I cycle really quickly, hence my ultra-rapid cycling diagnosis.

I distinguish between moods and cycles by whether the emotion fits reality or is reasonable. When all of a sudden my mood shifts extremely with no trigger or justification, then I figure it's a chemical shift.

Like BastetsMuse said, this happens WAY much when I'm in a mixed episode, sometimes within a day in time frames like what you said.

If I had a day like you described, I would evaluate it based on how intense the changes felt.