Hypo mania or mania?

How do you tell the difference if you are hypo-manic or manic?  I am not even sure what i am at the moment i would say  hypo manic to be on the safe side. Its been so long since i have had this kind of ENERGY but i am loving it all of it.    This is what has been happening.... increased energy. positive. consistently moving and dancing and laughing and talking.hanging out with people i don't really know. Increased sex drive :) . I don't eat much as i forget and arn't that hungry. only sleep like 6 hours or less. racing thoughts. family has a tight hold on money but i keep thinking up things i must get and ways to get it. starting a few new projects. big ideas and plans. great personal hygiene like showering and hair cuts. when i looked in mirror and i thought i was hot. irritable at times. thinking that nothing could ever go wrong and that i have a special meaning/gift.  
Not sure if it really matters what i am, i am just wondering. I haven't got round to calling my psychologist and i am not sure if it really matters or not. I think i maybe irritating my family a bit but obviously not too much as they haven't kicked me out yet hahaha.

[looloo141]

Its like a mirror image of myself listening to you lol... I suppose with the hypo vs happy thing you have to differentiate whether you do this embarrasing stuff when you are within your normal baseline of mood, where you are genuinely happy or not..or if you doing and saying stuff that is normal for you or not, that's how I judge it, but it can be hard sometimes when the hypomania has taken hold.. I have noticed a difference in you by the style of your writing...you seem different from how you were a few weeks ago..you seemed to be quite blunt with your posts and now I can feel warmth from you. You do seem a lot better, so is this because you have conquered that deep depression or that you are hypo?
I think you should just keep an eye on things and take your meds, try to keep calm and get some sleep.


I am the same, I take a mental note of my mood as soon as I wake up, but my therapist is trying to help me with things, ha! Good luck to him!!!

I think the power of knowledge thing is important..I can hear people shouting at me now saying that I make things worse with all I know and think about..I accept that its not good for me all the time, but it is just my way..and at times it has saved my life..

I am experiencing some strange things at the moment, I think its caused by this anti side effect drug that was prescribed a few days ago, I am literally off my rocker, irritable, aggressive but sad inside. This has all come on in the last few days..before starting this I had some hypo manic features..this drug has made me feel I'm on edge, it hasnt stopped the jerky, Involuntary leg movements..so they've given me ativan ( lorazepam) to counteract the side effects of the side effect med!!!

I too have been getting In trouble for saying inappropriate things...its even happened on here, I seem to say the wrong thing and all I'm trying to do is help people!!

[ILADVOCATE]

   The important thing to understand about hypomania and mania is that what is occurring during hypomania can start to worsen and then become full mania and as this is occurring there can be a loss of judgment so that after a while the understanding of how this is impacting on a person's life lessens. I have been through this and I found the best thing to do was to err on the side of caution and I always informed my psychiatrist when there were any mood changes of any kind. Some of what you describe does sound like it might be caused by mania and hypomania and mania are not exact quantities that are measurable but some of the changes you described seem of concern so it would be worthwhile to speak to your psychologist and keep them up to date so they can best help you.

[freddie8605]

Yeah thanks ILADVOCATE. The only REAL mania that i have had that i am 100% sure i have had, i don't really remember. it doesn't help that it was like 3 or 4 years ago lol. I have defiantly had other highs as i call them but none have been seen by a doctor as i think i am great, it isn't until my family gets grumpy until something happens. i am going to try and avoid that this time. and normally they don't last long ( a week or 2 )and the effects of spending and sexual drive can cause some long lasting problems but other than that its great. What go me was how fast my mood changed and that i hadn't even notices till latter still. I feel like a newbe even though i have had this for over 5 years. but was only diagnosed last year i think. I will contact my psychologist tomorrow make sure she knows of mood change. :)

[looloo141]

I have been trying to figure this out myself, usually when I suddenly feel great I immediately think hypomania.. or I will analyse myself, looking for certain symptoms..its sad that I can't enjoy my happiness instead of monitoring..for me there is a very thin line between hypo and full mania, I think that is why I monitor because its like flicking a switch..

Then on the other side its good to have insight!
If I notice certain warning signs I would tell someone before I got to the point where I cant see there is a problem..
I just make sure I take all my meds and try to sleep even though its difficult..the other thing is I know that somewhere in the distance the crash is on its way..

[freddie8605]

I am an analyzer of myself too, ever since i found the power of knowledge and knowing what was actually happening with me i have the most incredible insight into bipolar and my own mind. It actually gets to the point where i notice my change in mood before others. I can say where i think i am at but i am kind of confused with the hypo and manic thing. I  think this time hypo-manic because some how i don't think it is as bad as other because at least i am sleeping i have had times of not sleeping at all of 3 or 4 nights easy and having the most weird experiences such as time travel and giant robotic bugs crawling up my walls, i don't have anything like that this time. and i haven't had risky sex or braking the law or anything like that, but people are starting to say i am so embarrassing in public because i talk so loud and will say the most inappropriate things but that's not how i see it at all. I contacted my psychologist but she is hopeless as she hasn't got back to me, my mom emailed her also because she was concerned and mom hasn't heard back either so no one has seen me as my social worker also canceled on Thursday, which i am no the wall about because i want to know what they think but i also don't want to be evaluated, might sound weird but i hate when they do that. HMMM the life of a bipolar lol

[looloo141]

Its like a mirror image of myself listening to you lol... I suppose with the hypo vs happy thing you have to differentiate whether you do this embarrasing stuff when you are within your normal baseline of mood, where you are genuinely happy or not..or if you doing and saying stuff that is normal for you or not, that's how I judge it, but it can be hard sometimes when the hypomania has taken hold.. I have noticed a difference in you by the style of your writing...you seem different from how you were a few weeks ago..you seemed to be quite blunt with your posts and now I can feel warmth from you. You do seem a lot better, so is this because you have conquered that deep depression or that you are hypo?
I think you should just keep an eye on things and take your meds, try to keep calm and get some sleep.


I am the same, I take a mental note of my mood as soon as I wake up, but my therapist is trying to help me with things, ha! Good luck to him!!!

I think the power of knowledge thing is important..I can hear people shouting at me now saying that I make things worse with all I know and think about..I accept that its not good for me all the time, but it is just my way..and at times it has saved my life..

I am experiencing some strange things at the moment, I think its caused by this anti side effect drug that was prescribed a few days ago, I am literally off my rocker, irritable, aggressive but sad inside. This has all come on in the last few days..before starting this I had some hypo manic features..this drug has made me feel I'm on edge, it hasnt stopped the jerky, Involuntary leg movements..so they've given me ativan ( lorazepam) to counteract the side effects of the side effect med!!!

I too have been getting In trouble for saying inappropriate things...its even happened on here, I seem to say the wrong thing and all I'm trying to do is help people!!

[freddie8605]

Haha there is no way i would do those things when normal. I probably would be too embarrassed to even try, but when i am like this i  don't even realize it has come out of my mouth until later and others say. I have no filter on anything and no ability to read  the situation and don't get embarrassed whats so ever in fact i love it when everyone is looking, it just fulls the silliness. I think i am to "HIGH" to function probably but not as high as i have been before, in fact my mom has come to visit me from a different town and she brought her new partner i have never met before, mom said before to me that i am making him feel very uncomfortable and if i could tone it down, she understands the best she can about bipolar so she knows its asking a lot, weird thing i am not as bad i was 3 or 4 days ago so good thing i didn't met him back then, hahaha.

I keep smelling blood on my hands, which is so gross and i can't get rid of it. Mom thinks i am psychotic because i have so controversial ideas/knowledge and hears things others claim not to hear. People say that if you are psychotic you must be manic but i don't think now i am high enough to be manic, this time, i mean i am sleeping at least more than other times i am high. This is all very controversial in its self lol.

I came off most of my meds myself as i don't trust my doctors and don't want to be taking lithium without being sure i am not toxic, and at the moment my doctor is useless, cant get to she her for another month and a halve, by then who knows were i will be lol. i use to get those jerks too, but they went away when i started taking fish oil.

Good to know i am not alone, in a way, because it is sad that others are suffering too.