is the "anxious" version with no paranoia)
- an ability to "reign" the symptoms in
- feeling like you are on top of the world or will be successful in everything you do
- inflated self-esteem without "super human" characteristics
- rapid changes in mood
- needing less sleep
- increased creativity
- feeling very happy or "light"
- having a lot of energy and feeling like you could go on forever
- increased libido
- feeling extremely lucky
- risk-taking behaviors, but not so much that you are out of control
- very "bubbly"