Mixed Episodes

Can anyone enlighten me? I'm not entirely sure what a mixed episode is, and I'm almost convinced I am having one. Can anyone share their experiences and what you felt so I can get a better understanding?

For instance, how fast do the moods cycle? And is there stability in between the mood swings? And how long do the mood swings last?

I think I've had them before, but wrote them off as a high. Occasionally I'll do everything normal for my high behavior, but also be irrationally snippy at people and have a tendency to make a lot of dark humor remarks. I get extremely aggressive at the time too. I tend to feel both very powerful and powerless at the same time. I would compare it to being a giant trying to do things with minuscule objects, but getting infuriated due to breaking everything from accidental use of strength.

^If that's not what it is sorry, but I don't know what else that could be.

My mood cycles are FAST (like two to three days tops), so not sure how to help ya there.

*edit I read your mood post a second ago, and yeah that sounds about right to me anyway.

Here's an example: I was feeling bummed for a few days, then got horribly depressed for 2 days, then got a manic high, then crashed into a horrible depression, ended up in the hospital, felt bummed my second day there, felt normal the third day there, got sent home, felt OK, and these last 2 days I've been very talkative and today my brain won't shut up. Racing thoughts like crazy. And I really want to go out and buy a Beta fish. Like.. I really need a Beta fish. And my manic high the other day, I absolutely had to have an avocado and spent quite a bit of money on one. The only problem is, I'm broke. So I can't buy things.

Also, I don't get aggressive or angry during mania, I get the walking on sunshine, seeing through rose colored glasses euphoric kind.

TRIGGER WARNING!

During these recent depressions I have had suicidal thoughts and almost took an entire bottle of Klonopin. So these aren't slight highs and lows, they are pretty severe, or borderline severe. I did end up in the hospital, after all.

END TRIGGER!

I am just terribly confused. I don't see my NP for another 4 days. I will bring all of this up to her at my appointment, and she can tell me what's going on, but in the meantime, I would greatly appreciate anyone to share their experiences. HELP!

Jellybeanery wrote: felt bummed my second day there, felt normal the third day there, got sent home, felt OK, and these last 2 days I've been very talkative and today my brain won't shut up. Racing thoughts like crazy. And I really want to go out and buy a Beta fish. Like.. I really need a Beta fish. And my manic high the other day, I absolutely had to have an avocado and spent quite a bit of money on one.

This bit is me most days.

Also, I don't get aggressive or angry during mania, I get the walking on sunshine, seeing through rose colored glasses euphoric kind.

I don't get angry during highs, but I get "pumped up" and easily frustrated during mixed times or whatever. If something pisses me off I might accidentally hurt myself by punching an inanimate object. Done that more than a few times.

I get suicidal thoughts that I don't act on during mixes (?) and constantly during lows. I get them less when I drink less caffeine. My OCD goes away when I don't have caffeine too, so I chalk mine up to racing thoughts + caffeine + hitting a low = bad times. No clue how your intake is though obviously.

I'm so sorry you have to wait so long.

Well, being as I have just "regular" bipolar i, I don't get fast cycles. I'm depressed much more than manic. I know depression, I know mania, but this.. I don't know wtf this is. I'm kind of worried, honestly. I feel like I'm going to be in the hospital again.

OMG I just lost my post.

So as well as having these ups and downs, I have also been very paranoid. Feel free to yell at me if you have to mod edit anything, I'm sorry, so I'll just put a TRIGGER WARNING. So when I was in the hospital I was convinced one of the patients was going to come in my room and either rape or kill me. I laid in bed for hours with my eyes fixated on the door, and every time a nurse came by to do room check, I thought it was him. I was visualizing all the ways it could have happened and I was terrified. And today, I hadn't seen my family all day. When I went to the pharmacy to drop off my prescriptions, on the walk back, I pictured all my family lying dead and bloody, murdered, in their beds. And a man doing.. not such good things to my mom's body. I was too afraid to check their rooms, as I thought the man could still be in the house somewhere. And today I have had horrible racing thoughts. LOUD thoughts. I have been on "auto pilot" all day and doing things I don't remember doing, difficulty concentrating, messing everything up, easily distracted, I just feel like a mess. Also very fast talking, and talking a LOT. Is this some kind of psychosis?

I know nobody can diagnose this, I just want opinions/thoughts. I'm scared. And I'm scared I'll crash again. I feel like I'm going to be in the hospital again. I think tomorrow morning I should call my behavioral health facility and see if my NP can see me sooner than the 31st. But who knows, this can all end tomorrow. I don't know what's going on!

Once again sounds like me, but during my lows. I get paranoid, as well as forgetting random large parts of my day, fast talking, and EXTREME intrusive thoughts like what you mentioned.

Can't diagnose, but the parts where you were convinced may have been psychosis. I would mention it to someone for sure.

Could this be because of going off the old meds? Are you on any new ones that might be causing this change?

I haven't added new meds yet, but I just brought in my script for Lexapro today, and will start taking it tomorrow. But it very well could be from coming off of the Latuda. Despite what I'm going through at the moment, I still want to get off of it.

And I did crash, not too long after my previous post. Started crying like a baby and went to talk to my mom. After about an hour, here I am again, and I feel fine. I haven't the slightest idea what is going on, and this is something I can honestly say I have never had before.

Just wondering if anyone here has this, and what it was for them, and how to deal with it. I feel like I'm losing it.

I have mixed episodes/rapid cycling a lot of the time. Oliveira and I talk about this all the time. We're the two fasted cycling people we know. I can cycle back to mania, then back to depression, and back to mania in about ten minutes. With Oliveira, it takes him about half an hour to an hour to switch. But what your going through is rapid cycling. Mixed episodes are when you're depressed and manic at the exact same time. As someone with Schizoaffective Disorder, I've been manic, depressed, and psychotic all at the same time.

A mixed episode is when you're in more than one mood state (manic and depressed at the same time), and rapid cycling is when you switch between them, as you said, from day to day.

But I have regular Bipolar I.. is it possible to experience rapid cycling with that diagnosis? I have never had this before, could my diagnosis have changed? I don't know what to do.