hypomania after depression rather than before?

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone else experiences hypomania after depression rather than before. I know it is really common for hypomania to happen and then have a crash immediately after, but I've found that usually I become depressed and then once it lifts I tend to rocket up for a little while without much of a comedown (or maybe one that is very brief). Wanted to see if anyone else has this experience.

This is my pattern as well, down first then up. It's dangerous in some ways, because I'm left with how awesome the high was and forget about how bad the depression was... and then I think about stopping meds... and then the cycle continues.

As an ultra rapid cycler, I've swung both ways.

I cant even answer because Im bck abnd forth in different states all the time. I haven't been stable in a longtime

I have typically 2-3 months depressed state during winter and it switches to hypomania around mid February. my Pdoc keeps telling me it's usually manic state leading to depression, but i slightly disagree. Severe mania must lead to some kind of collapse but like in my case i don't go so far with my hypo. I really can't see which comes first but i think in my case it can be whichever.

I have that both ways

I think I tend to have depression first and then hypomania.

Hard to say since its been so long since I've been stable, but it makes sense to me that coming out of depression could trigger euphoria and you could swing way up.

hmmmm thanks for the responses, this is helpful. Bipolar is sort of a possible diagnosis for me right now and I've just never noticed a strong pattern of going up and then down, which I know is fairly typical in BP. Usually I feel extra awesome and amazing after my depressions lift and I can never really tell if it's just me being excited about not being depressed or if it's something more significant. Or feeling really great in the spring after a winter depression, I have no idea what the "normal" range of mood shift in that situation would be. But at least I know that hypomania after depression can be a normal variation!

I have the same thing when spring begins. Everybody has some level cyclothymic mood swings but it's about how far it goes. Maybe normal range would be to be able to hang on everyday life. Before i used to practically quit sleeping at spring. 3 hours of sleep were just fine for weeks, sometimes i could stay up all night doing something i considered most important thing in a world. Actually i was't ever really finishing anything i started. Also i was grandious, irritated and paranoid sometimes. Ignoring totally family and friends. Just inside my brain... BP diagnosis and meds has helped a lot since... Do you see any doc to describe your symptoms to?

I do definitely have the typical crash after mania phase, but I've been rapid cycling lately so I've had it swing both ways.

I thought the same thing for years. I always thought that my body was just feeling good because the depression ended, but....

I went and got anti-d for the depression. Since feeling good is feeling good, who reports that? I've no idea what hypo feels like. The AD sent me on a spin.

Get a AD ssri from your GP or pdoc for depression. If it drives you hypo, then you'll need a stabilizer.

I'm an ultra rapid cycler, it pushed me in to ultradian cycling and the depression got worse, I was bouncing like a ball form extreme highs to worst lows. I told the GP that the depression was worst, so he increased, again and again...this went on for 2 years what a screw up.

If you got doubt, try it out.

I tend to flip flop myself - and change of season often triggers. My psychiatrist insisted I start light therapy to get me through the winter. I generally swing up in the fall, my highest highs running from Sep - Dec. But then the lack of sun gets me down and I start a decline. The worse of my lows comes in the spring after a winter of darkness. I gradually get better during summer until I again reach the high come fall.

This describes my experience almost to a tee. Depression followed by hypomania followed by a period of stability. I would be prescribed SNRI's and get "better," go hypomanic and stop the meds, and then get stable for a month or two before plunging back into depression. So I'd suggest asking for a stabilizer, or go with lamotrigine, which has both anti-depressant and stabilizing properties.

Yes I do! I am currently on lamictal and I have been for about 2 1/2 years. I had a major depressive episode this summer so I had to increase from 200 to 300 mg. I definitely feel like it's balanced me out since I've been on it, with the most noticeable difference being the tone of my depression. When I would become depressed before, there was almost a frantic element that would develop over time- my thoughts would race and I would feel like I was becoming unhinged somehow. Now, they're much more mellow- terrible still, but almost more relaxed, if that makes sense? I have also experienced some fairly mild, transient paranoia, but my understanding is that that can happen with unipolar depression also.




I feel like that's why this never came up in a serious way until recently! I've had so much depression in my life ever since I was a child that anything that ISN'T depression has been seen as a good thing. I have been on antidepressants before- I took lexapro for awhile- but I don't really remember if I became extra hyped or not after starting it, it was years ago. It just completely stopped working after awhile and I probably experienced what could possible be hypomania while on it, but I'm really not sure. I don't really know what hypomania feels like and it seems like a lot of other people who have BP II have the same issue.

I also have ADHD (tested and unquestionably so- I was given an IQ test and the discrepancies were so large that the test couldn't be considered a valid assessment of my intelligence- three times as large to be considered invalid, actually) so the impulsivity and inability to complete tasks that naturally comes with that makes it even more confusing. I'm just tracking my behaviors and moods to see if a pattern emerges, and if these things distinctly increase at certain times. But it seems like my meds have been working pretty well, so it might take awhile to figure out if I have BPII or just recurring unipolar depression. Which is probably a good thing.

It makes sense. Lamictal helps me just that particular way. My mood stays actually pretty stable in depression but i get total lack of interest to anything combined with terrible memory and level 0 decision making. Now i'm able to kind of observe it rather that get frustrated and anxious.

I spend a lot of time depressed and so it's always before hypo. I don't know that I can honestly say I've ever been stable. I'm either up, down, mixed, or some "grey" area in between that I loosely refer to as stable, but I doubt that it is.

I normally have some depression, slight or severe, during winter-ish times, then around february/march i have a mixed, agitated episode. it's so different for everyone. I've also experienced hypomania after depression, like once it lifts everything can feel AMAZING.

I tend to go either way but this year it's been, depression, mania, depression and back to mania now depression. It's been rough.

That been non-stop, or with breaks of "normal" in between? Are you taking meds?

Seems to be my pattern as well