I think it must be very hard to distinguish between mixed states and 1) (ultra) rapid cycling, and 2) being depressed yet hypo/manic at the same time precisely because it's being in that state that makes you depressed.

I see here many people so confident in being in mixed states and I guess I don't get it because it seems to me that it must be hard to discern. That said, everyone is different, and if you've been in a mixed state before, then you know what it's like, and you know you're in it; at least I'm assuming this is the case.

Since one aspect of mixed (or in some cases) involves rapidly shifting from one mood to the other, how do you distinguish that from rapid cycling?

On the other hand, the closest I think I've come to a mixed state was when I was hypo and going into mania. I had just passed through the ecstatic part and was going on to feeling that bugs were crawling all over me and getting paranoid. I was hypo/manic, but I wanted it to stop so bad I was simultaneously depressed. In other words, I was depressed BECAUSE I was hypo/manic, if that makes any sense, and this is why I question whether I was mixed in the first place.

So how do you know?