You can have emotions with-in mood states - like you can experience happiness while in a depressive episode, just as you can experience saddness in a manic episode but these are emotions and not mood states. I think that is where people get confused. You can experience the whole range of emotions and during hypo/mania they may be enhanced and during depression they may be dulled, but you still experience them.

I can be depressed and function almost normally, but I still can have my full range of emotions, albeit sometimes dulled.

Those that feel emptyness and lack of emotion during mood states are more likely to have a personality disorder. But this is not the diagnosing factor.

The definition of mixed on this site seems to be very different to that of what my pdocs tell me and that of which I am studying. My mixed is BOTH at the SAME time, not switching between the two and it is certainly not called rapid cycling according to my care team. I really should look up some definitions but there is so much WRONG information on the internet about bipolar. I am picking up one of my study books today which may have some correct information in it that I can share. Or I may learn something new! I just dont trust the internet as a soild reliable source of info (well apart from google scholar which has all sorts on mixed eps)