[Secretum]

I usually am up and down several times a day, but I find that if I take averages, I have a slower cycling pattern underneath that.

For example, I've had a few hours of intense euphoria three days in the past week, but if you use the DSM's criterion that depressive symptoms must last for "most of the day, nearly everyday", then you could say I've been in a month-long depression.

[Ryask]

My depressions always last longer than my hypo-mania's, i would say i have a substantial mood shift while unmediated at least 4 times per year, it feels like 3 months of depression and a month of hypomania. When i was on celexa i was rapidly cycling weekly sometimes daily...hell sometimes hourly...it was bad

Mine seems very erratic. I've always found it impossible to say.

[Confusedinomicon]

I have months when I'm fine, and months when I experience a episode. Luckily I'm getting better at handling it.

[jk2833]

Originally Posted by Innerzone

Mine seems very erratic. I've always found it impossible to say.

I'm the same Innerzone,however I'm definitely more depressed than anything else but can sometimes have a two hour period of being hyper,I can't work it out myself.
JK

Originally Posted by jk2833

I'm the same Innerzone,however I'm definitely more depressed than anything else but can sometimes have a two hour period of being hyper,I can't work it out myself.
JK

I definitely have more time depressed too, jk2833. And more so than when I was younger. Boo. Since being dx'd and finally understanding what's been going on (only a few years now), the longest hypo I had was 1 1/2 months. I was off to the races, lol. ("Meds? I don't need meds! Hahahahaha!", as I was bouncing off the Pdoc's couch...) No trigger.

Looking back, it's more guesswork on how long they lasted, but much of the trail of memories of ramped up and super-productive and WTH behavior indicate many of them were quite substantial. Not all, of course, but the shorter ones don't stand out so much in trying to remember things.

Over a period of weeks, about 99% of the time. One time I cycled daily for a little while because of medication changes, which was very frustrating.

[tattoogirl33]

I never know what's what due to being Bipolar 1 AND Borderline.. I'm houly a lot of the time, although I have more mixed episodes than anything.

[Tsunamisurfer]

I vary. When I'm not messing with med changes, I have a stable pattern of about 4 days hypomanic and irritable, swinging slowly down over a week to a low of mild depression, then back up more rapidly to hypomania again. But things like med changes (e.g. introduce a neuroleptic) and I get very erratic and intense shifts within a day. It hardly fits DSM-IV's idea of Bipolar criteria, but it has landed me in hospital a couple of times.

[venusss]

daily to weekly. Oh joy.

[porcupine2]

Daily to weekly as well, but my episodes are either rage or depression, and I mean a deep deep depression. Flat. The raging episodes usually last about 2 or 3 days but the depression can last much longer. There seems to be no rhyme or reason about it.

[ariatboot]

I spend most of my time in a depressed state only going into a hypomanic state for about 4-5 days at the most and then its right back into the depression sometimes for months on end. I randomly get the hypomanic states sometimes a couple times a month and other times only once or twice a year. Stupid bipolar...