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There’s no denying the allure of hypomania, but there are risks to leaving it untreated. Here’s how to avoid the fallout.
Those six projects you’ve been meaning to get to for months? You’re on top of them all — and you have plans for six more. You are cheerful and creative, gregarious and engaging, and a multitasking master of efficiency and organization.
So what’s the problem?
There isn’t one, necessarily. But if you’ve edged into hypomania, there may be unwelcome consequences.
If left unchecked, hypomania frequently bumps from increasingly energized to out-of-control for those with bipolar 1 disorder. For anyone with bipolar, expansive mood often deflates back into depression, according to Cleveland Clinic. And for some people, leaving any mood shift untreated may lead to more frequent and more severe episodes in the future.
It can be hard to distinguish whether you’re hypomanic or simply feeling “normal” again after a depressive streak — especially when depression is your predominant mood state.
What is Hypomania?
The mood state of hypomania can be found all along the bipolar spectrum. A hypomanic episode — paired with one or more lifetime episodes of depression — leads to a bipolar 2 diagnosis.
Bipolar 1 disorder is diagnosed based on the presence of mania, but hypomania and depression typically form part of the package.
While hypomania is often seen as “mania lite” because it shares the same checklist of symptoms as mania, that doesn’t mean it’s harmless. Unlike mania, hypomania doesn’t cause severe impairment or require hospitalization, but it can still lead to impulsive decisions and strained relationships, and disrupt your daily life.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) defines hypomania as a distinct period of unusually high energy, an overly upbeat or irritable mood, and increased activity that lasts at least four consecutive days. These changes are noticeable and present most of the day, early every day.
During this time, at least three of the following symptoms must be present (four if the mood is only irritable) and represent a clear shift from a person’s usual behavior:
- Decreased Need for Sleep Functioning on much less sleep than usual without feeling tired (e.g. feeling well-rested after only three hours).
- Easily Distracted Losing focus quickly, with attention frequently pulled toward unimportant details or surroundings.
- More Talkative Than Usual Speaking rapidly, feeling pressure to keep talking, or struggling to let others get a word in.
- Racing Thoughts Experiencing a rapid stream of ideas (flight of ideas) or feeling like thoughts are moving too fast to keep up with.
- Increased Goal-Directed Activity or Restlessness Feeling an intense drive to take on more projects, socialize excessively, engage in heightened sexual activity, or stay constantly busy.
- Inflated Self-Esteem or Grandiosity Feeling unusually confident or powerful, sometimes in a way that doesn’t match reality.
- Risky Behavior Getting involved in activities that could have serious consequences, such as impulsive spending, reckless sexual behavior, or making foolish financial decisions.
When someone is experiencing hypomania, their symptoms don’t interfere as significantly with work or school, relationships, or social activities as mania does, per Mayo Clinic. However, impulsivity, risky behaviors, overspending, and relationship stress can still occur during hypomania and may lead to negative consequences.
If symptoms last for at least one week, include any psychotic features, or result in hospitalization, a hypomanic episode is classified as a manic episode instead.
Hypomania may be a transition into or out of mania — and often foreshadows a subsequent drop into depression.
Staying Aware of Hypomania’s Warning Signs Is Key
There’s no denying hypomania’s allure — it’s wonderful to feel wonderful — and, for some, the energy boost creates a fertile opportunity to get things accomplished. For others, however, the added sizzle shoots out in too many different directions or converts to an uncomfortable edginess.
The trick to handling hypomania is to recognize your limits, know your danger zones, and stay attuned to your warning signs.
“Hypomania is a reprieve, a little bit of the Energizer Bunny after being tired of being depressed all the time,” says Aparna Ramaswamy, PhD, a licensed clinical professional counselor in Maryland. “But it’s also an imbalance.”
Hypomania Can Lead to More Risk-Taking Behavior
Many of the downfalls of mania — impaired judgment, impulsivity, grandiose ideas, and a self-absorption that alienates those around you — can be present in hypomanic episodes, as well.
While hypomania has received relatively little attention in the scientific literature, researchers of an article published in Sage Journals found that risk-taking behaviors are common during hypomanic episodes.
Is there a “safe” level of hypomania? That’s a tricky question, given that early intervention can prevent future mania and depression, as well as any by-products, like overspending and unsafe choices.
If your pepped-up periods typically come at a price, your honest answer would be “no.” You’ll want to watch for changes that tend to precede an episode — sleeping less, talking more, increased irritability, starting lots of projects — and take preemptive action.
Keeping Hypomania in Check Before It Takes Over
There are a few ways you can stay ahead of hypomania before it gains control.
For example, consulting your prescribing doctor to reevaluate your medication can keep things from getting out of hand. It’s also helpful to have people around you who are clued in to how hypomania hits you, so they can alert you to the mood shift’s leading edge or, if necessary, make a doctor’s appointment for you if a few days have passed without improvement.
Of course, conservative clinical advice calls for treating every mood episode to remission — that is, until all symptoms, even mild ones, are gone. In some cases, mood shifts that aren’t fully treated can increase the frequency and severity of future episodes.
The Hidden Danger: Feeling Too Good to Take Your Meds
One of the biggest risks of hypomania is the temptation to stop medication altogether.
“It’s hard to tell someone, ‘You’re not doing well,’ when they have lots of energy, are meeting new people, and coming up with new ideas,” notes Tammarra Letbetter, a licensed professional counselor in Texas. “But medication should always be taken as prescribed.”
Dr. Ramaswamy encourages her clients to regulate their hypomanic buzz. “It’s not so different than fizz in a soda can,” she says. “You don’t shake it up, you contain it.”
Learning How to Take Control of Hypomanic Impulses
A key strategy for managing hypomanic impulses is building in circuit breakers for safety. Ramaswamy emphasizes the importance of creating a pause between an initial emotional response and any subsequent action.
“It takes a while to understand that you will always react, but you don’t have to act based on that reaction. If you buy more time through conscious intervention, most times, the negative aspects of hypomania can be contained.”
Nate A., of Wisconsin, who has bipolar 1 disorder, has a rule for himself when his mind starts coming up with grand ideas.
“I always wait one week before I do something about it or even talk to somebody about it,” he says. “By having that period where I restrain myself from action, I’ve been able to prevent a lot of mistakes.”
Finding Stability: How Meditation and Mindfulness Can Help
Nate created his waiting rule because he didn’t want to be known anymore as “the guy with big ideas who never follows through.” But he uses other prevention strategies, too.
Meditation is another tactic that has helped him better regulate genuine but unsustainable surges of enthusiasm. After about six months of daily, 20-minute meditations, he noticed a difference in self-awareness and self-restraint.
“Since that time, I have been pretty stable and haven’t had any problems with overambition,” says Nate. “I’m able to be more grounded in reality and think twice, even three times, about what I want to do before I get too excited.”
Channeling Hypomanic Energy Into Focused Action
Many people find it hard to harness hypomania’s overdrive because distractibility is also a hallmark of the mood state. Attention jumps quickly from one thing to another, making it hard to follow through on projects.
Letbetter recommends writing down everything you’re intending to accomplish. “Put life down on paper so you can physically see what you need to do,” she advises.
Once you have everything listed in black and white, notes Ledbetter, you can distribute your tasks more sensibly across the week or month ahead.
When Hypomania Turns to Irritability
Patti C., of Ohio, who was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder after a decade of symptoms, says life just feels easier when she is hypomanic. As a writer, she’s more prolific; as a wife and mother, she takes things less personally and has a better sense of humor.
She is usually an introvert, but when she is hypomanic, she reaches out to friends she hasn’t talked to in a while and looks for reasons to be more social.
Yet after a few days, her hypomania typically transitions into irritability, then depression. She finds herself with a string of half-finished projects if she’s not careful.
Making the Most of Hypomanic Energy Without the Downside
With help from medication, monthly therapy appointments, and a mood journal, Patti has been learning to manage her bipolar. She’s also learning how to prioritize where she puts her bursts of hypomanic energy.
For example, rather than starting to paint a room, which may not be completed before the mood shift tapers off, she’ll focus on her writing.
“Even if I don’t finish, I can start again,” she says, “and I haven’t trashed the house or inconvenienced my family.”
The Push-Pull of Hypomania
Patti isn’t alone in feeling more social when she’s hypomanic. Some people describe feeling more romantically inclined, too.
For instance, it’s not uncommon to jump into an exciting new relationship, but ties with those closest to you can fray. The end result is increased isolation.
“Along the way, social supports weaken, love fades, and the animosity of some who have been ‘othered’ increases,” notes Len Ramsay, a psychotherapist in Oakville, Ontario.
Both ends of the mood spectrum can be characterized by egocentricity: depression by inward-turning withdrawal, and elevated states by increased immersion in your own lavish flow of ideas and activities.
RELATED: Hypomania: The Misunderstood Mood
Ramsay says that as your pace picks up, you might start seeing others as slow or stupid, which adds to a sense of disconnection.
“It’s lonely to be faster and smarter, more effective than the people around you,” he says.
When Hypomania Feels More Agitating Than Energizing
For some people, hypomania is characterized by irritability rather than exuberance. The ramped-up energy that hypomania can bestow feels like too much to handle. There may be an uncomfortable sense of urgency, agitation, or being pent-up or scattered.
“I don’t get the ‘happy, happy, joy, joy’ that most people get with hypomania,” says Sheila M., of California. “The irritability is a real hallmark for me.”
Sheila eventually resigned from her job at a large research university because her hypomanic behavior continued to cause tension between her, her coworkers, and her supervisors. People at her workplace complained about her “acting mad.”
She talked about the tension at therapy and tried to become more self-aware, but the problems didn’t go away. In the end, she left her job before a formal complaint could be filed.
Building Strategies to Manage Hypomanic Irritability
After leaving her job, Sheila developed better techniques for distracting herself from her irritability by doing “dull and boring” tasks. These include counting, followed by calming techniques like breathing deeply or going for a short walk.
“I try to recognize my triggers — and also pull apart what just happened — in order to determine whether I have a right to be angry,” she says. Otherwise, she’ll just react, yet not always be completely conscious of what’s going on.
“Nine times out of 10 now, I can pull it off,” she adds.
Why Sleep Matters: Protecting Mood Stability in Hypomania
Sleep may seem overrated when you’re hypomanic, especially since you don’t feel fatigued — despite needing less shut-eye than usual. Yet it can be dangerous to rob your body of this important respite.
Getting a good night’s rest is crucial for regulating emotion, impulsivity, and risk-taking, as well as other important jobs, such as cognitive functioning. Healthy sleep has also been shown to decrease the risk of a bipolar relapse.
Research also suggests that sleep disturbances can increase suicide risk in people with bipolar disorder. A recent study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research analyzed data from a long-term research project to see how sleep patterns relate to suicide risk in individuals with bipolar 1 and bipolar 2. Researchers found that for those with bipolar 1, insomnia was a key risk factor, while for those with bipolar 2, being a “night owl” was linked to higher suicide risk.
These findings highlight the critical role of sleep in mental health, emphasizing the need to prioritize healthy sleep habits to support mood stability and overall well-being.
How Hypomanic Episodes Lead to Impulsive Behaviors
Miranda A., of Manitoba, usually gets three hours of sleep a night during hypomanic episodes, when she tends to become so engrossed in ideas that she can’t let them go long enough to stay in bed. She once went nearly three days without sleeping because her brain “was a freeway of thoughts all going in random directions.”
Her activities follow the same pattern: She tries to balance five or six cleaning projects while baking three things. She compiles multiple lists to help her get organized, but she doesn’t always remember where she puts them.
She’s also prone to spending sprees that have led to a maxed-out credit card and no money left in her bank overdraft account.
“While I love the productivity hypomania brings on, I can sometimes put myself in hot water,” she admits.
Learning to Manage Hypomanic Impulsivity
Now on a new medication, Miranda records her symptoms and daily routines in a journal and uses apps on her phone for mental health check-ins. She’s focusing more on feeling grounded.
“I put my energy into more productive areas now instead of planning what color I want the walls to be next year,” she says.
She also builds in breaks when she’s feeling revved, even if it’s just five minutes every two or three hours.
“I’ll tell myself to slow down, to take deep breaths,” she says. “Sometimes, I just text a girlfriend to ask how she’s doing. Anything to stop myself and get recentered.”
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
- Bipolar Disorder. Mayo Clinic. August 14, 2024.
- Hypomania. Cleveland Clinic. September 16, 2021.
- Kupka RW et al. Three Times More Days Depressed Than Manic or Hypomanic in Both Bipolar 1 and Bipolar 2 Disorder. Bipolar Disorders. August 2007.
- Harvey D et al. Lived Experience at the Core: A Classification System for Risk-Taking Behaviors in Bipolar. Sage Journals. August 5, 2024.
- Goldschmied JR et al. The Relationship Between Sleep and Circadian Patterns With Risk for Suicide in Bipolar Disorder Varies by Subtype. Journal of Psychiatric Research. January 2025.
UPDATED: Printed as “Flight Plan,” Spring 2016