Wow!! This is totally cool! I didn't know there was a bipolar section in here. I'm really impressed, and thrilled in fact. Whee!!
Sorry, back to your questions. MOST bipolars have an episode of clinical depression before they ever have a hypo/manic episode. Exceptions possible, myself being one, but most do.
A person who suffers from a major depressive episode must either have a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities consistently for at
least a 2 week period. This mood must represent a change from the person's normal mood; social, occupational, educational or other important functioning must also be negatively impaired by the change in mood. A major depressive episode is also characterized by the presence of a majority of these symptoms:
- depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by either subjective report (e.g., feels sad or empty) or observation made by others (e.g., appears tearful). (In children and adolescents, this may be characterized as an irritable mood.)
- markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day
- significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain (e.g., a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month), or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.
- insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
- psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day
- fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
- feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day
- diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day
- recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide
Then, there are bipolar type 1's and bipolar type 2's. <Well, and 3's and 4's, but we won't worry about those right now. Technically there is down to level 6, but no one really uses those at all.> Bipolar 1 is classic manic depressive, in that they get full blown mania. Generally the kind that lands you in the hospital. < That is is loads of fun, BTW.> If your mania ever includes hallucinations, delusions, or psychosis, you are bipolar 1. BP2's have what's called hypomania, which is technically "little" mania, or mania toned down to it's much more fun point. <I've heard very few people complain about hypomania when it's euphoric. Euphoric hypomania tends to be a blast. Well, except eventually the lack of sleep does get old, your body starts to hate you...> So, symptoms of mania:
A manic episode is not a disorder in and of itself, but instead is a part of other disorders, most usually
bipolar disorder.
It is characterized by a time period of an elevated, expansive or notably irritable mood, lasting for at least one week. This disorder must be sufficiently severe to cause difficulty or impairment in occupational, social, educational or other important functioning and can not be better explained by a
mixed episode. Symptoms also can not be the result of substance use or abuse (alcohol, drugs, medications) or caused by a general medical condition. A majority of the following symptoms is also present:
- inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
- decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
- more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
- flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
- attention is easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant items
- increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
- excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., engaging in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)
- For some reason the page I quoted from didn't mention hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and psychosis as possible symptoms. They are there, I personally assure you. Not everyone gets them, but trust me, they are real. Really sucky.
And now, for hypomanic, take out the loss of contact w/ reality, and make it so all the stuff above doesn't cause severe impairment to your social, work, or personal life. That's hypomania. If you have the symptoms above, but it's just making you the bouncy, overly sexy, hyperproductive, slightly flighty, exceptionally talkative life of the party, you are hypomanic. <Incidentally, that's what you think of yourself, too. You are certain you are sexy, exceptionally productive and the life of the party. People just couldn't keep their eyes of you if they tried. *roll eyes*> If you can't sleep more than 3 hours a night on enough drugs to tranquilize a horse and can't form a coherent sentence because by the time the sentence is out of your mouth your mind has cycled through two different topics and is now on a third, you see a fox on the floor, hear people on TV when it's turned off, and just spent the rent check on new shoes, I'd say you were manic.
Then, there is the hell of a mixed episode. These are a special kind of horrid experience that sucks giant rocks and well... there's just no explaining it. Statistics say the vast majority of bipolar s**c*des happen when bipolars are in a mixed state. Basically, a mixed state is when you have the fun of mania and depression combined. My last mixed state I decided I was going to k*ll myself because the world no longer deserved my presence. Fabulous combination of depression and grandious thinking there. So look above, see what it says for depressed, see what it says for manic, take all the manic stuff and put as negative a slant on it as possible, make yourself as angry, irritated, and downright nasty as possible, and you might have a glimpse of the hell of a mixed episode. My one s**c*de attempt and one I'll call a "near miss" were in mixed episodes. I'm not fond of them.
I hope I cleared some stuff up for you! And didn't bore the pants off you w/ too much info.
ETA: For some reason, it didn't mention the total lack of impulse control in mania and hypomania. Yeah, impulse control is a thing of the past in hypo/mania. That's part of what makes mixed cycles so dangerous. You have the manic lack of impulse control coupled with the depressed desire to d*e. Not a good combo.
Shalia