My signs and symptoms have changed over time (I wonder how common that is?). It used to be, that going into hypo/mania I would initially be overly sensitive to light and noise (that's the irritability part), talk non-stop, with my eyes wildly wide open, and as if I were a genius, feel hypersexual and engage in risk taking behaviors, not sleep much...

Now my signs are different. Lack of sleep first (though sleeping more than in the past) and then seeing and hearing things. It seems that, over time, the psychotic features of BP have come to the fore, while other things have receded.

I think keeping a daily of your symptoms, however small or insignificant they may seem, could help a lot. I think this could be beneficial in gaining insight into the beginnings of your episodes, so you can head them off. Best of luck. It can be so hard to be insightful about ourselves once things have gotten to a certain point, which is why it's so important to catch things early so that medication can be increased or changed to head it off from becoming worse.