[251turnaround]

Everyone around me is saying I appear to be hypomanic, but all I feel is a drastic increase in energy and this euphoric feeling.

Can you have hypomania without the racing thoughts?

[rwwff]

Originally Posted by 251turnaround

Can you have hypomania without the racing thoughts?

Maybe your meds are keeping some of it at bay...

I don’t feel like my thoughts are racing in hypomania. I don’t even feel that way when I’m manic. I sit and argue with the psychiatrist that I’m not manic while they sit there and tell me I’m talking too fast and jumping from one thought to another. Then I get pissed and say it’s because I’m trying to tell them everything within my time limit.

No insight is my main symptom.

Listen to people around you. It doesn’t hurt anything to get checked out.

Losing your job, spending too much money, or teeing everyone off around you—that you might regret.

[AspiringAuthor]

I am hypomanic now without racing thoughts. My thinking is clear and I am a little bit sped up, but not too much - it is NOT racing thoughts. My racing thoughts mean I am manic. When extremely manic, I have no buffer between thought and action.

[*Laurie*]

It seems to me that my mind is constantly filled with thoughts all tumbling over each other, about 10,000 of them going on at once. Doesn't seem to matter whether I'm manic, depressed, or stable. Well, maybe when I'm depressed I tend to get mired in one repetitive, anxious worry. But I'm not sure.

I've never exactly understood what pdocs mean when they ask about "racing thoughts". Does it mean a whole bunch of thoughts going on at the same time? Does it mean a single thought coming and going very fast, followed by another thought?


I guess I need to understand "racing thoughts" before I can really answer your question.

[UpDownAround]

I can have racing thoughts without being hypo and I can be hypo without racing thoughts but I usually have them

Laurie, Mine as like a cascade; an unbidden almost random thought comes up and it's like I have no choice but to chase it, following not always logical deductions to a conclusion and then there will be another. It's like I don't get to pick what to think about. The thoughts usually ar triggered by or related to what's around me or going on, but not always.

Originally Posted by *Laurie*

It seems to me that my mind is constantly filled with thoughts all tumbling over each other, about 10,000 of them going on at once. Doesn't seem to matter whether I'm manic, depressed, or stable. Well, maybe when I'm depressed I tend to get mired in one repetitive, anxious worry. But I'm not sure.

I've never exactly understood what pdocs mean when they ask about "racing thoughts". Does it mean a whole bunch of thoughts going on at the same time? Does it mean a single thought coming and going very fast, followed by another thought?


I guess I need to understand "racing thoughts" before I can really answer your question.

For me, racing thoughts is I have a billion ideas at once and I want to do EVERYTHING. My thought process would be something like, "ohmygodohmygod I loooove watching game of thrones. I should watch it. But wait, what about learning to become an Olympic swimmer? No, I need to read a book. How about Harry Potter again?? Or could just bake a cake. Yeah, I'll bake a cake! I should really practice my guitar."

The thoughts are in no way connected. Just one right after the other at a rapid pace.

[pirilin]

That word. That word. Sounds like a hipopotamus.
My thoughts race all the time. They bounce and trip themselves.
It's my normal state. I'm hyperkinetic. Move and think at godspeed.
What a wonderful gift my mind and my body are.

[*Laurie*]

Originally Posted by UpDownAround

I can have racing thoughts without being hypo and I can be hypo without racing thoughts but I usually have them

Laurie, Mine as like a cascade; an unbidden almost random thought comes up and it's like I have no choice but to chase it, following not always logical deductions to a conclusion and then there will be another. It's like I don't get to pick what to think about. The thoughts usually ar triggered by or related to what's around me or going on, but not always.

Ohhh...thanks so much for the explanation! I think my therapist was referring to that kind of thinking that tends to affect people with BD. It's similar to an obsessive thought...the thought must be fully explored and taken to it's complete potential of existence until every single aspect of that thought has been released (expressed) and expunged. Then before long, another thought like that one comes along and same cycle all over again.

Thank you, UDA

[*Laurie*]

Originally Posted by bluebicycle

For me, racing thoughts is I have a billion ideas at once and I want to do EVERYTHING. My thought process would be something like, "ohmygodohmygod I loooove watching game of thrones. I should watch it. But wait, what about learning to become an Olympic swimmer? No, I need to read a book. How about Harry Potter again?? Or could just bake a cake. Yeah, I'll bake a cake! I should really practice my guitar."

The thoughts are in no way connected. Just one right after the other at a rapid pace.

Thank you, blue. Yep. Constantly. I am never doing anything but what I'm not thinking about the list in my mind of all the other things I need to or want to be doing and they all jumble up until I'm near tears from feeling overwhelmed.

To answer the original question: Apparently yes, I do have racing thoughts. BUT that might be because I have full-blown mania sometimes...it's more intense to me than hypomania is. And doesn't feel as good, at all.

[251turnaround]

Thanks for all the responses guys! It's good to have some reassurance. I talked to my therapist today and she said I was without a doubt hypomanic. Just a little bit, not out of control or anything.

[UpDownAround]

Originally Posted by bluebicycle

For me, racing thoughts is I have a billion ideas at once and I want to do EVERYTHING. My thought process would be something like, "ohmygodohmygod I loooove watching game of thrones. I should watch it. But wait, what about learning to become an Olympic swimmer? No, I need to read a book. How about Harry Potter again?? Or could just bake a cake. Yeah, I'll bake a cake! I should really practice my guitar."

The thoughts are in no way connected. Just one right after the other at a rapid pace.

In my case, I think of this more as ADHD, although it is hard to tell where that ends and BD starts sometimes. But I get the incomplete train of thought like that even when depressed. Laurie used the right word about my racing thoughts - obsessive. I don't stay on one train of thought long, but I ride it a high speed to the end of the line.

[AspiringAuthor]

Mine are connected, sometimes linearly and sometimes in ruminating circles/cycles.

[~Christina]

My mind is always racing regardless of my Bipolar mood.

[BipolaRNurse]

I was 55 before I knew that brains are supposed to come with an Off switch. The only thing that makes mine quiet is marijuana, which I don't use very often due to the risk of psychosis (that's a long story). My thoughts are like a hundred thousand people in a football stadium heading for the exits all at once. They tumble madly like squirrels in a cage and don't stop until I fall asleep. I'm used to it because I've never known anything different.

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

I was 55 before I knew that brains are supposed to come with an Off switch. The only thing that makes mine quiet is marijuana, which I don't use very often due to the risk of psychosis (that's a long story). My thoughts are like a hundred thousand people in a football stadium heading for the exits all at once. They tumble madly like squirrels in a cage and don't stop until I fall asleep. I'm used to it because I've never known anything different.

LOL

[AspiringAuthor]

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

I was 55 before I knew that brains are supposed to come with an Off switch. The only thing that makes mine quiet is marijuana, which I don't use very often due to the risk of psychosis (that's a long story). My thoughts are like a hundred thousand people in a football stadium heading for the exits all at once. They tumble madly like squirrels in a cage and don't stop until I fall asleep. I'm used to it because I've never known anything different.

Great metaphors... marijuana chocolate, which I also do not use often due to the risk of psychosis, does the opposite to my thoughts.

[Pookyl]

My brain is always racing. It’s just the speed that varies and whether the content makes sense.

[luvyrself]

Originally Posted by 251turnaround

Everyone around me is saying I appear to be hypomanic, but all I feel is a drastic increase in energy and this euphoric feeling.

Can you have hypomania without the racing thoughts?

——yes, it sounds exactly like hypomania. Racing thoughts are just that, very fast thoughts that change very fast to the next sentence and the next idea. Yes, of course you can be hypomanic without what YOU perceive to be racing thoughts. I like what the other poster said that maybe your meds are preventing them. I wouldn’t worry so much about not having them as bringing yourself out of hypomania with it’s distorted thoughts that can cause trouble for you. I always cause more trouble for myself on the high side. Talk to your professionals about what to do when you are hypomanic. You need to decrease your activities, do calming things, and possibly adjust your meds. Hugs!