Is Hypomania constant? Does it fluctuate within the episode?

Hi,

I have had my first episode around a year ago which most definitely caught me by surprise, and had a very quick onset and relatively short duration of just under a week.

Now, I am feel this feeling again.. it started with staying up for 30 hours and then sleeping for around 4 hours a night average afterward (some nights no sleep, some nights 6-8 hours)

Anyway aside from the lack of sleep i am feeling all of the classic warning signs ect..

But, today after my cat nap that followed another completely sleepless night, I was a bit groggy.

As I am new to this whole BP concept and skeptical as if I even have it, I was kind of upset that it seemed to fade. I felt normal.. just a tiny bit more happy i guess.. maybe not even. But now I feel a bit amped up again a couple hours later.. listening to music ect.


SO my question is.. does hypomania/mania typically fluctuate depending on sleep patterns and external stimuli? Or should I be experiencing this feeling consistently?

Of course I will monitor it and see if it gets worse or not.. but I am wondering about the day to day?

Thanks in advanced for any insight
Chacha

WhoIsChameleon wrote:SO my question is.. does hypomania/mania typically fluctuate depending on sleep patterns and external stimuli? Or should I be experiencing this feeling consistently?

From my experience I need less sleep when I'm hypomanic or manic. As for fluctuations of hypomania, I'll compare it to being happy. When a person says "I am happy" we generally know what they mean, but we do not yet know the degree of happiness. My mania varies by degrees from just feeling a little energized to being out of control. Hypomania is the low end of the scale, and full on mania is the high end of the scale.

What I'm saying is my experience of mania and hypomania is a range from feeling better than average all the way up to feeling invincible and doing dangerous or stupid things.

After a while you become familiar with the range of feelings and the direction they are going. At that point you can do what you need to do to return to or stay in the "normal" zone.

I hope this helps. Others will chime in with their experience. I'm really only describing my experience of mania.

No, I don't find hypomania consistent. In the beginning its more of good feeling, then it becomes this endless obsession and not being able to concentrate... All around waste of time. Thankfully, the antipsychotic knocked it out.

WhoIsChameleon wrote:SO my question is.. does hypomania/mania typically fluctuate depending on sleep patterns and external stimuli? Or should I be experiencing this feeling consistently?

Yeah I'm wondering this too...are there things that can "set it off." For me, I can get pretty manic during concerts and things...

So the extent of "feel-good-ness" varies a lot it seems for everyone. Have any of you ever been going up and then suddenly stopped?

I just woke up from another nap, and feel like $#%^..

Any chance I will snap back into hypomania? Or maybe this whole thing was just a sign that a bigger episode is coming a bit later in the year or something?

Wtf I am pissed.

I find that it does fluctuate to varying degrees. Mild hypomania is very productive but as it gets worse (or better-feeling!) my judgement becomes impacted.

Be careful with the sleep thing. The biggest trigger for a manic episode in myself is staying active too late at night. Some people are even more sensitive and can't do anything with a light on after a certain time. Sleep hygiene is extremely important with bipolar, and that's why some people notice mood wobbles when they stay out later than usual or have to wake up very early in the morning if that's not what their usual schedule entails.

If you're not already mood charting, consider trying that soon. It'll give you a clear record of your ups & downs, along with the chance to see which meds are helping more. Most mood charts also include a way to track the amount of sleep you've had.

Okay, so maybe my sleep disturbances were from something like alcohol and marijuana withdrawal as opposed to hypomania since I am no longer as elevated?

I read a lot online about people saying they Know when mania is coming. And there really isn't much to do but try to sleep and take meds.. so, does this mean that if I am "coming down" already, it was a false alarm?

In other words, once over the threshold for hypomania, how often do you all come back down? Because for me it seems like quite often, but for other people I have read about online it seems like it is more black and white.. either going up up up and not stopping or just not elevated whatsoever to begin with

WhoIsChameleon wrote:In other words, once over the threshold for hypomania, how often do you all come back down?

Always (but I know this is not what you really are asking). What goes up must come down. Question is how fast and how much time must pass, I gather.

My last proper hypomania lasted about 9 months and ended within one night. I went to bed crying with happiness about how amazing my life is and I woke up anxious and badly depressed. It was 1.5 year ago. A mixed/ultra-ultra-rapid cycling episode followed. When that ended I've found myself stable for a long time until a few weeks ago a relative's sickness triggered a depression.

I think I am struggling to articulate my question here..

The easiest way for me to explain it is this:

Have any of you ever experienced hypomania/mania, where your mood chart looks more like a jagged mountain than a smooth bell shape?

In other words, can the level of elevation fluctuate within an episode? The mere day-to-day ?

What I am trying to figure out, is if I will get elevated again this week. I know I passed the threshold into hypomania, but now i feel fine. I hope to god that my feelings can fluctuate in the day to day and I am still in an Overall Hypomanic state that is Not over yet.

WhoIsChameleon wrote:I think I am struggling to articulate my question here..

The easiest way for me to explain it is this:

Have any of you ever experienced hypomania/mania, where your mood chart looks more like a jagged mountain than a smooth bell shape?

In other words, can the level of elevation fluctuate within an episode? The mere day-to-day ?

What I am trying to figure out, is if I will get elevated again this week. I know I passed the threshold into hypomania, but now i feel fine. I hope to god that my feelings can fluctuate in the day to day and I am still in an Overall Hypomanic state that is Not over yet.

Ah, I think I get it.

Is it possible you are not actually hypo but in a mixed/cycling episode? When my hypo stopped, I crashed into such a rapid cycling that I had mood swings every few hours. I didn't chart yet because I didn't know I should, but if I did, my chart would just have Xs all over the place. I went from -3 to +3 and everything in between in the space of one day.