What do "normal" moods feel like?

So, I was recently diagnosed with Bipolar II and looking back on my moods for the last several years, it totally makes sense. I am starting on mood stabilizers and I am hoping that can even out my mood swings and such. My question, and one I've been asking myself for a while, is what does a "normal" (normal meaning non-bipolar) mood feel/look like? I feel like I've been having these bipolar mood swings for so long I can't remember what regular sadness, anger, happiness, ect... looks and feels like.

I'm hoping to re-enter the job world in a few months and I just want to make sure that when I'm feeling bad I'm not just blaming it on bipolar when it could really just be a regular mood. I ask because I just want to make sure i'm not using my diagnoses as a crutch.

Any ideas?

Thanks!!

If anyone has answer I'm looking to know what those look like too. Once I know the answer I can take some serious acting classes and my life might get easier.

Boring.

I have no freakin' clue. I cannot stress this enough

Of course it's different for everyone (since we all have unique personalities and temperaments beyond having bp), but I wonder this A LOT too, and so far this is what I've come up with:

'normal' high mood = sense of well-being w/o feeling the drive to do a million things (happy just to 'be') and w/o the more physiological signs of hypomania (not buzzing/hyper, normal sleep/appetite). Hypomania = I'M SO GREAT!!!! Happiness = Life is Great!

'normal' low mood = being however upset and sad and crying but still wanting to be alive, maintaining some semblance of perspective, can be distracted/cheered up.

I really don't know. I'm either depressed or in a mixed state. I never experience euthymia, considering i have bpd which means i have no functional baseline

I am calm

In the words of a friend " Normal is a setting on a Dryer"

I say don't strive for the unicorn called Normal'

Look for stability, your able to go about life , enjoy things and pretty much put the Bipolar word in the back of you mind and enjoy life .

Normal is a setting on a dryer

That's for that, Christina, gotta remember that one!

My dreams can be normal at times!

I would say feeling calm and peaceful. Sometimes I feel in a really great mood and I think THIS is what normal feels like. But then I worry... do I feel peaceful and calm? No, I feel I urgently need to learn a language, learn to play violin so I can write music, learn to paint, talk to everyone about my great ideas. But I can't because I can't keep a thought long enough to make sense of it. That's how I, personally, know the difference.

I too am unable to find this 'normal' state you speak of. I think i do pass through it as I rapid cycle but I cannot pin down the details.

Mood fluctuations within normal range don't affect your functioning, your loved ones, your day to day life, or really anything... They just are and they're no big deal because everyone has mood shifts, they don't move the earth.


Bipolar mood shifts however do have the ability to move the earth, that's why its preferred to mute them with meds.

Make em manageable.