Firstly, Ive been struggling with insomnia lately. During this period a couple weeks ago I was sleeping 0-3 hours a night, but I wasn't tired at all. I actually had a lot of energy. I was also very irritable. I remember yelling at everything that didn't go my way. Trash bag ripped? Yell and scream for half an hour at it. Dropped a bowl? Yell.

Also I was super active. I'd complain that the library didn't open early enough so I could work on my book. My typical day went like this: Workout for 2-4 hours, eat breakfast, go to the library, start writing a short story, have to move around because of energy, go back and forth between writing and moving around, storm out because some chatter boxes wont let me focus, go home, buy a bunch of CDs on amazon, go for a run, shower, eat dinner, read hiking guides/maps from 9pm to 4am, then sleep two hours.

Usually I'm good at recognizing hypomania, but it didn't occur to me at this time, but now that I think about it maybe it was. My family is pretty good at catching it too, but I remember trying to act normal so they wouldn't mistakenly think I was manic. My doctor increased my lithium and trazodone because I complained of not sleeping and had low lithium levels, and after a few days of that I felt and still feel depressed and tired, but still cannot sleep. I'd like to know if it was hypomania so I can report it to my pdoc and tell him lithium successfully treated it.

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Also sorry I havent been active much the past few days. Everything's been hard.

[Guiness187055]

Sounds like hypo mania to me. It could be the extra trazadone causing this.

It definitely sounds like hm to me also.

[LadyShadow]

Yeah that's DEFINTELY hypomania. The big red flag for me when dealing with this is the lack of sleep. I mean I have been doing EXTREMELY well since I have been on Seroquel, but I had this nagging thought in the back of my mind that things were going a bit TOO good, you know? I mainly thought this way because I was averaging 4-5 hours sleep at night, and while that may be alright for a "normal" person, I absolutely KNOW that is not enough sleep for "bipolar me".

So yeah, the lack of sleep is a definite red flag when it comes to recognizing mania. I would be honest with your pdoc and let him know about it.

Good luck!

[franz kafka]

Sounds like hypomania to me. Are you able to sleep better now with the extra lithium?

This was before the extra trazodone though. I slept better (5-7 hours a night) for about a week and over the past few days its just less and less. Last night I got 2 hours of sleep in 30 minute intervals. I think the lack of sleep is more anxiety related because Ive been scared the guy that raped me is sending people out to kidnap me. Other than that, feeling more stable.

[Gabyunbound]

Sounds like hypo to me. I just went through very similar symptoms, including excessive exercising that I wasn't used to doing.

Even if not sleeping is due to anxiety -and that's very insightful that you've potentially caught that- the problem with BP is that lack of sleep can lead to hypo, which of course can potentially lead to mania. I think the fact that you have so much energy despite not sleeping is a sign.

If you're still not sleeping, I would contact your pdoc and see about increasing or changing meds. After some time of not sleeping, no one is really in their right mind.