Bipolar disorder is a serious mental condition that is characterized by intense mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows. Each "swing of the pendulum" is considered a cycle. As a person in a depressed cycle starts to swing to mania, he or she may experience hypomania: a less intense "high" that some people find exhilarating.
Symptoms of Hypomania
People who have experienced hypomania describe it with words such as exuberance, intense joy and high energy. Symptoms include the following: need for little sleep, high productivity, jumbling words and thoughts, confidence, and the belief that one can do anything.
In many ways, hypomania sounds great---high energy, high productivity, high exuberance. Who wouldn't want that! But hypomania does not stay forever.
Hypomania Time Frame
They say "All good things come to an end," and hypomania is no exception. Its symptoms usually last less than a week before the pendulum swings into full mania---a dangerous place to be. Mania is characterized by more than heightened exuberance and joy. If you are in a manic episode in a bipolar disease, you may incur intense anxiety, engage in extreme high-risk activities that can put your health and credit at risk, and abuse drugs or alcohol.
Sometimes people who are in the throes of hypomania do not become manic. Instead, they might swing the other way, into depression.
Hypomania and Bipolar II
Psychiatrists and researchers consider people with a more moderate form of bipolar disorder (BP) as having BP II; they do not have the extreme highs and lows that characterize bipolar I.
In most cases, people with BP II experience only hypomania before going back into a depressive state. They never become manic. Signs that hypomania has left and depression has settled in include anxiety, ruminating thoughts, exhaustion, and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
Unfortunately, depression is more the norm in bipolar II---not the hypomanic state.
What Makes Hypomania a Problem?
Hypomania has been described as a blissful state and some people claim they are more creative than they have ever been. Unfortunately, while you are feeling absolutely terrific, those around you are usually more concerned. Your exuberance might seem bossy; you might want to "take over." You have difficulty communicating.
Think of hypomania as a state right before "the other shoe drops": Once hypomania lands, it is only a matter of time before the other shoe---depression or mania---takes over.
Treating Hypomania
Because people who are experiencing hypomania do not feel that they are sick, they will not see a doctor. In fact, they will usually not see a doctor until they are depressed. If you have bipolar disorder, it is important to take the medicine prescribed for you to control your mania and your depression and keep your moods on an even keel.
You may not feel the headiness of hypomania with proper medication, but you will not have to worry about the swing back to depression---or forward to mania.
