In bipolar, what is a mixed state?

Depression mixed with euphoria.

Cycling back and forth? I figured it ws something like that but wanted to know more.

You cycle up and down pretty rapidly. Sometimes it might happen over a week or two, and sometimes it might happen over a day or even several times in a day. Different psychiatrists will diagnose it differently. But generally bipolar is seen to occilate between the poles over a period of several months, so when it happens faster, they call it mixed.

I was going to say that the bipolar person knows where they are, but that’s not always true. Sometimes things change so fast, we feel like being on one of those hamster exercise wheels where you run and run and then you stop running and you still go round and round. Up and down. A mixed state can feel even more out of control than just being manic or depressed because you can’t predict what you’ll be feeling in a few hours.

If you’d like to try it, I’m selling tickets. Next time I go on one of those rides, I’ll let you go, instead. Deal?

@wundayatta Thanks for the offer but no thanks! I am trying to learn more though.

Thank you to both of you. That was a good concise question and recieved a concise answer.

So often when I muddle through threads it feels like a rant or an expression but rarely do I get a clear picture of what exactly is happening.

Now I have picked up in conversations and readings that there are some memory issues, is it just during a manic phase or does the memories become hazy or do black outs happens for extended periods of time.
Also do memories come back?

I don’t know about most people’s memory problems, but mine were related to the meds I took. They add fuzziness to thinking in any number of ways, but one of which is being unable to remember words, or getting fuzzy on things that happened. In my case, I have much greater difficult recalling words. Although that is confounded because at age 50, most people start having trouble recalling more words. But I never had a problem until I started taking the meds. And I’d like to stop taking them to see if my mind gets sharper again.

Or even manic. It was cool feeling smarter than people around me. Only time in my life I ever felt smart.

Daloon nailed it. But don’t get tix from him – I sell ‘em at half price.

I have mixed bipolar. Everything that was said up above about memory loss, manic one minute, depressed the next, roller coaster ride, I have felt that all. I think meds make me fuzzy. Sometimes I can’t even find a a particular word for like 15 minutes :/
I was just telling my new favorite jellie ;) not long ago that my bipolar is locked up in a rubix cube in my brain caused by a foreign toxin in my body that toxin comes in medication form. The biology of my body invades that rubix cube which has been locked by the foreign body aka the medication and tries to unlock the code leaving me in a zombie like state.

The result? I’m not myself. Who the hell am I? I don’t know anymore.

I agree with @wundayatta. I want to stop taking my meds. Because I want to become smart again. I used to be the sharpest nail in the box. I was proudly full of life, sleepless, horny all the time, mostly highs, with some episodes of depression. Now I’m dull, sexless, emotionless and exhausted. I used to be a vampire but now I am a zombie. I don’t even think anything I say makes sense anymore. BRAINS, BRAINS!!!

@nofurbelowsbatgirl I hope you tell your psychiatrist about the symptoms you hate. Maybe there are other meds that would do a better job. I know you’ve been through a lot just to find something that works tolerably well, but there could be better meds.

The other thing I’ve found, is that the side effects diminished for me. I used to have shaking hands, but I don’t any more. There were other things that don’t happen any more. My brain, except for the memory problems, feels pretty much like it did before. Even the mania comes, from time to time, but only when I’m around others like us. I meet with my support group twice a month, and every once in a while, it’s a manic night. We all feed off each other, and for a few moments, I feel that sense of life like it was before depression and meds kicked in.

@wundayatta I will tell him. :) I am on a high dose right now. I still have one more week til I see the doc. My mood is actually very stable. It is just very zombie like to me. I was always quick witted, smart, fast and full of emotion. I miss it, I kind of want it back, it’s who I was, its like being robbed of my iphone cuz iphone IS my alternate identity. Lol.

I’m away from home and answering this on my phone so please forgive the mistakes.

the last time I was hospitalized it was for a mixed state. I was manic and depressed the same time. In the same breath, I could believe I could rule the world and hate myself. I had another manic symptoms like little sleep and such, and I was very depressed and could hardly function. It was difficult to do simple things like wash the dishes.

in the hospital, I was able to get medication and stabilized.I was also able to get new medication and that has helped a lot.

*Hi Buddy – been missing you>how’s it going???!!!

busy. Busy. Busy. Job training. :-)

I miss you. Sorry – hijack.