I thought I had added a post here, with the others, but I guess I didn't.

I have definitely experienced this type of memory loss. Thanks for sharing a more precise term for why/how this happens. I have always just used the more casual "manic blackouts". I know I've encountered many people over the years that have written about this.

I had 10 hospitalizations and 12 PHP/IOPs, though I only really remember 5 hospitalizations, or maybe at least bits of 6. Bits of long periods even earlier in life, when I was clearly manic, are mostly lost -- way beyond the normal memory loss of mundane days. I agree that it is disconcerting. I remember asking my husband a number of times to tell me about my behavior or what happened during those "lost manic days". He usually refused to tell me. I'm sure he refused partly because it was too difficult to talk about and partly because he thought it best that I not know. Truth is, many of those "lost times" were likely traumatic to varying degrees. Very often when I was experiencing psychosis, it wasn't "magical" or "marvelous", but frightening or severely disconcerting. I often had delusions of persecution.