[Lobster Hands]

I'm just trying to get a feel for the differences between men and women with bipolar disorder. For example men lean towards mania more often than women and women towards depression more often than men.

I'm just curious about individual cases. What do you lean towards?

If you are a woman, what are your worst depression symptoms?

If you are a woman, what are your worst mania symptoms?

If you are a man, what are your worst depression symptoms?

If you are a man, what are your worst mania symptoms?

If you're dating or married to someone with bipolar, what are there worst symptoms during depression and mania?

Thanks and I'm sorry if this comes off as a little intruding. I'm just trying to learn more about the illness as a whole and to help myself recognize my own symptoms.

[Nightside of Eden]

I'm biologically female. I used to lean heavily towards depression, but now that I'm on meds that mostly quell that my biggest problem are angry, irritated mixed episodes.

My worst depressive symptom is psychosis. Paranoia, delusions, sometimes rising to the point of transitory visual hallucinations. I can also lose time or become catatonic and have other depressive episodes where I'm very actively planning my own death. In short, my depression includes just about every possible problem.

I'm Bipolar II, so I don't get clinical mania, only hypomania, which is a fun and creative state for me. Unfortunately I only get to feel this way maybe 10% of the time off medication and my medication prevents it completely.

I'm also engaged to someone with Bipolar I and he gets full psychotic breaks with his worst manic episodes, even worse than what I get with my depression (I rarely lose insight into the fact I'll SOUND crazy to others, no matter how completely I believe my own delusional thinking). He doesn't get depression to nearly the severity I do, though he does that weird thing where he sleeps MORE when he's depressed, which is so strange to me because I don't sleep hardly at all when I'm depressed.

[cashart10]

Originally Posted by Lobster Hands...

I'm just trying to get a feel for the differences between men and women with bipolar disorder. For example men lean towards mania more often than women and women towards depression more often than men.

I'm just curious about individual cases. What do you lean towards?

If you are a woman, what are your worst depression symptoms?

If you are a woman, what are your worst mania symptoms?

If you are a man, what are your worst depression symptoms?

If you are a man, what are your worst mania symptoms?

If you're dating or married to someone with bipolar, what are there worst symptoms during depression and mania?

Thanks and I'm sorry if this comes off as a little intruding. I'm just trying to learn more about the illness as a whole and to help myself recognize my own symptoms.

I am a 30 year old woman

Unless I am pregnant or in a postpartum period (where I have had either mixed or depressive episodes), I lean toward mania.

My worse mania symptoms are delusions of grandeur (believing I am chosen by God) and hyper religiosity (laying hands on people to pray for them, asking random people if I can pray for them in public, etc).

My worst depressive symptoms are being unable to get off the couch and feeling impulsively suicidal.

[Victoria'smom]

I'm just curious about individual cases. What do you lean towards?
I tend to lean towards mania. Each of my cycles are long 3+ months ( weather manic or depressed) and fit the requirement for hospitalization

If you are a woman, what are your worst depression symptoms?
Thinking I am spewing hatred making everyone I come into contact with evil

If you are a woman, what are your worst mania symptoms?

homicidal visions that I don't realize will kill people.

If you're dating or married to someone with bipolar, what are there worst symptoms during depression and mania? I can count my husbands hypo mania on one hand. He's pretty much perpetually depressed. In his depression its his anger that gets the worst of him. In his mania his sex drive gets the best of him only because of the shame he seems to develop after.

[Bipolarchic14]

I am a women in my early 30s I am bp2 so I don't get mania but hypomanic. I spend far more time depressed then in a hypomanic state.
with depression my worst symptoms are strong suicidal ideation and lack of mindfulness which has lead to some fairly embarrassing moments. With hypomania I get less of the extreme energy and more of the extreme irritability. I am sure others on here can relate when I way I can't possible explain how much I can't stand being around people when I am like that. EVERYBODY irritates me when I am there. With that said, strong irritability does not equal the damage of waking up to a new BMW in your driveway and thinking Huh when did I acquire that...??? So I will take my irritable hypomania over mania anyday!

[MagicsMom]

I'm a 44 year old woman. I definitely lean towards depression and hypomania is irritability/anger.

Worst symptom when depressed is not wanting to shower or do anything.

Worst symptom when hypomanic is being irritable with everyone and I can't even stand myself.

I think I'm beginning to prefer depression.

[BipolaRNurse]

I'm a 55 year old woman and I experience mania and depression pretty much half-and-half, with the occasional mixed episode thrown in for flavor.

My worst depression symptom by far is suicidal ideation. My worst manic symptom is extreme irritability, when I want to rip somebody's head off and **** down the hole. Neither is my idea of a good time.

[wildflowerchild25]

Bpnurse you always make me LOL with the way you put things!!! **** down the hole...HAHA.

I'm a 27 year old woman. I have a complicated case but since the return of symptoms unmedicated I am about fifty fifty depressed and hypo/manic. On meds I never experience hypo but still have breakthrough depression. Lame.

Worst depression symptom is exhaustion that taints everything and causes me to be unable to function normally. Worst manic symptom is the irritability and psychomotor agitation. I hate that out in public I have to be constantly moving! What adult has to rock back in forth while waiting in line at dunkin donuts??? And god help the person ahead of me if they order more than coffee!!!

[hamster-bamster]

I think there is a bias in that bipolar affects men and women alike (as opposed to, say, migraines that affect women much more than men), but women tend to seek treatment more so than men, hence there forms a distorted picture of the illness, because, guess what - people who seek treatment for bipolar are more likely to do so when depressed (a very well known phenomenon and one of the causes of bipolar misdx'd as depression). So if women are more likely than men to seek treatment, and, they would do so whilst depressed, you would get to think that women tend towards depression more so than men, but it is not necessarily a reflection of true reality.

I am a 43 year old woman who tends towards hypomania with a lot of physiological anxiety (as opposed to social anxiety) that gets triggered by situational stress and virtually no endogenous depression. I have to be in a truly horrendous situation to feel depressed, and then the worst symptom is suicidality. My worst symptom of elevation is inability to sleep. I have no psychosis. Basically, mine is sort of a mix of anxiety and hypo.