My bipolar is VERY abnormal.

It took 10 years from first depression to get my bipolar diagnosis. Most of that is because all of my swinging and episodes were happening below the emotional neutral threshold. It's only after I got on mood stabilizers that I had a happy day. I started mood stabilizers two years ago, and that's the first time we ever saw my hypomania.

I (almost without exception) always have mixed episodes with either predominantly hypomanic or predominantly depressive symptoms.

Like others have said, I'm excellent at hiding symptoms. I spent so much time trying to be perfect when I was younger that now I can't turn it off. Most people have no idea, ever, what's going on inside me.

Hypomania is probably only ever visible to me. Next it would be my husband or therapist? When it is visible, the most obvious things to others are
when I spend an entire day being productive (errands, cleaning, cooking, tasks - nothing enjoyable, JUST productive) and feel good at the end of the day
talking faster, but not much faster than usual
managing social situations with ease and laughter, smiling the whole time
needing less sleep. Even with my seroquel, I go down to 8 hours and don't feel tired.