[BlackSheep79]

This might be a dumb question, but I have never known anyone that suffers from Bipolar disorder. There are little signs that I can tell that the mania is coming. I play the piano and my mind and fingers are not in sync with each other. I use to have a photographic memory, which I don't have anymore due to the meds or maybe the disease itself, but I do have a fairly good memory. When the mania starts to come I start to forget phone extensions at work? However, when I go into a depressed phase which only lasts a few days there are no signs, I just wake up and I am depressed.

Does anyone see the mania or depression coming through different signs that you pick up on or does it just happen?

For me there are no signs. The hypomania and depression just happen.

[~Christina]

I see mine coming for both .. that's when I super increase my self care. Sometimes I can head off an episode sometimes not ..

I am glad that I can recognize it coming.

[TheatreKid]

My doctors and therapists have always told me I have very good insight. I can usually tell when manic episodes are coming, and the depression usually comes after the mania. The random depressions are harder to catch.

Of course, catching them doesn't mean I can stop them.

[jesusplay]

i can feel depression coming, mania just pops up outa no where

[BipolaRNurse]

I can usually tell when an incipient mood swing is brewing. Unfortunately in the case of hypomania, I tend to roll with it because I love the way I feel when hypo, and then it turns on me and becomes full-blown mania (which is NOT good). Depression is a whole 'nother beast.....it comes on hard after a manic episode, but I can usually see it coming. I just have trouble DOING something about it because I don't want to believe I'm having another stinkin' mood swing---I prefer to think "it's situational" and will go away on its own. Never does, though.

[wachiki92]

I can usually tell when depression is coming. sometimes its a sudden fall and I don't see it. Most of the time I feel myself slowly going downhill for a few days before I hit rock bottom. I don't see the hypomania though. it kind of just hits me like 'oh hey I'm actually really happy'. it may be a day or 2 in before I even realize that I'm hypomanic.

[Curiosity77]

I have some common thoughts that happen when i'm destabilizing... Usually variations of the same themes with different circumstances. When i am going into depression i start thinking that i have always felt that way, and that there is no other way to feel, and that all the positive times were just an illusion. When i'm heading into hypomania or mixed i start feeling like i'm in a spiritual battle for my soul, and that i have to take psychadelic drugs to retrieve lost parts of myself. I also get hypersexual. If i'm thinking any of these things i am in trouble. But when i'm in those frames of mind it feels like i am really and finally seeing what has always been true.

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