Do you get reprieves or even opposite moods during episodes?

DSM states that for a mood episode to be an episode it's gotta be "most of the day nearly every day"
which makes me believe the mood state is not always all day every day.
Do you have hours/days during your episodes where things are calm? What about having the opposite mood (eg feeling manic during a depressive episode)?

I thought my mixed episode was crashing to depression because things settled for a couple days but now I'm feeling very amped in a very negative way again

It’s very hard to pin point moods when you are actively using substances. They change your moods and can easily hide the true mood for up to a year after you last used them.

I highly doubt my "amped" feeling today and for the past month is from my first time using oxy (a downer) use in months yesterday. It's like saying Depakote or Lithium is causing mania. Yeah, we're all different but still there's a general trend and there's a reason they're called downers."

And there's no way I'm ever getting a year clean again so I guess I'll never have another manic or depressive episode...

There's always going to be a general "up, down, up, down" over your day. During an episode, your baseline is going to be firmly in the Up or the Down.

To answer your main question, no to both. When I'm in the middle of an episode, whether Up or Down, I always feel agitated just under the surface. It's like I'm jumping out of my skin. It's a feeling of no rest.

To the other part, I've personally never had a hard turn mood-wise that wasn't related to outside substances. Doesn't matter what kind. They all led to more trouble than they solved.

I wish I could answer your question. The thing is, I've been on medication for so many years that I don't know what I'd be like without it. I do know that the DSM 5 has a lot of misinformation. It's very black/white, when in reality MI is not like that. Interestingly, there's a revision of the DSM-5-TR (text revision) that was released in March. I wonder if it's a more enlightened version. I sure hope so.

Yes, and both before and after being on meds. However, there is a difference between such fluctuations during episodes vs. "mood lability". Doctors also must be sure a patient doesn't have a differential diagnosis, but I'm not implying this latter for you.

What I refer to above can be read about at Is it a bipolar mixed episode, ultra rapid cycling, or just “mood lability”? | My Journeys Beyond Bipolar Disorder Within this article, is a link to an interesting page on Dr. James Phelp's webpage.

When I was actively using substances I had no problem pin pointing my moods. I do now that I'm on Depakote and Latuda . I've been in a constant state of mania since I had to go off of lithium in November 2020. Yesterday I had the worst depressive episode I've had in years.

So yeah, to say I can swing the other way for a whole day in spite of still being manic on meds is an understatement.