Most of my time is spent Up or Down...you?

I am not sure if this is normal for BP but I feel like most of my time is spent in one of the following ways, rather than at "baseline":

on the way up
up
really up
agitated and energetic
on the way down
annoyed that i am on the way down
down
profoundly down
on the way to back to baseline

I am not sure but i think I spend more time up than down, but most of my "ups" are mixed with anxiety as they progress. I think i *may* spend 30% of my time "baseline".

Oddly, I have never been hospitalized, and never fully dissociated in mania (that i remember right now)...well I thought i was a psychic before, but i don't totally disbelieve that normally.

Is this strange? what is it like for you?

Im stable most of the time since I have been on the right meds and making huge progress in my own life psycologically. The BP episodes are very distinct and do not happen often for me. I will rarely have more than one mood shift a year and I havent had an episode of hypomania for a few years. (Possibly a mild one a few months back but it was directly stress related lasted 2-3 weeks, followed by a period of relatively mild depression. I think the meds saved me from it being terribly bad).

At the moment I am struggling with PMDD, the mood shifts are not directly related to BP, they are very obviously from hormones. The depression and mixed type feelings last just over a week once a month at the moment but then completely disappear the rest of the month and I am stable, happy even. Finally getting used to that rollarcoaster ride haha!

I'm usually up and I'm grateful for it. It helps me get so much stuff done in college.

I rarely spend time at baseline, maybe a month or two out of this past year. When I am at baseline, I am usually just waiting for the shoe to drop and swing up or down. I too have never been hospitalized and I'm not on any medication. Coping skills are to thank for that I believe. Do you have any you find particularly helpful? I didn't notice I was using any until I looked back at a tough month and realized how much I had written, listened to music, and read.

I've been at baseline or close to it for a week now, which is amazing for me. I'm off meds, and normally off meds means I am either so manic I black it all out, so depressed I want to -you know what- or else in a mixed state, which for me usually means I feel worthless but have a lot of hyper anxious energy, which is very dangerous.

I'm definitely on guard, waiting for the shoe to drop… hope I remember it, hope I keep my head, hope I don't ruin my life this time… but I gotta know if I can do this, I want to know who I am, I don't wanna be dependent on the meds… and also I don't wanna commit any felonies… here's hoping...

I'm rather all over the map tho rarely ever in either extreme extreme. My highs and lows are usually pretty mild and manageable. I also get mixed moods that seem to last longer but fewer apart. I don't like being baseline because it is just plain boring. I like feeling the ups and don't mind paying for them with some lows. I like the med combo I'm on now which cuts off most of the extremes but not enough to be at baseline for very long. What I have the most trouble with is anxiety and paranoia and some times delusions. But again usually not very extreme, except the anxiety. I have been hospitalized 3 times when I was younger. Twice for depression and once for full blown manic. The only time I ever been that extreme. However I was younger and more foolish back then. I would not have been hospitalized then if I did not shoot my then big mouth off at the cops. These days I am much wiser

Up until this past June/July, when I was definitely in a hypomanic state, for the previous 15 years or so I was totally baseline. No manic or depressive episodes at all! Then in August a depressive episode started and it has been pretty bad. Suicidal ideation, etc. I'm hoping I can get back to baseline soon. My current med regimen doesn't seem to be working . . .

I stay mostly depressed, with very few highs. Hardly ever at baseline.

Baseline is where I'm at now. I'm not here very often so I'm enjoying it immensely.

I`m rarely at the baseline and when it happens it`s for very short time, like a few days, less than a week. Mostly I am depressed, hypomanic episodes don`t come as often as they used to anymore. Almost daily I have moments of very mild depression that come close to the baseline, but I always "find" a trigger to send them away.

Until last February I had no clue what baseline was I was one of those you listed above. February to September I was baseline It was awesome now I'm mostly down with a few days of hypomanic and a few special moments of full blown mania which is self induced by the people I'm around and the choices I make.

Thanks for the responses. It is so interesting to know how different our experiences can be, and so comforting to know that we also have commonalities.

Baseline is rare for me.

I want you all to know, I wasnt always baseline so regularly. It has taken a heck of a lot of work, med changes and hospital admissions to get where I am, please hold out hope that it wont always be bad for you. You can find stablility with BP.

Unmedicated, baseline days are a rare treat. Typically, I am depressed, with 1-3 week hypomanic periods thrown in to break things up.

Before I flushed my meds it was an even toss between up and down. Up ten days, down ten days, rinse repeat. I don't remember baseline from back then and maybe I was too caught up in my bipolarness to even recognize it.

After they were out of my system I was baseline for months. It was bliss

Then for a few months I flitted between down and baseline, with some flashes of dysphoric hypo in between.

Now (the last 2 months) mostly hypo/baseline...

Yeah, my cycles fluctuate and morph quite a bit... sometimes its hard to keep track of or recognize because of this, annnd the fact that I outright refuse to go back to mood tracking.

Trippin' I stopped mood tracking, too. I just felt like my life was so very micromanaged with it. It just felt like my mood was always in-my-face. For me, it's like the awe and mystery of each day ended up being reduced to a dot on a page. No likey. Now I am equally unstable, but just surfing the waves and enjoying it a bit more.

Didn't work for me either, I'm much more of a surfer than a manager

I usually get manic for 3 to 4 months, followed by baseline lasting for 1-2 months, mild depression for 1-2 months and then full blown severe depression for 2-3 months. Baseline usually follows the severe depression, then the whole cycle repeats itself. This has been happening for the past 3 years.

Currently I feel as though I am at the baseline stage(mixed with mild depression) after the severe depression. I am now staring at the mess I have created from the past year's mania/depression and I feel like I need to get back into the manic mode to clean up the mess.

I'm bp2 so I hardly ever get hypo manias and am usually depressed. The last 2 years have been good for me with lots of baseline and then a short hypo after I gave birth to my son and then a few months later a few months of mild depression.

I don't like baseline because it scares me. I'm connected heavily in the real world and I am so aware of it, all of it, even the little things. Which wouldn't be so bad except all that adds to my anxiety. And I actually act more odd at baseline. Baseline forces me to deal with life's every day problems, which I don't mind but I seem overly aware of them more at baseline.

I think I can relate to that. Sometimes I feel like I am more equipped to deal with life when I am manic. For the past few years I think I kind of relied on the onset of another manic episode to yank me out of depression, which is bad bc none of the problems I have created were solved; the problems kind of just snowballed into this gigantic mess that I am running away from now.

If there's such a thing as baseline within my brain, it's never made an appearance. The meds I take don't prevent going high or low- Just not as high, or as low, or as long.

I don't think I know what "baseline" is.