Were you Manic or Depressed during Bipolar Psychosis?

Question for people who suffer from Bipolar with Pscyhotic Features.

When kind of state were you in when you were experiencing psychosis? If you were manic, what were you doing? If you were depressed, what was the depression like?

I'm wondering about me personally. I've had psychosis but dont' really think I was manic/depressed at the time. I've been labed bipolar with psychotic features and another labeled me schizzoaffective. I understand the difference, hence my interest in your question. Because I was really stressed at the time of my psychosis, not getting along with workers, but not really depressed or really manic I dont' think. Unless you would consider me starting to obsess and research about the odd man I started dating as a manic episode.

Thanks in advance!

I was manic when I had psychosis: stressed, sleeping less, anxious, drinking a lot, partying, smoking marijuana, promiscuous, kind of like electricity flowing through me. The first time I was hyper religious and paranoid as well. I also had a mixed state where I wanted to just die when I was psychotic. I am generally not delusional when stable and medicated. The diagnosis is not as important as managing the symptoms that affect your life.

I think the one time i was truly psychotic during a mood episode was my first hospitalization. I was hearing music and voices, angry ones, calling my name behind my back. I was very paranoid too. Walked away with my first dx: major depression with psychotic features.

Since then most of my psychosis just seems stress induced and doesn't match up with an episode per say. My Dr has mentioned schizoaffective as well. But on paper I am labeled Bipolar.

z7z wrote:I was manic when I had psychosis: stressed, sleeping less, anxious, drinking a lot, partying, smoking marijuana, promiscuous, kind of like electricity flowing through me. The first time I was hyper religious and paranoid as well. I also had a mixed state where I wanted to just die when I was psychotic. I am generally not delusional when stable and medicated. The diagnosis is not as important as managing the symptoms that affect your life.

Thanks z7z!

I agree - the symptoms are way more important than the diagnosis.

-- Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:16 pm --

Thanks, Son -

Thanks for your imput. I wish you well !

I had psychosis once due to a mixed episode, but every other time, I was perfectly stable or depressed. I think it happens more when I'm stable. I only have the diagnosis of Bipolar I, but I have been told I have had psychosis, it's just not "on paper". Or... as far as I know.

I get psychosis when manic. By the time I get depressed the psychosis is gone. My psychosis is that I get false beliefs that somebody is chasing me and wants to do me harm or get me in trouble, etc. I took out a court case against some people while I was psychotic but luckily it all seemed to fade away. I don't always remember all the things I have done while suffering from psychosis.

I've had psychosis while manic, depressed, mixed, and stable. Basically off my meds I'm going to be a psychotic mess regardless of my mood. The doctor's that have seen me outside of a mood episode but not on an effective antipsychotic have diagnosed me with schizoaffective because of that, but right now on paper it's bipolar.

My manias usually have the worst psychosis because I'm not sleeping and probably doing drugs. My last psychotic mania during the summer of 2016 had me delusional--I thought ISIS was using me for biological warfare and I was going to kill everyone by spreading some virus I had. *Trigger* I actually attempted suicide at this time because of that and was running around the forest bleeding and hiding from people *end trigger* I was also very paranoid and was hearing voices. When I survived I "realized" I was invincible, but when I came home covered in mud and blood at like 2am I was taken to the ER.

Depressive psychosis for me typically involves a lot of voices saying mean things and seeing things that screw me up, like cars moving when there are no cars or moving shadows keeping me up at night. There's a lot of fear and feeling down about myself. It's been years since I've had psychotic depression, thankfully.

Mixed psychosis is kinda both. I fixate on this delusion, get paranoid, hear voices, see things, very anxious and feel like crap. It's depression basically, but sped up and with more irritability and impulsivity.

"Stable" psychosis (stable in quotes because am I really stable if I'm having psychosis?) doesn't involve the impulsivity of mania or the bad feelings of depression. I still can have delusions and hallucinations, and there's quite a bit of fear stemming from the delusions/hallucinations.

Manic and mixed, and depressed. All 3. This was before meds came into the picture.