[mossanimal]

I'm referring to short term swings within a longer term condition. In some ways I think I've been generally depressed for 5 years in terms of self-confidence, thinking I don't fit in, suicidal thoughts, etc. This condition was likely the result of me quitting a job to embark on a whole different career. I now know that I may have been at least hypomanic at the time due to the intensity in which I studied this new idea and the fact that I garnered very negative attention from my co-workers and management and then suddenly quit (without really discussing with wife). I poured myself into this new endeavor and then it fell apart about a year later. After that I was in varying moods of depression (the worst being suicidal).. but with shorter term periods of highly refreshed enthusiasm which unfortunately would lead to very bad decisions leading to relationship and business problems. And then depression again. Even when I felt 'normal' I still suffered from the lack of self-esteem and that nagging suspicion that I just don't fit in this world (not necessarily suicidal though). I don't know.. now that I've written this.. I suppose this fits in a lot with how Bipolar II is described: Mostly depressed.

[Icare dixit]

It does sound like just BP2 I'd say, indeed. But I wouldn't know for sure since I don't have it. I do remember the time my mania wasn't severe, which could be described as hypomania. I also had a period of what you could call hypomania, sleeping 5 hours a night for months, when I was commuting to work and there was a lot of people around to stabilise me. It ended in mild depression and mania and congruent psychosis, severe depression and more severe mania and incongruent psychosis. The last phase was very short compared to the previous two periods, but the period of hypomania was longer than that of mild depression.

I am mostly depressed as well, but it's more very mildly, borderline psychotic and negative symptoms of (disorganised) schizomania.

But I think most people with BP are mostly depressed. Severe mania requires more time to recover than the mania itself lasts. That said, another manic episode may happen rather quickly afterwards or a mixed episode/state may immediately follow the mania.

If the "hypomania" is very short-lived during a depression it may "just" be part of an atypical depression.

It's instability no matter how you call it. More or less stimulation can be used to stabilise it if it's not too severe. If it's more psychotic it may be impossible to do this. If it's BPD you may hurt yourself by destabilising.

[Theresa1991]

I was wondering as well if you can have mood changes within an episode. I perceived myself as mostly depressed for about four years when I was living with my ex-boyfriend.
But I read in my diaries that I also had times of enthusiam (a few days at a time).

Now I suppose that I have been hypo for about a year due to the sleep I get, the ideas I have and the risks I took (twice in a row debts that took me about three months to pay off, hypersexuality, drugs and stuff).

But I had times in between, one to two weeks, where I perceived myself as depressed or mixed. Always got back to hypo though. I was wondering if I was rapid cycling, but hypomania goes through all of this time like a red string (as we say in German).

Another question I have would be if you still have usual mood swings being in an episode, like being mostly hypomanic but anyway feeling sad for about one hour in one day and then returning to totally hypo?