Experiences with hypomania

I am trying to figure out if I really have bipołar 2. Everytime I try to argue the diagnosis they claim I am in denial. I just don't recall having racing thoughts that people tslk about or talking fast. ( I gad a couple of times at work when people would complain that I am talking to fast but I was able to control it. I had a bad " episode" a while back when I was losing weight where I could not sleep and was exercising about 4 hours a day. Because of thus one month, I have been labelled bipołar. If I can disprove it than maybe I can be prescribed an antidepressant. Can anyone share their hypomanic experience. I looked on line and read dome pretty strange stuff. Do you get racing thoughts agitated sleep etc.

Hi Bipolarchic14

Here's my personal opinion on this.

There are different criteria for a hypomanic episode.

The elevated mood would be a given.

From there, there are 7 possible criteria one could meet.

Out of the 7 criteria, only 3 need to be met for a dx of hypomania.

So I guess my point is, you could be "missing" 4 criteria that don't apply to you.

If this makes sense.

I am not saying you are or you aren't, I'm not qualified to do so.

But I'm saying just because you did not subjectively feel "racing thoughts" - that is just 1 of the 7 criteria (you may have met 3 others)

Is the only reason you don't want the label bc you want anti depressants? My pdoc prescribes them to me. Talk with your pdoc about it.

I don't really get racing thoughts or disrupted sleep. Depression is my biggest issue. I tend to get very productive when hypo like re doing my house, art work, etc. I also get "mixed" when I have energy but destructive energy.

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Super happy. I like super happy. I think what makes me cross the line is I get delusional. Antidepressants are fine with a mood stabilizer. Just stabilizers alone, I stabilize on the depressed side which means I'm always depressed. So we added a touch of AD to bring me back to baseline. Too much I go a little cuckoo, so it has to specifically be exactly 25 mg of prozac which means cutting up pills to make the dose. Too low, might as well not take them, too much, wahoo!!! Not like I haven't taken a boost every now and then!

They won't prescribe one because I go up and down in my depression...it's not constant. They would not allow for light therapy either. When it's there which is frequent, several times a week, it's bad. 2 nights ago I woke up at 2 am for the 2nd day in a row. I had a 4 hour intense depressive episode, where I was actually able to produce tears. I had not been able to cry for a week. Urge was there, no tears. When I get that way, i get intense suicidal urges where I am searching for the quickest way out. Even after the episode, I get aftershocks, if that makes sense.

So too much, it acts like a high. I get " really happy" but it does not last more than a day.

That makes sense.

These are the 7 criteria. Only have to have like 3 or 4:

1.Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity

2.Decreased need for sleep (e.g. feels rested after only three hours of sleep)

3.More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking

4.Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing

5.Distractibility (i.e., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)

6.Increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation

7.Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g. engaging in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

I've had all of them at one time or another, but I usually don't have the excessive talking.

Some of mine have been sort of on the line between hypomania and mania, but some of the more notable things that have happened to me:

* Impulsive risky behavior - usually in the form of spending sprees and/or hypersexuality, one time tried to start a business
* Inflated self-esteem/confidence -like when I quit band in high school because their performance standards weren't up to my skill level, or when I thought I was going to be a famous photographer (though that one may have been an all-out delusion)
* More social/talkative - I didn't necessarily talk so fast that people couldn't follow me, but there were a lot of occasions when I just absolutely could. not. stop. to the point that I'd be late for classes/meetings because I was having a conversation that I wasn't capable of ending. One time my roommate actually walked me into the hallway and closed the door on me so I'd go to class. I also plan a lot more activities, go out more, etc.
* I do more 'goal-directed' stuff - mainly picking a subject or hobby and getting 100% into it. Photography, sewing, bike commuting, scrapbooking, the list goes on and on.

The thing is, I always chalked the positives up to being my non-depressed personality, and the negatives being just bad decisions. I also had delusions and hallucinations before I was diagnosed, but in my mind the hallucinations were 'overactive imagination' (because they weren't things that I found scary) and the delusions were 'oh, I was just wrong about that'. The depression was the only part of it that affected my life so much that I was like 'something is definitely wrong with me'. I didn't get diagnosed until a high dose of wellbutrin (as monotherapy for depression/anxiety) pushed me into a textbook example of a full manic episode with noticeable (to me) psychotic symptoms.

Whether or not your diagnosis is correct, I'm pretty sure it's recommended to be conservative with treatment for anyone who could even potentially have BP. Usually that means not prescribing an antidepressant without a mood stabilizer. Some mood stabilizers (I'm thinking lamictal, specifically) have to be built up slowly to the effective dosage, so having an AD during that time could still cause switches to hypo/mania.

I usually get 1, 2, 6, and 7 on the list. Sometimes I get the others as well but that's usually when I start getting psychotic symptoms mixed in.

So you're saying if a person is experiencing 4 or more of those 7 they are experiencing a hypo/manic episode? Wouldn't number 5 be a reaction to 4?

Now I'm confused because I've experienced this on a few occasions but am 99% of the time normal and depressed.

Distractability and flight of ideas are similar, but I think it makes sense for them to be separate criteria. One has to do with racing thoughts, the other has to do with being caught up by external stimuli that you normally wouldn't pay any attention to (like a shadow behind a desk, or a stone on the ground).

You say you're normal and depressed when you experience these symptoms? Keep in mind these criteria have to be considered out of the ordinary, i.e. not normal. So I don't know how you would be normal while having those symptoms. If you're having those symptoms while depressed you might be having a mixed episode.

No, oops sorry, those only happen rarely. Like once a year. The rest of the time I'm completely normal or depressed