[ultramar]

Hi everyone,

We talk here and there about how to distinguish between different kinds of bipolar episodes, but how do you distinguish between bipolar episodes and non-bipolar moods? How do you personally figure this out?

I would think that all of us have things that happen in life sometimes that trigger deep sadness, intense anger, terrible anxiety, etc. How do you know that a given person or situation is triggering this or that, on the other hand, you are in the midst of an episode?

If we have an over-the-top/intense reaction to, for example, a significant other hurting us, or someone being incredibly annoying, or a lot of stress piling up (at work, home), is this the distinction, does this mean bipolar?

Or can we 'overreact' (or react very intensely) to things in our lives without it being bipolar?

Do we attribute nice, calm, even, mature, reactions to life events to our baseline, and over the top, raging, crying fits to bipolar? Is this a valid distinction?

I'm thinking of another thread where it was brought up how we attribute things based on whether we consider them positive or negative and the possibility that we over-attribute negative behavior, or things we generally don't like about ourselves, to bipolar (and consequently things we do like about ourselves to our baseline, to who we are)?

Personally, I think with a diagnosis like Bipolar Disorder, the temptation to do this -though maybe often on an unconscious level- can be very strong (unlike some other diagnoses). I'm not referring here to taking responsibility for one's behavior, I'm referring to (whether we take responsibility or not) the attribution of the negative to 'bipolar', and how this could potentially blind us from seeing the possibility that we've been triggered and overreacted (or reacted very strongly) just...because.

What do you guys think -and how do you make these distinctions?

[medicalfox]

I have breakdowns everyday, but I know that's not from bipolar since I recover from them once the trigger is removed. When I'm manic I tend to stay up for hours researching things that don't apply to me. For instance I'm notorious for buying pets when I'm manic. I will research for countless hours on their care until I become an expert on the animal itself. After I buy the animal and my mania is gone I realize that I actually can't and shouldn't have the pet. I had to surrender quite a few pets in my years of being bipolar. When I'm having an episode I'm stuck with the feeling over being extremely fragile and break down from everything until I become aggressive and ruin things. It's a lot different than my normal break downs because the normal ones happen when I don't like something such as not having a piece of cake, but it goes away after I find something else to eat. Being manic is the feeling that everything is wrong regardless if it gets solved and that I need to make immediate decisions which generally are wrong.

I can usually tell when I'm manic and work is my biggest trigger. I'm decent at understanding what my triggers are, but for the bpd almost everything is a trigger, but that's okay since the melt down only happens for a little while (at most an hour).

[polesapart]

"Non-bipolar moods" are feelings that come in reaction to things that happen. I think everyone has a different emotional range, and mine is larger than most even without the bipolar, this is particularly obvious in my house as my husband has a smaller emotional range than most. So, I might fall apart, get angry, jump around like a lunatic in reaction to something that happens. That's just me.

Episodes are a sustained mood, that tends not to react to the situation. Something negative happens when I'm (happy) manic, I see it as an opportunity. Something great happens when I'm depressed, and I couldn't care less.

[ultramar]

Episodes are a sustained mood, that tends not to react to the situation. Something negative happens when I'm (happy) manic, I see it as an opportunity. Something great happens when I'm depressed, and I couldn't care less.

What a great way to put it --thanks!

[~Christina]

I pretty much have myself figured out when it comes to whats whats... 90% are my reactions , just reactions . 10% is Bipolar related reactions.

I do see many people that blame Bipolar for ever mood shift , and that is a shame ... Bipolar is not all a person is.

[henrydavidtherobot]

I've wondered this often myself. I have a brief depressive episode often at 4pm and midnight. If I'm sad then, then I know it's related to that. I do think that bi polar can make typical moods worse. I often try to check my thinking. If I'm sad and realistic, it's a mood. If I'm irratated or depressed and am doing all or nothing or black and white thinking or displaying grandiosity, then I tell myself that it's probably my disorder. I hope this helps.

[A Red Panda]

If I can't shake the mood and do something to change how I'm feeling by more than a tiny fraction.... and it's been around for days.... then I know it's a depression or a hypomania.

If I can move myself forward into another mood (whether it means I've calmed myself down from the hyperactivty, or cheered myself up) then I know it's just a mood and not anything specific.

If it lasts for a short duration and I can clearly see what's caused it - totally just a mood.

If I have the energy and sleep combinations going on, for more than just a few nights, and then I start noticing where my emotions are? Yeah, that's an episode.

But hell, I can be in the middle of a hypomania and STILL have a day where I'm lonely and sad and miserable. But it won't last all that long and I'll be able to distract myself from it easily. Just like when I'm in a depression - I can in fact still go out and have a chance at successfull having a good night - if the depression isn't too severe and I'm not feeling too stressed out about the situation, I might even relax and enjoy myself a bit. Which is great. Problem is, is that if I'm in a depression then as soon as I'm out of that temporary good mood, back comes the crushing sadness. Because that crushing sadness wasn't gone, I just managed to override it for a while. (I realy, really, enjoy those reprieves the odd time I get them!)

I'm in a depressive episode now I could tell I wasn't 'feeling right' as I told my husband last weekend and could feel my mood slipping, it had to do with my focus and energy too,. I was at a wedding last weekend with family I hadnt seen in years, I should have been very happy. Instead I was zoned out and anxious. some of it has to do with med changes, I can tell I'm a little whacked out, but the sad feelings were coming and going for no real reason, I shouldn't be in tears because my son's gf broke up with him, I don't even really like the girl that much. I hurt for him but seriously, its not MY breakup and he's coping quite well. So yes its an episode, mood is incongruent to events around me. Though today seems ok and yesterday went ok.

[ultramar]

If I'm irratated or depressed and am doing all or nothing or black and white thinking or displaying grandiosity,

I don't mean any offense, but this sounds like BPD thinking; I'm just trying to be informative and again we're talking about distinguishing between bipolar and non-bipolar moods. I think bipolar disorder is less a disorder of patterns of thought processes (i.e. black and white thinking) than BPD is (or an aspect of BPD is). I think the thinking patterns you describe, themselves, could actually lead to depression and/or irritation. I think this is why therapy that targets this kind of thinking attempts also to alleviate the associated moods by changing the thinking.

Like I said, two of the ways I distinguish, myself, are changes in energy level associated with the mood, and how pervasive/tenacious/how long the mood lasts. I know for me, how I think about a given situation or person, can really affect my mood (non-bipolar and transient/short-lived mood), but once I've figured out what's going through my head and why, I can stop it in its tracks and feel better. I just have to be vigilant.

[ultramar]

But hell, I can be in the middle of a hypomania and STILL have a day where I'm lonely and sad and miserable. But it won't last all that long and I'll be able to distract myself from it easily. Just like when I'm in a depression - I can in fact still go out and have a chance at successfull having a good night - if the depression isn't too severe and I'm not feeling too stressed out about the situation, I might even relax and enjoy myself a bit. Which is great. Problem is, is that if I'm in a depression then as soon as I'm out of that temporary good mood, back comes the crushing sadness. Because that crushing sadness wasn't gone, I just managed to override it for a while. (I realy, really, enjoy those reprieves the odd time I get them!)

I think this illustrates a good point -what can happen at times. I think in the case of full-blown mania and can't-get-out-of-bed-severe-depression this may well not apply; but maybe in the case of Bipolar II, which many people have, these 'moods within moods' (or emotions within moods) often happen (and can happen at baseline as well, at the end of the day).

I think sometimes people are quick to label what you describe as either Mixed or Ultra Rapid Cycling, when in some cases, it may be what you describe: a mood being pervasive, but issues or thinking in day to day life (whether positive or negative) triggering temporarily change in how we feel, without it having to be labeled as a shift into an entirely different 'mood-state-, or mixed or whatever.

[A Red Panda]

:shrug: I don't know, but it's how I view things.

Like... when I'm in my highest up (haha... which is still quite mild) then I won't be phased by sadness for more than a few minutes - usually I will get frustrated and then ignore it and keep on going with something else. When I'm severely depressed? I can go throug the motions and even appear happy but won't feel it. But when it's a mild depression? (Like the stupid one I'm in right now) I can definitely go out and have a pretty good time. The key for it is to not have a moment where I'm not occupied.... because it crashes right back in. I don't consider that me going in and out of depressions - I'm still very much in it, it's just like... it's like I've found a sandbar and it's lifted me up a bit.

I use my mood diary to see if there are patterns, it is a very valuable tool for me to see if a mood is an episode or an emotional response. I'd personally need to be in a particular mood for a two weeks before I will put it down to bipolar (my episodes are on the longer side, I never cycle in a matter or hours or days).

I can have depressive symptoms from other issues (PMDD or environmental factors) but that does not mean I am in a bipolar depressive episode.

I'm not typically very emotionally reactive. I keep myself in check, with anger/annoyance as a common exception. So it's pretty easy to tell when my moods are as a result of a greater reason... If the mood is unprovoked, uncommon to me, or lasts much longer than it should.

Only we know how we'd normally respond to a situation. And then we gauge that against our atypical behaviour that signals to us that something isn't "quite right".