[CuriouslyCrazy]

People are always talking about the crash after a hypo/manic episode, but what about mood changes from depression to hypo/mania? Are they less likely to occur and is that why they aren't talked about often?
Have any of you experienced going from depression to hypo/mania?
How on earth am I supposed to know the difference between just feeling better after a depressed episode versus becoming hypo/manic?

[1278]

That has happened to me but it was after I changed medications, I went off effexor and went on geodon, a high dose too quickly and it caused hypomania.

[jacky8807]

It has happened to me for sure

[Icare dixit]

For me, generally, under-stimulation (routine, rules, effortlessness, predictability) causes mild depression. Then I try to find excitement by taking increasingly bigger risks. This causes accidents/mistakes, some alarm or friction and resistance and I become increasingly manic by way of a positive feedback loop. Rising anxiety causes me to ignore more and more of my surroundings while all energy is used to keep me from failing. Options to succeed become fewer and I am forced to take even bigger risks, since those are the only options still open to maintain in control. The importance of each option grows with fewer options left. The importance of me grows. Suspicion rises with every attempt to stop me or reason with me and by my own importance. I enter a mixed state, where new options have to be added quickly. Finally, the risks and mistakes reach a point where there are no options left and I enter the post-mania stage, period of pure ecstasy with no desires, hallucinations, some more mixed and finally severe depression. I re-evaluate my options. If I see only one, I might enter a state of mania again, depending on the risk involved. As I see more and more options the depression slowly lifts.

Something like that. Maybe. Sometimes.

So, yes, it starts with (mild) depression and ends with depression (severe). Sometimes some period of stability after a cycle, sometimes not, sometimes it's just smooth, mild cycles.

[Keegan2015]

I guess that technically I have experienced a shift from depression to hypomania, but didn't really realize it at the time. I spent August-December in a pretty bad depressed state. In January I started a new med regimen and stopped drinking and felt great for a couple of weeks but hypomania started creeping up on me toward the beginning of February.

As far as what "feeling better" is versus "feeling hypomanic" is, that's a question I ask myself all the time and I consider to be one of the great mysteries encountered by all people who suffer from BP. I would say that feeling better would be marked by contentedness, healthy sleep, responsible diet and lifestyle (socializing appropriately, doing healthy things to pass the time). Hypomania I guess would be marked more by feelings of euphoria, substance use, feeling abnormally talkative or unusually outgoing in social settings, anxious / paranoid feelings, overeating, a desire to participate in a wide variety of activities or projects all at once ... Does that sound familiar to anyone else?

[Icare dixit]

Basically, if I become mildly depressed due to a lack of meaningful activity/ies I limit my options, into mania. If I find a meaningful activity first, I might go straight into mania (this requires some disinhibition due to pre-mania, already).

[Ocean Swimmer]

Yes. Keegan. I'm like you.

[scatterbrained04]

It's common for me to go into hypomania after prolonged periods of depression (years).

It's like I feel better, and the feeling better feels so great after being depressed so long, that I just keep going up and up.

I think I'm heading that way again.

[Roaming_bird]

My pdoc says we have no idea what my baseline is. I can be in a deep, deep depression, then it gets better. But how much better is really better or just less depressed but still depressed?

For example, when I'm what I consider to be a normal mood, I tend to still sleep a lot, don't clean at all, don't want to go outside, and basically have no energy. But this feels normal to me. Writing it down it looks at least a little depressed. But I'm not actively self-harming, not planning a suicide, able to make myself participate in the household, and not constantly wanting to crash my car every time I drive.

But now with a new medication, will my normal change? I hope so.

[BipolaRNurse]

I just came out of a depressive episode and went straight north. I'm currently mildly hypomanic and enjoying the hell out of it.

[gina_re]

The first time this happened was last year. The increase in my AD from depression threw me into hypomania. Man it was fun, but I paid for it later. Of course at the time I didn't realize it. So this time around I'm trying to be hypervigilant about my moods..