[Blueberrybook]

I suspect I may be hypo lately as I've had a lot of energy and done a lot of stuff. Some of it was stuff with my daughter over the last week, and this morning, I cleaned and cleaned in my office until it's actually useable. I still have some stuff to do in here, like figuring out what to do with outdated computer programs (stuff from the 1990s, early 2000s) and old computer diskettes. I've got some boxes of stuff for hubby to go through, things I want to get rid of but he can have if he sees a need for it. I have narrowed the number of boxes of books in my office closets from over 20 to 2. My bookshelves are no longer spewing tons of books that don't fit. I'm washing all the bed linens and getting things done. Also, I've been exercising daily.

Now, this is much more than I tend to do on a daily basis (though I almost always do exercise; I tell myself it is to help the anxiety, but I realize a part of it is to shut up the stupid eating disorder voices). IDK, some people may recover fully from an eating disorder, but for me, the thoughts and voices never go away; they are just quieter at times.

So I suspect I'm hypo and not wanting to tell my pdoc. Is it still hypomania if you are getting adequate sleep (7-8 hours a night, most nights, sometimes a bit more, sometimes an hour or so less)? I like being productive and don't want to lose this feeling though I suppose if I am slipping toward mania, the pdoc will notice as it becomes very noticeable in my talking and speech patterns.

I feel for some reason that because I am getting adequate sleep and not engaging in harmful behaviors like overspending, not sleeping, risky driving moves, it's not a big deal. Or is it?

Add on to the fact that I have been on psych meds so much of my life, I barely remember what I felt like off them other than the hypersexuality. Which I'm not sure if that was hypersexuality or just normal teenage behavior.

[pirilin]

In a word, yes.

[Pookyl]

Yes. Given the fact that you want to hide it from your pdoc means I think you know.

It's sometimes hard to know what's above or below the range of "normal", and yes, even "normal" has a range. And mania has a big range, as does depression. At least mine does.

I can certainly be slightly elevated in mood, but functioning in a way that appears just notably extra ambitious. I agree that it is hard to know what "extra ambitious normal" is vs. bipolar elevated to a small degree. I'll say this, though. I take a pretty sedating cocktail at night. I know that it can often temporarily extinguish my daytime "flame" for a while, but if I have an episode determined to push forward, the flame reignites again in the morning when the sedation eases and/or excitement picks up again.

When my hypomanias worsen, they do tend to affect my sleep a bit, but not necessarily in a significant way like my more severe manias. Or if they do, I'm generally advised to taken extra prn Seroquel at night, or my psychiatrist ups my daily evening dose, at least for a while.

I sometimes experience mood lability. What I mean by this is are days (maybe even one out of the blue), where my mood is clearly elevated or depressed, but I wake up the next day normal. In these cases, I didn't have an official episode because it didn't meet the length criteria for one. It was rather a blip in my mood that faded as quickly as it came. Maybe by 5 pm I'm back to normal again. Mood lability is common in bipolar disorder. It is differentiated from normal bad or good days by the extreme in symptoms.

[*Laurie*]

Remember that meds can cause you to sleep more than you might if you weren't on meds.

[UpDownAround]

When I took saphris I could sleep while hypo. A few times I would fall asleep with racing thoughts and wake up and still have them, which was bizarre. Lamictal has been working so well for the last year that I talk about hypo with past tense these days.

[AspiringAuthor]

I can even be manic and still sleep.

[~Christina]

Hypo for me..... I’m able to sleep less than my baseline but yes I can sleep a bit.

[bizi]

I got to almost manic while taking prozac and slept like a baby.
bizi

[BipolaRNurse]

I have been known to sleep at least 4 hours a night even when full-blown manic. Then there are times like I've had in recent weeks when I don't sleep at all some nights, and I've been hypomanic off and on for the past several months. However, I'm less so than when I saw my pdoc last month, so maybe I'll be able to talk him out of the increased dose of Zyprexa he was threatening me with. I say that with tongue in cheek, but he did propose an increase and I promptly refused. I'm on a small dose but I'm afraid I'd start gaining weight again if I were to take more. In the meantime, it seems like I sleep either 8-9 hours or less than 4, if that. You'd think I was on enough meds to choke a horse. Lol.

[Blueberrybook]

Yeah, I do take a sedating med combo at night, especially with the Seroquel, Klonopin, hydroxyzine, and pdoc ordered melatonin. I slept less last night. I hesitate to mention it to my pdoc because hypomania feels so much better than depression or feeling numb & flat. I don't see him until Thursday, so I have a few days to make up my mind about it especially if my sleep gets less or if I start interrupting everyone talking to me, badly affecting my relationships. I've got to keep spending under control. Our finances are dismal.