On thinking about it more, I think my 'baseline' is how I'm feeling at any given moment that isn't an episode, good or bad.

So after the euphoric part of hypomania, I tend to get really irritable (everyone else is too slow, and I'm just downright irritable in general), but right now I'm irritable as well, but not in an episode, I am because I've been getting very little sleep (non-BP-related little sleep), so it's normal for me, or baseline, to get irritable when I get so little sleep (and I have to work anyway). I know that if I were in an episode, amongst other things, I wouldn't be so utterly exhausted from lack of sleep. I hope this makes sense, I'm dead tired

Anyway, I'm trying to get to know more and more what are 'normal' reactions for me, so I know when to turn to meds and/or pdoc and when to turn to other means. Also when to get anxious/scared about how I feel or not. It's a work in progress.