I used to have a fairly even mix of depression and hypomania during my twenties. It was usually a few weeks of hypomania, then a few weeks of depression, then euthymia for a while. Then at some point I started getting longer episodes, including what I now think was a hypomanic episode that lasted for months.

Unfortunately, I'm now depressed about 60% of the time, with mixed episodes thrown in now and then (those are the worst in my opinion). These days I'm happy when I just get a couple of weeks away from depression. The depression and mixed episodes are also way more severe than they used to be.

I just came out of a hypomania. It was only a week, but I cherished every second of it because they're so rare these days. I did buy about $1000 worth of stuff I don't really need, but it was still worth it. Now I'm hoping I don't have to pay for it with another bout of depression.

My diagnosis is bipolar 2, but I have been getting an increasing amount of psychotic features during mixed episodes. In my mind I've been thinking about it as a kind of bipolar 1.5 now. I don't know if it will progress further or not. I'm still hoping I can somehow go back to how things used to be before they escalated to this point, but I don't know if it's possible.