[Razzleberry]

Title says it all. Just curious about other's experiences.

Thanks.

[FireBird]

I feel hyper and can't control myself when I'm having a hypomanic episode. I talk real fast move quickly and things like that. Then I think I am going to be the next big thing in art making millions of dollars. I almost get grandiose delusions because of it. I was like that in October of last year. Luckily for me I don't have any of the bad things that usually come with a hypomanic or manic episode like uncontrollable spending and things like that. I am just overly and unrealistically happy. I am starting to get like that now but if I get those millions of dollars, I will be the world's happiest person and that includes all the people with a manic episode! Since I don't have any of the bad things (that I notice anyways) I don't know if mine is really a manic or hypomanic episode at all. Sometimes when I'm like that, I feel like on top of the world and nothing could go wrong. That everything will go smoothly and perfectly.

[Grace03]

GREAAATTTT! All my emotions/senses are amplified : also on HIGH ALERT!!! I must PROCEED with CAUTION. My sexual drive goes through the roof. Being single I tend to avoid social situations. The temptations (and possible regrets) are just too overwhelming. Even when on meds!!

Grace03

[trippinmickey]

Great!!!! Im happy Feel like I can do anything Everything looks better taste better My meds keep me check but I use low dose of meds. for the times when Im manic Its the lows I hate their evil so I try to stay manic for as log as I can.

[Razzleberry]

Ok, so let me describe this. Tell me - does this sound anything like a manic or hypomanic episode?

I do NOT get really happy or elated or high. I do NOT sleep less. I do NOT talk any faster or have racing thoughts or any of that.

I do, however, get really irritable and angry...almost like PMS but 1000 times worse. The littlest thing will set me off.

But my moods change very quickly, very drastically. One minute I'm depressed and nearly suicidal, the next minute I'm screaming at my husband for not putting a dish in the dishwasher.

I never really get "happy" at all. Just angry and irritable, and extremely depressed.

However....here's the kicker. I do get very impulsive. Self-destructive risky behaviors that I know I shouldn't be doing but I do anyways. Binging like crazy on food. Spending money with nothing to show for it (but the most I've spent was maybe $3,000). And worst of all...the sex stuff.

So....is that manic? Hypomanic? Or not?

It doesn't last weeks or months, it's usually only hours or days.

And then immediately afterward...I get extremely depressed again.

[unpredictable]

For me I've experieced both happy and angry episodes.

Sometimes I'm very irratable and angry, thinking everyone else is stupid, lazy, and/or uncaring.

Other times, I am hyper, happy, and making people laugh. Like one time I was a camp counselor and I started bouncing around the cabin making the girls laugh and scream by imatating all sorts of different animals. But I'm not normally like that. Usually I am a little more reserved and quiet.

Also, I think I can do things that I can't always do. For example, I hit a golf ball down a street that was lined with cars and houses. And it went across a busy road and into a grass field that was hundreds of yards away. Now, I can hit a golf ball straight and far but I am very inconsistant. It was crazy for me to believe that I could do this and not hit anything since I usually slice the ball to the right. Fortunately I did hit it right where I was planning on but there was no reason I would normally think I could do something like that.

[jamminpianogirl]

What you're describing, Razzle, is something of what I experience. Extreme, drastic mood swings that only last hours or days, sometimes even minutes. Suicidal, irritable, angry, terrified, numb, sometimes happy gets thrown in there. I go through periods where I'm highly active, thoughts racing, much more creative, don't need sleep - as opposed to the periods where I can hardly think, am extremely lethargic, and want to sleep all the time. but I don't ever talk faster, don't usually feel super great... idk. I'm being treated for depression but I'm nervous that I'm bipolar II.

[perniciousfirefly]

I have just come down (not from my own choice) from a mad week, un which I follow my erratic mood swings. I am bein treated for depression, but I am being referred by the doctor to a psych, as she couldnt deal with what I say. I have been on a binge, on drinking, drugs, been more sexually manic,spending money I haven'e got, then my parents have restricted my freedom although im 26. I took 15 mirtazapines on friday just got out of bed today!!! and have woke up with slash marks on my arms. Now I am feeling %#@&#!, but this is one of many episodes. During the days I am cycling through every emotion possible, not knowing what to deal with. Is this hypomanic? or manic?

[ECHOES]

The rapid mood changes also sound more like Borderline Personality Disorder, often mistaken for Bipolar.

[Merlin]

There is a lot of mood similarity between borderline and bipolar. Rapid mood changes isn't enough to differentiate the two. If there was relationship and identity instability as well... but that isn't described.

[Razzleberry]

Actually Borderline is what I have strongly suspected I have. But never diagnosed. And when I told my latest therapist about these behaviors, and the fact that a lot of it happened right after I started on anti-depressants for the first time...he immediately thought manic episode. It's just hard to explain that I'm really not like that.

I don't want to discount a professional's opinion....and I don't want to self-diagnose....I guess I'm just trying to figure it out.

I'm going to a different therapist tomorrow (long story, if you've seen my other threads you know why). I know I shouldn't self-diagnose, just wondering I guess what I should tell them so they get it right.

[Merlin]

Tell them the truth. Don't embellish or distort it trying to get or not get a diagnosis. If you are worried about multiple possible diagnoses, then tell them that too.