Thanks all for the replies. Sorry for the delay as there was a gap between replies and I didn't come back to check it again. I am on Tegretol (carbamazepine) now for the first time (going on 3 weeks now), and it's becoming clearer to me the issues I'm having. My mood doesn't cycle as rapidly as it did before, and I'm less irritable and easier to get along with. That said, I feel an anger that I haven't felt when I was not on meds, and it seems to me that it's just a general anger due to not being able to get excited or feel fulfillment from my work or pleasurable activities. I'm angry at other people who are happier than me, envious of others, etc.

Regarding cognitive function, I feel more forgetful and less confident in myself at work. I think that's causing me to feel a sense of urgency about everything (e.g., i've got to reply to this email now because if I don't, I'll forget about it). That probably also explains my edginess because it's so hard for me to stay focused to finish a task, so when I get interrupted, I'm really edgy about it b/c i can only do one thing at a time.

Beth, you mentioned that maybe my dose was too low, and I gave that some serious thought b/c my doctor had mentioned that before too as a possibility. It's hard sometimes to differentiate the anger I feel now from a hypomanic episode, but it's becoming clearer to me now that the anger I have when hypomanic is more of an irritability if things don't go my way, but otherwise i'm in a pretty elevated mood. I can shift that quickly. Contrast that with this anger that is for no reason, and there is no excitement or happiness, just a general flat feeling that doesn't fluctuate a lot but lacks general feeling.