[LiteraryLark]

Ugh. I feel so ANGRY! Ask me in five minutes, I'll be laughing and telling you how I got it all figure out. AAAGH wtf is going on with me?

I'm still trying to figure my disorder out, obviously.

So mania is major episodes that include excessive sex, gambling, shopping, and delusions.

Hypomania is when you think you're happy but you're really not.

Happiness is....I don't even know what happiness feels like. Everytime I feel like I'm happy, someone is telling me I'm really not and I'm just manic.

What is the difference between the three? How do I know when I am happy and when I am manic. AGH I'm just so angry.

[BipolaRNurse]

That's what I'm still trying to figure out, three weeks into my recovery from a months-long mixed episode. It sounds strange even to me, but I really don't trust my own impressions anymore, because I thought I was OK when I was actually losing my mind. I feel like happiness is just around the corner, but now I'm suspicious of it---am I becoming happy/normal, or is this another hypomanic phase kicking in? It scares me.....it's happening relatively quickly so I can't help thinking I'm just on one of my upswings.

On the other hand, my bipolar d/o has never met Lamictal before, and the stuff is kicking its @$$. I guess the rest remains to be seen. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy the good days and thank God I'm out of the agitated-depression stage.

[bipolarmedstudent]

Originally Posted by DrSkipper

Ugh. I feel so ANGRY! Ask me in five minutes, I'll be laughing and telling you how I got it all figure out. AAAGH wtf is going on with me?

I'm still trying to figure my disorder out, obviously.

So mania is major episodes that include excessive sex, gambling, shopping, and delusions.

Hypomania is when you think you're happy but you're really not.

Happiness is....I don't even know what happiness feels like. Everytime I feel like I'm happy, someone is telling me I'm really not and I'm just manic.

What is the difference between the three? How do I know when I am happy and when I am manic. AGH I'm just so angry.

Happiness is when you are content because good things are happening in your life. For example, you feel happy because you are in a good relationship, doing well in school, working on your long-term goals, etc. When everything is going more-or-less according to plan, and you are pleased with how your life is. That's happiness. For example, after I got into medical school, I was EXTREMELY happy several months. I was happy all the time, and happier than I had ever been in my life. I would just go around telling everyone who would listen how happy I am and how awesome life is. It felt like hypomania, but it wasn't, because there was a *reason* for my happiness. I had just achieved something I had been working years and years toward. So it MADE SENSE that I was elated and euphoric.

Hypomania is when your level of happiness doesn't make sense. When you are happy for no reason. When you can't explain WHY you're so happy. When your life is in shambles, and by all rights you SHOULD be upset, and the 'normal' you would be upset, but for some weird reason you're not upset. Typically, you get really excited over dumb, inconsequently things (like for me, I would get euphoric every time coupons arrived in the mail). Your mood doesn't match your circumstances.

Mania is more like you get sucked into obsessing over something, typically something stupid. You end up doing self-destructive things in pursuit of that obsession (like spending lots of money). You are frenzied in your obsession....it's all-consuming...and the feeling is more one of excitement than contentment. You're not exactly *happy*. You're just....driven....by your obsession. Giving in to the obsession brings immense satisfaction...it's like a drug. You keep going for hit after hit, and you can't stop obsessing. It's like you're trapped in a loop, and everything else falls by the wayside. It's like you have tunnel vision, and nothing else matters. The fact that the rest of your life sucks right now just doesn't matter. You're not intersted in that. All you care about is your obsession.

[cocoabeans]

Hypomania is you think you're happy and you really are very happy but, because you're prone to some very harsh depression or maybe full mania, you're not allowed to be that happy. It is part of your disorder that makes you cycle.