There is a wide range of bipolar flavours including bipolar I, bipolar II, and cyclothymia.The diagnosis differs from country to country and even doctor by doctor.
- With bipolar disorder, you aren’t always “high” or “low”. You can have “mixed states” where you experience effects of both hypo/mania and depression.
- Hypomania isn’t always a “feel good” thing. Sometimes you can experience anxiety, paranoia, or angry.
- Depression isn’t always straight-up sadness. Sometimes it’s the absence of emotions, or a sense that they are far away.
- Bipolar disorder can elicit hallucinations in the form of sensations, hearing things, seeing things, and even smelling things that aren’t there.
Having a flavour of bipolar disorder is always a unique experience.
It doesn’t make you any more or less normal if you experience some things and not others.
And it doesn’t define you.
You are your reactions, not your experiences.