manic vs. hypomanic

How can you tell when hypomania has flipped the switch into mania?

Hypomanic you are able to function. You are unusually happy. You have more energy. Less need to sleep. However, you can be super productive also. You don't have psychosis. People can live fairly normally hypomanic. However, for people with bipolar 1 disorder, hypomania can evolve into mania. Mania is a state of chaos. Your thoughts are random and jumbled. You have what's known as "pressured speech". Your behavior is irrational and erratic and everyone external to you can see it. You often suffer from delusions of grandeur. You sometimes hallucinate. Worst, you have no idea you are manic. You lack insight. You think everyone saying you are manic are just jealous or out to get you. Often you have sensory changes. Everything is louder, brighter, more odorous, and touch is extremely sensitive. Also, everyone around you moves and talks so darn slow it makes you nuts. Remember records? When you are manic you are at 78 rpm. Everyone else you perceive is at 33 rpm. Mania is a psychiatric emergency.

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Originally Posted by franz kafka How can you tell when hypomania has flipped the switch into mania?

A really good question! And generally speaking, we can't, which is why we need professional help when we know we're getting "out there".

Hypo for me is happy , sunshine puppies , kittens and colors are so bright and shiny , music is just so much more .. but usually in less than a week I’m manic and it’s a dark ugly angry scary hateful place

Sometimes I have insight into my hypomanias, but I never have insight into my full blown manias, until they are downgraded/over. Perhaps if there is any exception, it's when I am having a severe mixed episode, but not always even then.

Before accepting my diagnosis, I didn't have insight into hypomanias, either. Even after my diagnosis, it took a while before I gained it. Even now, sometimes I don't realize my hypomanias until either someone tells me or I do something that does make the lightbulb go on.

Tdoc says I'm "very hypomanic" instead of manic because I still have some insight and I'm not getting myself into trouble.

I almost switch immediately from hypomanic to manic with very little time spent hypomanic. I respectfully disagree with your pdocs definition. Since going on meds I have insight about my mania and don’t get into trouble even when manic.

My tdoc has a really high threshold for diagnosing mania. Another doctor probably would have had me locked up on sight.