[AquaGuy]

In my other posts (some of you might have read them) I say I have never experienced what I think might be hypomania for longer than a few hours, but said that it has been getting worse and more erratic...well, now I have been what I think may be hypomanic for the 3rd day in a row now.

For years, people have never really noticed a change in my mood, even though I personally felt hypomanic, but recently they have mentioned it, which means something must be going worse, even if I don't have bipolar.

Does mild hypomania exist or does that just mean a good mood?

Can someone be hypomanic (I know with mania it wouldn't be possible) hide it from other people? I read somewhere that this woman has ultra-rapid cycling and she says she has learned to hide it from people at work very well now.

Can a person be hypomanic without people noticing? What if they have blunt-effect?

Thanks. Peace.

[UpDownAround]

I become an arrogant jackass if I am more than slightly hypomanic. If it is just slight, it is like being high; I grin and sometimes chuckle for no reason. I feel good. I feel smart. I feel younger and in better shape and barely recognize the imposter in the mirror. The weird thing is it is easier for me to react to slight hypomania than hypomania that is more than slight. That's because I lose perspective and believe that really I am smarter than everyone around me and talk over the top of them because what I have to say is more important. I can even have a delusion that I have special mental powers. I run around looking for debates/arguments. I think I am profound but in reality I don't complete a lot of my sentences and I leave out whole chunks of what I am trying to say.

[liveforsummer]

I can hide my hypomania as well as I can hide my depression. Except those closest to me now recognize the signs. Red flag is random sprees of buying multiples of shoes and lingerie. Feeling confident, sure of myself, chattier, look to connect with long lost friends, at times my thoughts are all so consuming I feel like I’m encased in a fog and shrink away. This usually last few week to months. I wish I could control it and enjoy it once in a while but it’s the depressive crash after that scares me cause it drags for months.

I can't hide it. I bounce off the walls. When I get together with friends I can't sit still. I have literally done headstands while having coffee with a friend. I talk ultra fast. I also have a thing for cleaning the house. Between lack of sleep and obsessive house cleaning my husband always notices.

If I'm being honest I love the feeling. Its like a drug I crave. I even ponder skipping my lithium because Zoloft alone will push me to hypomania. I don't do that because I know its a bad idea, but the temptation is there.

[taybaby]

When I was younger I would almost always experience elated hypomania. I would feel sexy and confident. I felt like no one could resist me. I would clean, organize everything, and I would make lists of all these things I wanted to do. An example would be that I would film something and put it on youtube and truly believe that I would have a million hits by the next day.

As I've gotten older and especially lately (just came out of a major depressive episode) I experience irritable hypomania. This is awful. It feels like everything is too bright too loud. My skin crawls. I feel like I need to do something direly important but I can't remember what.

[xRavenx]

I have periods of elated hymania and periods of irritable hypomania. Sometimes the mood stays hypo and falls into depression. Other times, it pushes into full-blown mania of either euphoric or dysphoric type.

Euphoric hypo: More sexual fantasies that sometimes play out into certain behaviors, sometimes increased alcohol or benzo use to bring me a "notch down," since I get so keyed up, regardless of whichever type of hypomania it is. I will get more confident. Not even necessarily in a social way, although that can be true. More so in a way, where I think I'm using good judgment, but I'm not, such as impulsive buying.
I will stay up most the night, even when there is work the next day and get completely consumed by a certain activity that I find especially enjoyable or projects that I feel motivated to take part in. I might even start researching a certain subject of interest to the point of obsession, increased creativity, feeling I have some kind of special "purpose," at times. Generally feeling wound up.

The irritability type of hypomania for me can be mixed with a lot of the behaviors above. It's just that in addition to these, I will be more prone to intense anger over things and overractions, anxiety (crossing into paranoid territory when borderline manic), I'll just get up and go somewhere at odd times and get strange ideas in my head, as if the world depends on my plans, wired rather than tired. These symptoms just intensify when manic.

[Aliceiw]

I think that if your personality is more outgoing, it may be harder to distinguish hypomania. For me, I'm extremely mellow usually so when I am hypomanic usually people take notice. I usually perceive that they react to this positively, I am really talkative and social when I'm up. I'm on top of it, go go go. When it tips up too far though they notice because I cannot for the life of me focus. I lose track of what people are saying because my mind is going way too fast. I interrupt them and I'm off to a new subject when they haven't finished the old one. To give you an idea, I once started boiling water to make lunch at home, forgot about it and watched tv, then went back to it, then forgot again and took a shower... I thought it was hilarious. Not so funny thinking of it now. I get more than happy, I get up like a drug. Waves of euphoria hit me like I'l rolling. I get so wound up that I can't help moving and it usually leads to a dance session, with music loud all to myself for hours and hours. I sometimes can't stop laughing at nothing. It's been a while since I've let it go on to get to that point. It's a fun party but it ends and not so pleasantly. Then there's all the work you have to do to make up for everything. I pass on it now days (quickly change meds when I notice symptoms or they are mentioned to me) but I do miss it.

[Wild Coyote]

Irritable type: painful
Other: euphoria

[Trua]

Originally Posted by AquaGuy

In my other posts (some of you might have read them) I say I have never experienced what I think might be hypomania for longer than a few hours, but said that it has been getting worse and more erratic...well, now I have been what I think may be hypomanic for the 3rd day in a row now.

For years, people have never really noticed a change in my mood, even though I personally felt hypomanic, but recently they have mentioned it, which means something must be going worse, even if I don't have bipolar.

Does mild hypomania exist or does that just mean a good mood?

Can someone be hypomanic (I know with mania it wouldn't be possible) hide it from other people? I read somewhere that this woman has ultra-rapid cycling and she says she has learned to hide it from people at work very well now.

Can a person be hypomanic without people noticing? What if they have blunt-effect?

Thanks. Peace.

Hi AquaGuy,

Just curious, what are your symptoms when you say "it" is getting worse and people are noticing. and what do you mean "blunt-effect" exactly.

I was in a hypo state for a long time, I'd say 35 years and it was mostly energetic, positive, hyper, (then major panic attack and subsequent depression / hypo / mania cycle) People around me during that long period of time didn't really say anything specific (that I can remember) so if they did notice I wasn't aware of it.

From the link below, it states there are "less obvious or “soft” hypomanic symptoms (insomnia, anxiety, irritability, rapid thoughts, and rumination)" They don't mention the euphoric or as you stated "good mood" part since that would be more obvious.

I hide my depression pretty well at work and in general. When I didn't my coworkers would try to avoid me. Putting on the 'happy face' isn't too hard now.

13 Contributing Factors to Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Disorder | Psychiatric Times

[BastetsMuse]

Hypomania can look like a really good mood. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference... but ask yourself this, are you doing things that are unhealthy for you? Spending too much money? Feeling really sexual - and ready to act on that inappropriately? It's these sorts of things that help you learn when to call for help.

[AquaGuy]

Originally Posted by Trua

Hi AquaGuy,

Just curious, what are your symptoms when you say "it" is getting worse and people are noticing. and what do you mean "blunt-effect" exactly.

I was in a hypo state for a long time, I'd say 35 years and it was mostly energetic, positive, hyper, (then major panic attack and subsequent depression / hypo / mania cycle) People around me during that long period of time didn't really say anything specific (that I can remember) so if they did notice I wasn't aware of it.

From the link below, it states there are "less obvious or “soft” hypomanic symptoms (insomnia, anxiety, irritability, rapid thoughts, and rumination)" They don't mention the euphoric or as you stated "good mood" part since that would be more obvious.

I hide my depression pretty well at work and in general. When I didn't my coworkers would try to avoid me. Putting on the 'happy face' isn't too hard now

Hey, well for about 10 years (I think I've had this all my life but it got worse during high school) I suffered with severe depression. No one really noticed, as it came to be known as my personality because I had it for so long, and I've always suffered with extreme, euphoric highs since being a child but people just thought I had hyperactivity or possibly ADHD because of my severe inattention and impulsivity. But then I started reading about bipolar disorder and about the different types, because I'd only ever heard about bipolar I before, so thought that cannot possibly describe me but then I heard about cyclothymia a few years ago and have been monitoring my moods ever since. My moods are basically becoming more erratic, not more uncontrollable as such, but almost as though the highs are getting more powerful. I still have severe lows that aren't reactive, , so I could be happy when someone has died and be sad when my best mate res married, my moods don't always correspond to the situation, the same as my highs, but it definitely seems to be shifting more often, they don't last long though, they don't even meet the criteria for cyclothymia in the duration they should last because I can have real, running around, laughing at everything, doing about 50 things at the speed of light, euphoria that can come and go within 1-2 hours and I will either crash and go into a depression that can last over a month sometimes or back to my baseline mood (slightly withdrawn, socially awkward) and can stay there for months and months until, one random day (I keep saying to myself I'm way overdue for a mood change because I know it'll happen eventually) it'll just shift and everything either goes really well or really badly, I will either see the world in luminescent colours or shades of black and grey, but because I've had it for so many years I deal with the depression by knowing it won't last and it makes me feel a little happier.

And with blunt affect, I mean an inability to express how I feel, through body language, tone of voice, or facial expressions. Not that I behave like a robot, but just compared to most people I appear constantly lacking in any sort of feeling, but inside I can be anything but lacking in feeling. I've been said to have no empathy or no compassion or apathetic and other things, which are from true but only people who have known me for years understand that unfortunately so I can quite often give the wrong first impression.

I keep putting off going to the doctors, by the way. I don't like doctors but one day I will...one day.

Sorry for the essay LOL, I just like to get things out of my mind into words because I have severely disorganised thoughts and when my thoughts constantly move so quickly, things can get a little clogged up. I tend to write an essay for a 2 sentence answer. Haha.

[Amethyst_Stargazer]

Anytime I get hypomania I seem to act very quick and rude and other times I'm very giggly and I feel very good inside. It's like a bunch of
fireworks going off inside my head and I'm very happy and full of life. Sort of like the life of the party, but I don't party which I think is a good thing. Everything seems to work wonderful for me and sometimes I'll ramble on
about nonsense that makes no sense to me but other people have told me how smart and funny I am. However to me, I feel like I'm a wacko and try
to calm myself down when I'm having these episodes. When people are talking, I'll interrupt them and I notice when I do it and often times I'll
apologize if I take notice of it or I'll simply just ramble on until someone stops me. At night I have a hard time falling asleep and I'll do
so many different things all at once and my mind will be racing like crazy. I've had some cases where I'd be in mid sentence and completely
forgot what I was saying because my brain couldn't process everything that I wanted to say. Sometimes I'll ask the person, "What was I saying?"

This is all based on what I've noticed over the years and I continue to use my journal as an outlet so I can tell when I'm getting bad. If I feel
as if I might argue with people and I'm angry, I won't come around anyone because I always end up feeling guilty when I take my frustrations out
on somebody else. Just a week ago my mother just asked a simple question and I was sort of not feeling well. So I told her in a very nice way,
"Mom I'm not feeling so great right now. Can we talk about this later please?" And she understood finally that it wasn't a good time for me to
be talking because I could feel how frustrated I was inside at that moment. And when I'm mad, I have no idea what I'm even mad about. The same
goes for when I'm sad, I just feel sad, really really sad. It's horrible. When I'm deeply depressed, it's not the best feeling in the world.

[BipolaRNurse]

Hypomania for me is like lightning and rainbows and sunshine. All the colors are so bright and it's the BESTEST DAY EVER!!! I love everybody and everything. I have endless energy, and it comes out in rearranging the sock drawer at two in the morning or cleaning every nook and cranny in the bathroom. I looooves me some hypomania...trouble is, once it comes on I'm likely to keep zooming right into the danger zone. Mania, by contrast, is not fun, and I'm apt to be mean and angry. So the best way to avoid that is by not allowing myself to get hypomanic in the first place, hence the long list of meds in my siggy line.

[~Christina]

Hypo is shiny glorious puppies kittens bunnies and rainbows and I am on top of the world.

What follows quickly after that is ugly mad mean vicious hell. The bunnies turn to rabbits heading down that dark scary hole.

[Ralau]

Originally Posted by xRavenx

I have periods of elated hymania and periods of irritable hypomania. Sometimes the mood stays hypo and falls into depression. Other times, it pushes into full-blown mania of either euphoric or dysphoric type.

Euphoric hypo: More sexual fantasies that sometimes play out into certain behaviors, sometimes increased alcohol or benzo use to bring me a "notch down," since I get so keyed up, regardless of whichever type of hypomania it is. I will get more confident. Not even necessarily in a social way, although that can be true. More so in a way, where I think I'm using good judgment, but I'm not, such as impulsive buying.
I will stay up most the night, even when there is work the next day and get completely consumed by a certain activity that I find especially enjoyable or projects that I feel motivated to take part in. I might even start researching a certain subject of interest to the point of obsession, increased creativity, feeling I have some kind of special "purpose," at times. Generally feeling wound up.

Wow, your euphoric hypo sounds a lot like mine. I often get obsessed with things and they keep me awake. Usually obsessive cleaning is a part of it, planning how to decorate my house (and later spending money on that), researching subjects I've suddenly become interested in and trying to find all the possible information about that.
I may become interested in new activities that I normally hate. That includes listening to music I have hated before, cooking and baking, trying new recipes (I'm definitely not a person who likes to cook) and then inviting friends to my house to taste these foods I have made. I usually become oversocial, I make phone calls if I can't reach my friends, and when I can reach my friends I spend so much time with them all day everyday that they become tired and start avoiding me. But the crave for social situations will not end, being alone causes a huge anxiety and that's when it's time to make some new friends - usually at bars. Other things that help for this restlessness and "anxiety due to lack of social situations" are, well - being obsessed with something else, like cleaning or shopping impulsively.

Other signs of my hypomania have been some kinds of oversensivity: visual and emotional ones. When I go to a store and see fruits, they aren't just fruits anymore: all the bright colors like orange and yellow make me want to buy the fruits even though I am allergic to most of them. Music sounds awesome, like something heavenly, lights look blinding, not in a bad way - all the lights are just so beautifully overwhelming and I can't get enough of them. I start laughing and crying very easily, more easily than normally. Cute things make me cry, and even my own thoughts can cause bursts of laughter. My friends call me creepy when I start laughing at my own thoughts in the middle of a silence.

I also believe that I am or will become something great, I have plans that will make me famous and I feel more important than other people. Few times I have felt deeply connected with other people and with the universe and some higher powers. The feeling was so strong, it felt like a warm hug, like all the beauty was surrounding me and nothing bad could ever happen to me. Like the whole world was on my side, supporting me. Once I even slightly thought, that I was a reincarnation of an artist that died a long time ago. I thought I was going through his feelings and had his talent. But I am also creative when I'm not high and I have liked painting and drawing since I was a child.

In my euphoric hypos I love the neverending beauty the most. Also love the confidence which makes me feel smart and important and more active socially, because normally I am kinda shy and have low self-esteem. The confidence is something amazing, like, you don't care about what other people think - of course it can also make you act like a jackass.

[AquaGuy]

Originally Posted by Ralau

Wow, your euphoric hypo sounds a lot like mine. I often get obsessed with things and they keep me awake. Usually obsessive cleaning is a part of it, planning how to decorate my house (and later spending money on that), researching subjects I've suddenly become interested in and trying to find all the possible information about that.
I may become interested in new activities that I normally hate. That includes listening to music I have hated before, cooking and baking, trying new recipes (I'm definitely not a person who likes to cook) and then inviting friends to my house to taste these foods I have made. I usually become oversocial, I make phone calls if I can't reach my friends, and when I can reach my friends I spend so much time with them all day everyday that they become tired and start avoiding me. But the crave for social situations will not end, being alone causes a huge anxiety and that's when it's time to make some new friends - usually at bars. Other things that help for this restlessness and "anxiety due to lack of social situations" are, well - being obsessed with something else, like cleaning or shopping impulsively.

Other signs of my hypomania have been some kinds of oversensivity: visual and emotional ones. When I go to a store and see fruits, they aren't just fruits anymore: all the bright colors like orange and yellow make me want to buy the fruits even though I am allergic to most of them. Music sounds awesome, like something heavenly, lights look blinding, not in a bad way - all the lights are just so beautifully overwhelming and I can't get enough of them. I start laughing and crying very easily, more easily than normally. Cute things make me cry, and even my own thoughts can cause bursts of laughter. My friends call me creepy when I start laughing at my own thoughts in the middle of a silence.

I also believe that I am or will become something great, I have plans that will make me famous and I feel more important than other people. Few times I have felt deeply connected with other people and with the universe and some higher powers. The feeling was so strong, it felt like a warm hug, like all the beauty was surrounding me and nothing bad could ever happen to me. Like the whole world was on my side, supporting me. Once I even slightly thought, that I was a reincarnation of an artist that died a long time ago. I thought I was going through his feelings and had his talent. But I am also creative when I'm not high and I have liked painting and drawing since I was a child.

In my euphoric hypos I love the neverending beauty the most. Also love the confidence which makes me feel smart and important and more active socially, because normally I am kinda shy and have low self-esteem. The confidence is something amazing, like, you don't care about what other people think - of course it can also make you act like a jackass.

Holy crap, a lot of that sounds unbelievably like me. Perhaps I do experience some sort of hypomania then, only it might be mild-hypomania because what you describe, and what others have described, sound exactly like me but to a much more severe degree. I can control my impulses, although I do sometimes have some trouble with it, and I do become more social sometimes but I know that people don't like it when I have an episode so tell myself to avoid people and just take out my energy on talking to myself while doing as many active things as possible, even just jumping up and down.
Everything just seems so much brighter, sounds sound clearer, I can like things I wouldn't normally and it feels so unbelievably amazing I try to do about a billion and 1 things, jumping from researching one topic to the other obsessively, I start projects, begin obsessing over them for about 1 hour and then abandon it to start something else and the cycle begins. I have to write down every single thing I think of before my thoughts change again so I can come back and see what I thought of a while later.

I wish I could feel like that all the time, to be honest, but it never lasts long. I either crash into a mild or fairly bad depression or just level out back to my baseline mood, and then I get taken off guard within a few weeks or sometimes a few months when I crash deeply when everything becomes the opposite, everything just becomes muddy and dismal, and I become really anhedonic, sleepy all the time, but I get by with reminding myself it won't last.

[Ralau]

Originally Posted by AquaGuy

Holy crap, a lot of that sounds unbelievably like me. Perhaps I do experience some sort of hypomania then, only it might be mild-hypomania because what you describe, and what others have described, sound exactly like me but to a much more severe degree. I can control my impulses, although I do sometimes have some trouble with it, and I do become more social sometimes but I know that people don't like it when I have an episode so tell myself to avoid people and just take out my energy on talking to myself while doing as many active things as possible, even just jumping up and down.

Yes I do talk to myself too. I don't want to bother my friends around the clock either. So that's when I just pace around in my apartment and talk to myself or to my own reflection in the mirror. I know, it may sound a bit weird but it's just the need to keep talking, no matter if anyone is listening or not. Of course it's better if there's someone listening, because I feel like there is so many important things to tell. But it also makes it worse, if there is actually someone listening It makes me talk even more.

Something else that also happens to me is that usually I manage to get some sleep. And when I wake up, the sleep has calmed me down a bit, but after staying awake for few hours, there we go again. I feel like I'm a wheel that starts spinning faster and faster. And it's sleep and alcohol that can make the wheel spin slower.

[AquaGuy]

Is there any way to actually tell for sure whether you feel hypomanic or just in a very good mood?

I have been hypomanic (as far as I know) for about 8-9 days now and it has now begun to drop, but not into depression. It seems to be a milder form of hypomania where I feel like I want to be alone and feel irritable but also feel less sleepy than normal but have less hyperactivity than I've had for the past week as well as my thoughts slowing down. However, every now and again I will get bursts of energy where I need to get up and just jump or jog or something. It could be because I've been trying to maintain the euphoric state with coffee and forcing myself to be as active as possible to try and induce the euphoria again...

My baseline is slightly withdrawn, people know me as socially awkward and prefer to be in the background, and I feel like my euphoric hypomania (or something else?) has been fluctuating from irritable, wanting to be left alone, to wanting to talk people's ears off...

So confused.

[Ralau]

Originally Posted by AquaGuy

Is there any way to actually tell for sure whether you feel hypomanic or just in a very good mood?

I have been hypomanic (as far as I know) for about 8-9 days now and it has now begun to drop, but not into depression. It seems to be a milder form of hypomania where I feel like I want to be alone and feel irritable but also feel less sleepy than normal but have less hyperactivity than I've had for the past week as well as my thoughts slowing down. However, every now and again I will get bursts of energy where I need to get up and just jump or jog or something. It could be because I've been trying to maintain the euphoric state with coffee and forcing myself to be as active as possible to try and induce the euphoria again...

My baseline is slightly withdrawn, people know me as socially awkward and prefer to be in the background, and I feel like my euphoric hypomania (or something else?) has been fluctuating from irritable, wanting to be left alone, to wanting to talk people's ears off...

So confused.

Well, it's difficult to tell if you're just feeling good or hypomanic since the line between can be very fine. It always depends on the individual, how they act when they're hypomanic. One person's hypomania can be another person's normal mood. Hypomania is something different from your "normal" mood and yes, I know, it can be difficult to tell what's your normal mood. But usually when people are hypomanic, they can't really control it. They may feel happy and joyful (if euphoric) for no good reason and even sad life events won't bring them much down. In normal good mood people react to good/happy life events by becoming happy, and sad life events make them sad. When you're hypomanic there is no particular reason for being happy and sometimes positive life events can affect the mood even more than normally.

That's just my own experience. Of course the symptoms vary and sometimes it can be very difficult to tell, especially if the hypomania is mild.

It may be helpful to ask yourself some of these questions:

Are you acting different than normal? (your own or someone else's opinion)
Have other people noticed that you're overpositive or hyperactive?
Do you have any control over your actions or mood?
How much is it affecting your life?

But I doubt that there is any way to tell for sure. The doctor's diagnosis is based on observation and your symptoms. And even doctors can be wrong, especially if they don't know the patient well, and how they act normally.

[Pookyl]

Rainbows, sunshine, warmth, glitter.
Very chatty, efficient, organised.
Don't need much sleep.
I love everyone and everything and they love me back.

[AquaGuy]

I know I should go to the doctor's, guys, sorry for all the posts and annoying everyone with stuff, but I keep questioning my moods and I will probably go to the doctor's at some point in the future, I just really do not like them at all...

I feel 99.9% certain that I have been hypomanic before (at least once) but when I read more about hypomania and people with personal experience with bipolar describe it, it does't sound much like me. However, I thought because I didn't show many DSM-V signs of it I probably didn't have it and was just having a good day...but then I found this video of a guy with ultra-rapid cycling.

You can obviously tell the difference in his moods, but I would not (if he didn't tell me) know he had mania there, which means it doesn't always show in every situation for everyone, and people just assume I'm hyperactive and irritating to them when I say I'm hypomanic.