[Victoria'smom]

Okay, this is going to sound weird. How can you tell the differences between depression and being stable? I've been doing this mood thing for the past four days and it seriously makes me look bad. I swear on paper I look like a mess but how would I know if I am a mess or just stable? I wish I never took up this project. I really don't want to do this for the next 5 days. I don't know if I'm just concentrating on negative things or what. She's going to think I'm a lot worse then I am. If I am this much of a mess how would I know if it's being stable or depressed? I don't know if what I recognized depression was a deep depression and this is lighter or if it's just because people look worse on paper.

If I don't make since sorry, I haven't sleep for at least 1.5 days because I just don't want to. I'll try to explain it differently if the post can't be understood.

[BuggsBunny]

The thing is, you can be stable, but still at a low level of depression. So it matters how you define stable, or how your Pdoc/T define it. Is it happy, or just a lack of mood swings?

If you are aiming at happy and your chart (I'm assuming this is a mood chart?) shows you with no mood swings but still at depressed, then you are safe in saying you are not stable.

I consider myself quite stable, but still with an underlying depression that has been here since 2003. But it's an even keel depression. So I guess my definition is lack of mood swings.

[Victoria'smom]

My thing is before I realize that my moods were extreme I felt depression was laying down and not responding to anything for at least two weeks. So I have no concept of non-extremes. So I actually need to know what a not as severe depression vs. stable and how can I tell one from the other. I'm doing an event/mood/thought chart because I can't identify my none extreme moods.

[cocoabeans]

Make a list of basic emotions and bipolar symptoms. Define them. Connect.

[hanners]

I'm having the same problem, on both sides though. When I was diagnosed with bipolar 2 last July, it suddenly clicked that all the mood swings I'd been having for years that I thought were just normal ups and downs (in hindsight, they definitely were not) were actually depressions and hypomanias. Now that I'm on meds to deal with it, and the mood swings are finally starting to settle down (at least, I think), I'm only getting a little bit of depression, or some hypomania now. Sometimes I think I might be stable, but I don't know because I realize I have no idea what "stable" actually feels like anymore. I'm not even sure I ever had a time in my life where I was stable.

[jaypop30]

The only way I can tell if I am stable is if I can somewhat function on my everyday tasks without having the feeling of wanting to crawl into bed and shut the world out. I feel stable right now but still at a low level.