[sugahorse1]

What is rapid cycling i.e. what is the fastest cycle people have experienced?
I know 2 cycles or so a year is normal and more frequent is called rapid.
But could it happen as often as daily i.e. one day up, one day down? This would obviously be before medication is taken.

[Anneinside]

Rapid cycling is when you have 4 or more cycles in a year. Some people cycle within a day called ultra-rapid, or ultra-ultra-rapid cycling. This is not a DSM category, however. Cycling can happen when medication is taken, it is called breakthrough. Few people have found a medication or medications that stop cycling altogether. I am on meds, and have ECT every 3 weeks and I still have mild depressions at times, usually during the week before ECT.

[grizmom]

Yes...everyone is different. My mood can cycle more than once in a day, and even though I am a bit more stable than I was before medication, I still don't stay at a constant baseline mood. For me it just helps to make the hyopmania and depression less severe. Like before medication I could go from severe depression in the morning to severe hypomania in the evening...now I generally stay between mild hypomania and mild depression. I also need to have my meds adjusted from time to time when the mood swings get more out of control. Like I said, everyone is different. Some people do find a medication that works really well and keeps them close to baseline and they don't need to adjust the meds very often. That just hasn't been my experience. Best of luck, and I hope you find a good medication mix on your first try!

[mamaJenof5]

my cycling is never in a pattern, some times I have hypomania for 3 days then just fall into depression for a week, then I'll be manic for a week I NEVER am not in these states. meds hardly ever work...but we switched again so I'm hopful!

[kadesgirl09]

even with medication I have been depressed in the morning and manic in the evening.... or vice versa... I am almost always in mixed episodes... trying to change meds soon cause I dont think mine do the trick at all

[Moreta]

Originally Posted by grizmom

My mood can cycle more than once in a day, and even though I am a bit more stable than I was before medication, I still don't stay at a constant baseline mood. For me it just helps to make the hyopmania and depression less severe.

What is this "baseline mood" that you speak of? (j/k)

I agree with grizmom though, working on making the hypomania and depression less severe is a good thing to do. It takes a lot of time and practice, but you need to learn the proper coping skills along with taking the right medication. I still have breakthroughs where I literally hate myself and the rest of the world, but since I have learned the correct coping technique, I'm not in that funk as long.

[la doctora]

I go from mild depression to hypomania all in one day too. Some days are good, some are bad, and some are both. The meds are helping the anxiety but I'm not sure that it is helping the cycles. I had a bad depressive episode yesterday. I'm taking Zyprexa but have only been taking it for a few weeks now. Before that I didn't have a mood stabalizer, only anxiolytics and antidepressants.

[Starlightembers]

For many years now, I have cycled at rapid speeds. In a single day I can go through mild depression, mild hypomania, severe hypomania, mixed state, and severe depression. In addition to some rages thrown in during the mixed and depressive states. It is usually in that exact order, as well. It truly makes life a roller coaster, never knowing how I will feel minute-to-minute. Medication helps make the mood swings less severe - including completely preventing full blown mania - but it only slows the cycling down a small amount.

Eri/Erika

[thinker22]

I have experienced the mood shifting all day long, but it's rare for me. Usually I'm depressed all day long for months or hypo/manic all day long for months. According to my p-doc, since I went from severe depression from winter '08-'09 then suddenly switched to mania in Aug '09 and then back to depression in Oct '09, this is all one episode that is "mixed." I think of it as 3 episodes in one year, but you have to have a couple of months symptom free, I believe, for a shift to be considered a new episode. I think that's strange, but that's how the DSM-IV-TR classifies it.

Although I have depression all day for quite some time, I do have varying energy levels throughout the day that make things seem less or more bleak. Either I have energy until noon or one and then am deflated until late in the evening or I have no energy until about 4 at night and am good until bedtime. My evenings are almost always better than the day. I think that's typical with bipolar.

[SunnyD]

For me I think that the medication keeps me from cycling 3 or 4 times a year. I tend to be depressed or hypo from day to day. Yes there is an underlying feature which is mostly depression but I am afraid to feel too good.
The moods are not as drastic and I can manage them from day to day. At least I think I do.

[venusss]

I have much more than four cycles a year. Sometimes I feel like my mood is cycling through the day... my longest cycle usually lasts for couple days.

[sugahorse1]

OK, so I do tend to cycle quite quickly. Most predominantly I am in the depressed phase, but I can suddenly get a rush of energy and bounce all over the place. I also tend to get bored VERY easily.
I don't have serious manic phases, like I don't ever really find myself with enough energy to go out at night (and I'm only 24) nor do I consider crazy sexual activity. And I don't go on MAJOR spending sprees - I do however often tend to buy things I really don't need. Sunday I decided I want CD's - so off I went and came back with 5 new CD's - technically unnecessary, but it kept me happy.

I have been on Anti-depressants for just over a year now, sometimes also taking anti-anxiety meds. I have only been on a mood-stabiliser on top of this for the last few days, as I really could not cope and therefore spoke to my p-doc (Who is new) that i really feel like I'm battling with BP and not just depression

[sugahorse1]

I have been going through different moods every day for the last 3 weeks now and it is mentally draining!

[allme]

I hear ya people, I have just come off a 8 day high.

[BNLsMOM]

I used to have cycles that would look like high peaked mountains and low peaked valleys. Sometimes, I would cycle within a cycle. In other words if I were depressed I would go between severe and mild sometimes within a day. Same with hypomania/mania.

Now, I think I cycle faster, but my meds cap it before it gets out of hand. I will have cycles that are more like gentle waves that last a day or two. Possibly, this is regular mood fluctuations that stable people have, but I don't know, I have never experienced it.

[naturally loud]

Originally Posted by sugahorse

What is rapid cycling i.e. what is the fastest cycle people have experienced?
I know 2 cycles or so a year is normal and more frequent is called rapid.
But could it happen as often as daily i.e. one day up, one day down? This would obviously be before medication is taken.

I call my bipolar rapid bipolar because my mood swings are so rapid its a wipeout.. on my way to my psychotherapy which only takes 15min to get there I was paranoid...laughing...then crying....anxious to get there then right before i got there i convinced myself i was fine and don't need meds or therapy. or I'll call and leave a message with my therapist manic with these thoughts about how i've mastered my illness and I can do anything ...then I'll leave a message within a hr to 2 days I'm frantic and sad

[Sweetpea77]

My husband's BP was diagnosed this way. He had been hospitalized for severe depression and suicidal thoughts. The new anti-depressants they gave his triggered his mania (he'd been depressed for years without any cycling). He was out of the hospital for about 2 months when it happened.

It was scary to watch, I called him from work on my break and he was bawling uncontrollably, so I went home to make sure everything was ok. He was still sad for most of the afternoon, then after dinner, he said he was going to the store. When he came back it was like he'd gone and scored drugs. I'd never seen him that way before, he's always been my mellow man. He was up all night buzzing around. The next day his Dr. yanked him off his meds and diagnosed BP. He was 35 yrs old. VERY uncommon to be diagnosed with BP that late. But his Pdoc is head psychiatry of a major university hospital and has been husbands pdoc for 10 years. Husband has a good trusting relationship with his Dr.

He's had one other obvious rapid-cycle since then, just recently, again because of an anti-depressant. The most recent was worse than the first, he went up and down at least twice. But we knew what was happening and it wasn't as scary.

[moxy]

lamictal helps me with this. my moods aren't stable yet, but i don't go up and down 15 times a day.

[sugahorse1]

I have just started on Epilim and not sure if it is helping. I wake up depressed, get ok throughout the day, bouncy at about 5PM and at 9PM I crash with exhaustion.

I only experience hypomania i.e. racing thoughts, elevated energy, increased aggitation and irritability, and feeling very sure of myself.

But me depression is bad.

And I feel like an idiot on some days e.g. my p-doc phones on Tuesday because I've asked her for a new script. She asks how I'm doing and I say OK, I guess. So she faxes through a new script and we agree to meet within the next month.
The next day I'm an ABSOLUTE mess, want to phone her to book me into hospital...