Hypomania is a milder form of mania, characterized by elevated mood, increased energy, and activity levels, but less severe than full mania. It involves a distinct period where a person's mood and energy levels are significantly different from their normal state, lasting at least four consecutive days. While it can lead to increased productivity and creativity, it can also cause impulsivity, irritability, and impaired judgment.
Hypomania and mania are both periods of elevated mood and energy in bipolar disorder, but mania is more severe and disruptive than hypomania. Mania involves significant functional impairment, potential psychotic symptoms, and may require hospitalization, while hypomania does not. A key difference is the duration; mania typically lasts at least 7 days, while hypomania lasts at least 4 days.
When I experience mania, I feel like I am observing myself in it, like I’m outside of my body looking down. My thoughts feeling hyper, like there’s a time pressure pushing my body into action. There’s so many other things I’d rather be doing. Usually it’s rushing through housework to get time to sit down and do a hobby. But it can just feel like I don’t have the time. Making room for gratefulness, how lucky am I that I tend to the space that facilitates our daily lives. My mania is usually triggered by trying to meet a standard I can never seem to perform. However, it’s not until I’m experiencing it so intensely that I can begin to slow down and realise. Even here, while my body stills, my mind can still be racing for hours with constant beratement of shame and worthlessness.
When I’m not on my own, I move slower. My partner’s slow and gentle energy calms me and I usually take the time to smell the soap mixes I’ve made on the dry laundry, wiping each dish and putting it away caringly. I’m up and down with it. I’m triggered by being scared of the future, trying to set us up for functionality during the week, for a successful day at work, cleaning, tidying, preparing meals. Tidy house, tidy mind and the more minimally we can live during the week with things pretty much prepared, the more time I’ll have to recuperate.
Life doesn’t always work out through preparations though. No matter how hard we try or how much we think we’ve prepared for every possible situation, things still and often do go another direction. Through moving slower, I hope to create opportunities to cherish moments, so that I’m able to create positive and moving experiences to remember and fall back on, when, inevitably times in life get tougher.
Getting up early also helps. Carving out time for myself before the day begins usually gives me the feeling that the free time I’m usually rushing towards has already happened, and I’m freer to tend to my family and my work. It’s that feeling of putting myself first. If I journal during this time in the morning, I’m usually more aware of what’s going on. It puts me in a more reflective space, I become more mindful of myself and others, and treat people and things in my life with more care.
If I notice my thoughts are negative during the day, I find myself manic trying to escape or run away from them. Keeping very busy and active usually puts my mood up, but if I’m manic, it’s usually defined by an underlying feeling of not being enough, and rushing around trying to be. I don’t move slow enough to notice what my inner critic is saying, only that I should keep moving to try and prove my capacity and worth. When I’m manic though, it’s never enough. No matter how hard I try or how motivated I seem to be, my sense of self is never content with what I’ve done or the effort I’ve put in. When I’m not manic, I feel slower, more contemplative and that i have more capacity the more slowly I move through my day.
Walking in nature, resting on a soft surface, drinking water and eating food all help. Eating whole foods gives longer lasting, sustainable energy, the patterns we expose ourselves to when we are out of nature regulates our minds and resting our bodies eases our thinking. Changing my diet to a whole foods ketogenic diet has been one of the most profound things that have helped me to create space between my thoughts and me. Thinking about how to nourish yourself also enables you to nourish others through cooking more for others who appreciate it and will inevitably receive the same benefits.
Thinking more deeply about things and writing to connect with myself also helps. It’s not necessarily checking in with myself, but connecting with myself and my values to move through my day from a more honest perspective, deepening my thoughts and intentions which I feel lucky that I can share and motivate in others to share similarly. Making real connections in my day is something I care about deeply, and writing on this platform, I hope, is a way to continue finding meaning in deeper topics that we all ultimately care more about, and are trying, in many different ways, to work towards.
In hypomania I struggle to see the beauty in things. My mind is going so fast, I can’t even work out what the thoughts are, but I can tell they’re painful. Gardening gives me something to project my thoughts onto, and make something beautiful, making the thoughts subside and my body consciousness to come into power. Even things as simple as just keeping on moving, no matter how tired I am, in the most steady way possible, keeping hands and feet busy calms the mind and I am filled with purpose.
I don’t usually mention body consciousness on this blog, I tend to keep it more logical as it’s a strategy that’s helped me in the past with psychotic symptoms. Yoga has played a big part in getting me back on track. I practised everyday for three years, and still practise intermittently once or twice a week, sometimes even just in the shower after a hard day, a couple or few poses under hot water with the smell of soap. Just a little bit has become enough. When I’ve had episodes of mania, I definitely feel as though my body has been able to take over and takes control in keeping me safe during these moments.
Thanks for sharing this. I do a number of the same things you do. I like to rise early, and I journal. If I find that I'm very scattered or unfocused or irritable, journaling almost always helps. I like to do it early in the morning in particular. My main physical activity is walking, but for years I studied akido, which is obviously a much different thing than yoga. Nonetheless, you're very centered in your body if you're doing it right. It can be a very meditative thing.