[Samanthagreene]

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm still trying to figure out the phases of time that I used to refer to as 'not depressed' just to see if what I'm dealing with is depression or more cyclothymic. I was hoping some people here could compile a list of some ways they behave when hypomanic. I'm making a list of ways I feel when I feel more 'up' than usual.
It includes:
-Telling people personal information about myself for no reason
-Increased motivation to do TONS of stuff at once; sometimes I get so caught up in trying to do things that I can't do any of them
-Increased levels of happiness; lots of laughing, even about things I would normally consider serious
-Lack of filter on what I say
-Increased want to socialize
-Decreased tiredness
That's my list so far, since I haven't been working with it for long. I was wondering what else people could add. This can be personal stories or lists or whatever.
Thanks,
-Sam

[Blue_Bird]

-Increased talking
-Can't sit still
-Increased energy
-Also telling people personal information about myself
-Urges to spend a lot of money
-Barely sleeping or staying up for days in a row and not being tired
-More creative, drawing, painting, etc
-Being Impulsive
-Cleaning or rearranging the entire house in the middle of the night because I have too much energy
-Getting a lot done
-Feel like I can do anything, almost overconfidence
-Happy, smiling, laughing
-Pacing around (When I'm having racing thoughts)
-Talking faster

[A Red Panda]

- cleaning sprees that normally I don't do, or do them at inappropriate times, or find all the tiny little things that no one else would ever notice
- talk people's ears off a lot more
- want to go out drinking a lot more often
- more likely to respond to someone flirting with me
- I'm super bouncy
- hello goals and lists!
- barely sleep
- oversharing
- rapid changes in hobbies and activities
- ambitious new projects (involving hobbies) ((I can get obsessive about them))

My first clue is how I feel about my husband. That's how my therapist can tell if I am going up. If I am feeling dissatisfied, irritated and generally not saying much good about him, that's the first sign. (also how many times I hit her plant with my hand while talking...it sits right next to the chair)
I get more energy.
I sleep less.
I get hypersexual (I've only acted on it twice, once online before dx, once in person a few years ago)
I write, poems, stories, journaling. Pages and pages.
Talkative
Restless
Confident
Joking
Talk a lot with my hands

I haven't had a purely hypomanic or full blown manic episode in a while though. Mostly mixed these days. yuk.

[AnxietyGirl916]

Originally Posted by Blue_Bird

-Increased talking
-Can't sit still
-Increased energy
-Also telling people personal information about myself
-Urges to spend a lot of money
-Barely sleeping or staying up for days in a row and not being tired
-More creative, drawing, painting, etc
-Being Impulsive
-Cleaning or rearranging the entire house in the middle of the night because I have too much energy
-Getting a lot done
-Feel like I can do anything, almost overconfidence
-Happy, smiling, laughing
-Pacing around (When I'm having racing thoughts)
-Talking faster

Same here.

[tealBumblebee]

I was just diagnosed with Hypomania - so I never knew thats what it was. I did know that I had "random hyper spurts" but it was just "Crazy Teal..."

However, T says she thinks my latest hypomanic episode was a few weeks ago when I impulsively went shopping to buy a large oversized photo frame and turn it into a chalkboard (fully painted and decorated with seashells, pearls and roses) SIMPLY BECAUSE i had a lot of racing thoughts and writing them down on paper wouldn't due.

But, i've done many of the things previously listed from the previous posters (in those "hyper" moments) as well as:

- Run up and down the hallway (because I HAD to get the energy out)
- Bang on friends doors to wake them up in the middle of the night simply to chat (knowing they didn't have class).
- Cartwheels, Handstands, Flips
- Putting sticky notes of motivation all over my room, bathroom mirror, friends doors
- Jumping on the bed
- Screaming

(i know i sound like a maniac, but you have to realize my general baseline is already a bit hyper...)

And on the flip side:
-Become highly impatient/irritable
-Very blunt (more than usual; e.g. Texter: Hey Teal; My Reply: I don't feel like talking. Texter: )

[BipolaRNurse]

Pretty much all of the above. Of course, if it stopped there it wouldn't be so bad, but then I often go on to become severely irritable and dysphoric, argumentative, and paranoid in addition to having excessive energy etc. No bueno.

[Blue_Bird]

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

Pretty much all of the above. Of course, if it stopped there it wouldn't be so bad, but then I often go on to become severely irritable and dysphoric, argumentative, and paranoid in addition to having excessive energy etc. No bueno.

Paranoia! That's one thing I have when I'm manic, I didn't know if it was normal or not or if anyone else experienced it. Really hate that feeling

[ultramar]

Originally Posted by Samanthagreene

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm still trying to figure out the phases of time that I used to refer to as 'not depressed' just to see if what I'm dealing with is depression or more cyclothymic. I was hoping some people here could compile a list of some ways they behave when hypomanic. I'm making a list of ways I feel when I feel more 'up' than usual.
It includes:
-Telling people personal information about myself for no reason
-Increased motivation to do TONS of stuff at once; sometimes I get so caught up in trying to do things that I can't do any of them
-Increased levels of happiness; lots of laughing, even about things I would normally consider serious
-Lack of filter on what I say
-Increased want to socialize
-Decreased tiredness
That's my list so far, since I haven't been working with it for long. I was wondering what else people could add. This can be personal stories or lists or whatever.
Thanks,
-Sam

Many of these, but to an extreme. i.e. not decreased tiredness, but extremely hyper and energetic with very little sleep. Lack of filter, yes, but talking non-stop, physically unable to stop. Not increased happiness, but euphoria to the point that a flower, a color, a texture can practically make me cry from its beauty, etc. When full-blown manic (the above are often present in the process of going into mania), paranoia, very messed up thinking, imagining f**cked up things...

What you're describing sounds like perhaps a very mild form of hypomania -it sounds lovely, actually. I understand the need to find out what's going on, but I'd say that if it really doesn't seriously mess up your life, then don't sweat it, and if anything, enjoy it!

Have you talked to a psychiatrist about this?

[TheJettSet27]

I'm not diagnosed but I have believed to have been dealing with this for a while now. During my possible hypomanic episodes, I:
-Am more creative and inspired (most of my songs/poems get written during this period)
-Make lots of lists and goals
-Many, many new ideas and it becomes hard for me to work
-Increased quality in everything I do
-Decreased tiredness and need for sleep
-More social, sometimes even feeling a pressure to talk and talk
-Happier in general (although irritability may also be present)
-Increased motivation, doing more things that I normally would, those things being odd (rearranging my closet, cleaning the house for Mom, etc.)
-My thoughts speed up, not extremely fast, but enough to have a bit of trouble grasping and comprehending what they are (as they can be weird or nonsensical.)

Those are the main ones. Sometimes, I can get a little paranoid, but that may be anxiety (which I'm also dealing with.)
I've had a long-term partial delusion (as I call it) but I don't think that's directly related to my hypomania.

[AnxietyGirl916]

Originally Posted by Blue_Bird

Paranoia! That's one thing I have when I'm manic, I didn't know if it was normal or not or if anyone else experienced it. Really hate that feeling

Yeah, I forgot that one too. I noticed (since tracking moods and symptoms) that I get paranoid at the peak of my mania.

[Skittles56]

I don't usually stay hypomanic for long enough to notice. If I start a serious upswing, it's off to the races for me. Everything Ultramar said and add in hallucinations and delusions.

[Margolomania]

During a hypomanic phase, I tend to:
-Feel enlightened and have enlightening and philosophical thoughts, very similar to when people come up with such thoughts after smoking a lot of pot.
-I talk a lot. I've caught myself texting and chatting with a few people all at once, sitting for about an hour or so just focused on my phone or the computer.
-I forget responsibilities.
-Less filter.
-Very giddy, like I constantly want to dance!
-I want to save the world, in contrast to wanting to watch the world burn during depressive episodes.
-Legs and arms and brain won't keep still.
-Seeing brighter colors.
-Want to keep feeling good by watching funny videos, drinking more coffee, socializing with friends.
-Irritability, which I always found odd. I'd be very happy but as soon as someone "gets in the way" of that high, like saying something that I don't agree with or when someone disturbs me when I'm focused on feeling good (which is hard when I feel this way at work, like right now)... my mood turns from happy to wanting to snap people's heads off. It only lasts for a few seconds though and I go right back to that giddy feeling.

[Revu2]

This is a great question.

I lose my sense of the ground and in the thrall of such great happy feelings I unwittingly do dangerous things.

Hypersexuality to the point that sex to orgasm doesn't even dent the super mood I'm in. No falling asleep afterwards for me.

Something that I learned in my latest research is similar to other lists on this thread: I work at amping up the good mood! Hallo!? This is adding gas to the flame.

I also feel confidence based on my good mood rather than some increase in actual abilities or breech in the laws of probabilities. Dostoevsky says in The Gambler that you feel like you can flip your nose at fate!

I want to add lots more plans and I feel like merely thinking about them will bring them to complete and wonderful fruition.

I fantasize about how my tiny string of successes will roll on and on. So that if I make & post a short video made on a Flip camera, it will draw lots of attention—go viral. Someone of the staff at Sundance will catch wind, alert Robert Redford who will send his private pilot and plane to whisk me to Utah to discuss taking over the direction of a script he's been struggling with.

As a child I luvved Thurber's Walter Mitty character. "Please, a fountain pen someone so I can repair this aspirator and continue this operation."

I can compose endless song cycles in my mind (no music training). I hear Jazz and it's terrific.

I underestimate how many tiny frustrations I will have to cope with on my way to finishing something.

I am irritable: can't you see I'm in a good mood and you must fit what you do around that?! I guess I should keep apart from people.

But I don't want that. I want to connect to all my friends.

I don't want to do anything that's known to lower my mood, like paying bills, doing the dishes, taking out the trash, cleaning up.

I am super vulnerable to small disappointments crashing my high.

[TombE]

I've had way more depressed stages than manic, but when I do go into these phases this is what results:

-Too much energy
-Increased racing thoughts (more than usual)
-The urge to be EXTREMELY social
-I talk to everyone and anyone and will get super personal
-I tend to have the strong urge to become inebriated
-Hypersexuality
-A feeling of anxiety and restlessness
-Insomnia
-Extreme impulse
-I basically just don't give a d*** what I do

Granted, it isn't as extreme as it was years ago, but still the same symptoms.

[Revu2]

Riding three days of biorhythms cresting. Doing all I can not to add to this bubbly mood. Successful so far.

Next several days I have a conference with lots of activity. This usually distracts me enough to stabilize myself.

Here's to hoping.
R.

[MagicsMom]

Although I've been diagnosed with Bipolar with hypomania I don't have most of the things you guys listed - my symptoms quickly fade back into depression

I get euphoric spending money and when the items I buy come to the house
I get very irritable at the slightest provacation - if anything irritates me I scream - usually at my son
I think about divorcing my husband - even though he's the most wonderful man on the planet
I snap at anyone who comes near me
Wake up at 2:00 am and can't go back to sleep
I actually feel happy and like my old self
Racing thoughts

[Manic Trance]

Racing thoughts, followed by incredibly racing thoughts, followed by inescapable thought tunnel that won't end.
Running, like I start thinking about something I want to do an I just start running, even if there is nowhere I need to get to to do it, I just get so pumped that I want to be moving faster.
Pressured speech.
Delivering long diatribes that are variously on and off subject.
Not letting others talk.
Loud talking.
A belief that ideas are sort of magical.
Fantastic byzantine thought tapestries and mandalas that go on forever and that I believe are sort of preternatural and kind of charmed or something.
Overplanning.
Listing obsessively.
Magical thinking.
Late late nights.
Vices, smoking, drinking, weed, other...
I could go on, but I hope that helps...
MT

[mzunderstood79]

-Racing thoughts
-More social but only with certain friends
-Talk a lot
-Share too much info with the wrong people
-Easily irritated
-Easily distracted
-Hypersexual
-Overly confident
-Wired mind/Tired body

Just to name a few.....

[mzunderstood79]

Vices, smoking, drinking, weed, other...

I feel ya!

1 of the things i do is laugh at things that really arn't funny, and just repeat words over and over

Clean like a mad woman.
Rearrange furniture everywhere (often in the middle of the night when I'm not sleeping)
Not sleeping
Spend too much money
Talk a lot (particularly to myself)
Eat more
Jump from activity to activity
Trouble focusing

Originally Posted by 1914sierra

Clean like a mad woman.
Rearrange furniture everywhere (often in the middle of the night when I'm not sleeping)
Not sleeping
Spend too much money
Talk a lot (particularly to myself)
Eat more
Jump from activity to activity
Trouble focusing

i forgot about the spending money part!

£500 on amazon in 1 day sometimes..... just a little over the top?