Manic episode warning signs

Since I'm fairly newly diagnosed, what are your warning signs that you're starting to get into the manic bits of this disease.

I sure do know when I'm falling into a depression, but I have a hard time catching the manic phases before things get too nutso.

I just got out of the hospital for a particularly awful manic episode. I am SO DAMNED LUCKY that my husband took it well and was supportive, because I know some spouses can really react badly to stuff like this.

Now I'm terrified. I'm afraid that if I feel good, that means I am going to get manic.

What do I do?

If my sleep goes downhill and I get irritated easily that is my first heads up on going into a hellish Mania .. I dont get the happy puppy bunny kinda Mania.. Mine is all ugly.

I start sleeping poorly, talk fast and get music playing and racing in my head. These are usually first but I head straight up very fast! Right now I'm hypomanic but steadily going
Up this week. I also get easily irritated sometimes.

Today? I'm broke pretty much from spending sprees over the weekend, not sleeping, hyper, racing thoughts and can't shut up!

If it's euphoric (I usually get euphoric hypomania), I get the grins. It's hard not to grin. Sudden euphoria is not subtle. I have a harder time noticing irritable hypomania because I am irritable when depressed and things can irritate you no matter what your mood. It's only when it gets late and I am not tired that I start doing the self check and sometimes I am still not sure.

The first thing that happens is my sleep goes way off. I wake up at 3am and can't go back to sleep. I usually get hypomania and get really irritable.

Have you tried mood charting? There are online apps or you can find charts to print out online. I know of 2 apps, Optimism and iMoodJournal (works on Android and iOS despite the name) but there are a lot of others and I have only used iMood 3 years ago so am not the best at providing recommendations. But if you post about the apps you'll get lots of options and reviews from people better at charting than I am.

Not feeling like I need sleep and staying up all hours doing "projects" or just feel I have too much energy to go to bed, feeling speedy, talking excessively and getting irritated at people who won't let me go on and on, racing thoughts (major one) are some of my warning signs for mania.

Something I always notice is either I'm way more friendly and talkative than usual or way more irritable. I usually take on long projects and don't need to sleep as much.

Last time I was really manic, I woke up at 4am and walked ten blocks in my p.j's to the gas station. I emptied my bank account (took it all out in cash) And bought 10 energy drinks. Then I walked home and pounded the drinks one right after another. After that my husband made me promise that if I woke up early I would stay home. So what I'm trying to say is that if I wake up way too early and want to do stupid stuff, it means I'm on an up swing.

I wind up engaging in stupid addictive behaviors when I'm manic. Like shopping and drinking.

Oh do I ever relate to the spending sprees. I had a really nasty one and then all the shame of that and the crash from the hangovers from drinking just took its toll. It was an ugly mania to crash that landed me in hospital.

Even though I just got out, I'm still really struggling with the shame of it all.

Yeah, when I get irritable I don't know if it's announcing a depression or a mania spell.

I will look into that.

Ooooh man. I know all about that staying up and doing projects. Are you artsy? I am artsy. Maybe that's why lots of artsies have bipolar.

Or if you are at the movies and the 3 year old behind you is kicking the back of your chair, you are just human...

Little bit of euphoria going on today. I deleted a joke I posted in a trigger thread so I am not too far in (hypomanic enough to have posted it but rational enough to delete it)

EDIT to add - reading through this thread, I almost feel guilty about mostly having euphoric episodes. Key word is almost...

The 4:00am wake-up is a sure giveaway. When I'm going hypo I get cranky and irritable...if I keep going up I know I get aggressive even violent. Nothing very pleasant about it...I get totally p***ed off because people don't realize I'm SuperWoman. I'm always right and I can do anything...

Euphoria and anger that would turn to rage.