acting drunk when you are having an episode

I have been asking some detailed questions regarding bipolar to try to understand what my girlfriend was going through.

There were times when my girlfriend would look and act drunk. She denied drinking, and I would believe her. Although she would sneak alcohol at times, I didn't believe it was all the time. Do you guys ever look and act drunk when it's just a manic phase, when in fact you didn't drink anything at all? When I say act drunk, I mean empty look in the eyes, swaying and loss of balance.

personally never experienced / seen / heard of this. When someone is manic it's more like they're on uppers, not downers...what you describe sounds like just drunkenness, or maybe she was on something else? (narcotics of some kind?) My dad gets like that when he drinks or drinks w/ pills. The only trait of being drunk I associate with high mood is disinhibition.

My mom sometimes asks as if I'm drunk when I am hypomanic. Because I am off balance, happy as heal, have glazed eyes and can't quit smiling. Well, if this is the image of a happy drunk anyway. I've never actually been intoxicated at any point in my life. But I assume that's what she means when I act that way. Maybe "high" is more appropriate. I was like this when I came home from seeing Age of Ultron and that was the start of that particular hypomanic episode.

I must come off as drunk/high a lot, in lows & highs but in different ways.

When hypomanic I would agree it's mostly just the disinhibition that comes off as drunk I think. Like laughing/giggling inappropriately, saying weird things, yelling, ranting & raving, I've danced around. I do get kind of uncoordinated, drop everything, run into stuff & make careless mistakes mainly due to the fact that I can't maintain focus on any one thing.

When you describe having an empty look in your eyes, swaying & loss of balance I would say I might have those symptoms but more when depressed & dissociated.

I think she was drinking, just hiding it then. I was curious about this part. The acting drunk when she's not. It must be that she was drinking.

she was verbally aggressive in these moments and it seems like she was drinking when it happened. doesn't matter how much she drank. I was at a party with her once, and mid sentence, she went from fine, smiling and having a good time, to her crying and saying what a dickhead I was. The entire party was trying to console her, and after that people were saying that something is wrong with her. It was very unusual.

Yeah I've never experienced that personally. I've been accused of being on coke/meth on more than one occasion while manic, but if people were asking me if I was drunk it was because ... well, I had been drinking.

I seem like I am on coke times 10.

I liken hypo mania as a drunk/high 5 year old that others are trying to protect. I even slur words because I think that slows down my speak, it doesn't.

My husband always says I have "crazy eyes" when I am manic. I suppose what your ex is experiencing could be that? I'm not her so I can't tell but I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I have done "drunken" like things over the years without touching alcohol. For instance, in high school I once stood up in the middle of my class and started singing "I've got friends in low places." Thankfully all of my teachers knew I was mentally ill so they put up with a lot of ****. Everyone in the class started singing too so it was actually hilarious. On the other end, I would become entirely paranoid and have to settle underneath my teacher's desk, not being touched until someone came to pick me up.