last updated 4/5/24
It’s NOT “a little mania”, as the name implies. It’s a completely different experience. Have a look.
The diagnoses at each end of the mood spectrum below are based on the presence or absence of “up”, overenergized symptoms. At the blue end, zero up symptoms. At the red end, depressions with full mania. The yellow-orange part is depression with phases of “hypomania”: less than full manic symptoms.
But it’s a depression spectrum, which means there are all sorts of variations in between the two ends. From zero hypomania to a little to quite a bit to a lot, and finally to fully manic. Thousands of variations in between.
Let’s drill down into this wedge to see what symptoms look like at 4 different points. Remember, in between these 4 points are many more variations (table expands on click).
Compare Column A and Column D. These are completely different experiences. “Subtle up” is basically a normal day with a little more energy behind it. Manic is, well, manic.
No wonder people are afraid of the term “bipolar”: almost everyone thinks that means “manic”. But it also means hypomanic, with all its variations, including the most subtle. A better term is “bipolarity”, as in “How much bipolarity do you have?”
There are labels for parts of the mood spectrum.
But remember, it’s a spectrum! Including a whole spectrum of “hypomania” all the way from light blue to dark orange.
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