[Soupe du jour]

I'm curious to know if people's notable mood switches tend to happen slowly, or more often very quickly? In cases where there was an extremely quick switch, what were the circumstances or triggering factors? And how fast and extreme was the switch?

fun thread!. I saw the title of this thread and instantly thought of the time I was standing in line for something feeling like well.. I'd been run over by an emotional lorry.

soon enough, one of the people looked at me weirdly. I was dancing on my tippy toes, singing the theme to the teletubbies and waving my hands like I was doing a crazy dance- completely the oppositte from how I felt a few minits ago. it is the only time I remember where I wasn't triggered by anything. usually it's a lot slower and has some trigger attached to it

I suppose my whole dressing up as a pirate thing ended pretty quickly

but pretty sure that was down to someone telling me that women can't use the name davy jones.. I was super angry.

[Soupe du jour]

raging vortex, it is an interesting experience when there is no discernible trigger. I have had similar moments to what you mentioned in your first post. Just a brief moment, and it would like an explosion of adrenaline for me and either the elation (or sometimes a violent feeling fury) would come out of nowhere. Even if there had been a trigger, it could sometimes be the most minor thing. Maybe a portion of a song, the way a breeze suddenly intoxicated me. They were dangerous being runaway trains of insanity. It's much safer to be clued in to an episode's development, isn't it?

A lot of my more clearly triggered sudden hypomanias and manias were linked to antidepressants. One example was when I was severely depressed when living in Taiwan, a depression that followed a brief hypomania. I just totally crashed and didn't even get out of my bed to even call out of work. My apartment mates had to explain what was going on with me. My boss arrived at my apartment with a couple of the Taiwanese teacher's aides, to take me to the hospital. I was returned to my apartment with bags and bags of mystery medications. I guess I took them for at least a couple days, but barely remember that week. Before I knew it, I gave notice at that job, losing oodles of money as penalties for early departure, and set out to Hong Kong. I was extremely manic there for a week, then moved on even more manic to Bangkok, Thailand. It lasted more weeks in other parts of Thailand until one day I discovered that a huge chunk of my money was stolen. Boom! Though I did manage to get back to Taiwan, I quickly returned to the US a couple weeks later, and things evened out again.

The quickest dive into depression was after maybe my eighth psychiatric hospitalization. Almost all of my previous hospitalizations involved mania, whether pure or mixed. I don't know if it was a final sudden crash or that, plus being put on high dose Depakote and Invega. I went on to call that the "Depressakote Evil Combo". That became my longest and most severe PURE depression that I remember since maybe my mid teens. I even had to have ECT treatments to help get me out of it. The instant resolution of the manic end to leave just depression was beyond rapid.

[MickeyCheeky]

i have nothing much to addo to this discussion. Just wanted to thank you both for sharing your stories/insights. Being manic can certainly be very dangerous. Sending many Safe, warm hugs to BOTH you, @Soupe du jour and @raging vortex, your Families, your Friends and ALL of your Loved Ones! Keep fighting and keep rocking NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, OK?!

[*Beth*]

Usually rapid. Especially for mania - but I have had a few times when depression fell upon me as if someone had dropped a dark net over me. Depression is generally triggered by season and time of day. Mania...you know, good question. Either the pnset of mania triggers anger or anger triggers mania (with regard to an "irritable" mania). A "good" mania starts out as hypomania and can be triggered by season and oftentimes, music.

But sometimes it feels like moods just...happen. No rhyme or reason - especially true of mania.

[The Black Dog]

Two week climb into mania. Eventually a crash from mania right into depression. The trigger could totally be trivial.

[HALLIEBETH87]

Most the time I just suddenly am manic or depressed. Last ip stay I literally flipped the switch within a day. I was there for depression and SI thoughts. Within in a week I was not sleeping, couldn’t sit still and kept just walking around talking to people and saying how I could see music and I can fly. One nurse was like well don’t go and try. That made me mad but what’s worse if a nurse came on shift and I started talking to him and he was like “hmm manic today I see!”

[Werewoman]

I know as soon as I wake up if I'm going to be manic that day. Sometimes it changes to a mixed episode, which is like hell basically. Then I might get depressed, but it changes all the time.

[Soupe du jour]

In the past, I often found that when "my sedating evening meds wore off" my mood would start to rise, rapidly. My morning meds aren't sedating at all. Like at 12 noon or 1 pm, suddenly up, up, up, but when evening came, especially after taking evening meds, I went down again and could even sleep. Because of this, sometimes I need a PRN Seroquel during the day.

Thanks for all of the shares on this topic, everyone! I look forward to any others.

[wolftrap]

A switch in moods can happen both slowly over time and shortly within a day or hours. Mania usually happens quickly, with triggers seeming to be stress, usually interpersonal, or focusing for too long (over 4 hours) on something I'm working on. Getting to euphoria happens when the mania lasts a good long while, like months. Long-term depression seems to just happen and I'm not aware of it until I am and my therapist confirms. Short-term depression usually comes on due to a specific trigger, anything that is bad or reminds me of my worst moments of not wanting to live. I can rapid cycle between short term mania and depression while in a long-term trajectory of mania or depression.

[rwwff]

I doubt I'll ever forget the switch I had (before diag/meds) when I was manic and painting the house. Was most of the way done and then a wasp chased me off my ladder; I walked around aimlessly for a bit, went inside, and fell asleep. When I woke, hours later, I felt awful, realized all the half done stuff I'd put in motion over the past weeks, and just crashed, go straight to D, do not pass go, do not collect $200. lol.

Stayed in the Land of Doom for a few months, during which I promised myself I'd go see a pdoc soon. I'd had enough.

nb... never did finish painting the house.

[Soupe du jour]

Originally Posted by rwwff

I doubt I'll ever forget the switch I had (before diag/meds) when I was manic and painting the house. Was most of the way done and then a wasp chased me off my ladder; I walked around aimlessly for a bit, went inside, and fell asleep. When I woke, hours later, I felt awful, realized all the half done stuff I'd put in motion over the past weeks, and just crashed, go straight to D, do not pass go, do not collect $200. lol.

Stayed in the Land of Doom for a few months, during which I promised myself I'd go see a pdoc soon. I'd had enough.

nb... never did finish painting the house.

Thanks for sharing that. Perfectly unique example of a sudden switch from an unexpected trigger.

I hope you do feel ready to finish that painting soon.

[251turnaround]

I've had hypomania and more often depression hit me out of the blue before, but typically it builds up over the course of days or weeks. I remember a few instances of suddenly becoming hypomanic when I was a kid; sudden euphoria and an urge to do everything. Nowadays, it's depression that can hit me like a sudden soul-sucking event.

[Mountaindewed]

I had unusual feelings of manic/euphoria last night. Then this morning I seemed to have suddenly crashed and I’m very anxious and semi depressed now. It was weird.