The difference
Hey,
can someone help me understand the difference between hypomania and general happiness/calm
i am 28 and have suffered from anxiety and depression, my anxiety took a turn for the worse recently when researching google. I now am convinced I may have bipolar or the milder form. This is because I have weeks where I feel calm and able to control my anxiety and then I will have a period of time that I struggle and my anxiety peaks again , I worry about everything and can’t stop. This brings on feelings of sadness because I feel so anxious.
typed up and down moods into google, it came up with bipolar, my therapist and doctor think it isn’t in fact are sure it’s not but I’m concerned they are missing something. What is the difference between feeling ok and happy to hypomanic?
any one that can help me try and sort my head out would be appreciated.
many thanks
@butterfliess11 I'm not an expert, but I know people who have bipolar disorder and who have had episodes of hypomania, and I've also read about it.
I would say that hypomania is a state of excitement that's so intense it's obvious to other people. That makes it different from calm.
An episode lasts a long time, at least four days, and there is no explanation for the excitement. When the episode ends, there's no explanation for why it ended. That makes it different from general happiness.
Guidance for psychiatrists says:
A careful history of symptoms is needed to differentiate generalized anxiety disorder from bipolar disorder, as anxious ruminations may be mistaken for racing thoughts, and efforts to minimize anxious feelings may be taken as impulsive behavior.
So it could be that an anxiety disorder explains your symptoms, but only an expert can really say.
Charlie