Different phases of Bipolar disorder.

Full blown manic phase: No sleeping, weight loss, talking a lot, flight of ideas (switching from none topic to another,) shopping sprees, excessive involvement in pleasurable activities, such as sex, inflated self esteem, grandiosity, distractability, anxiety, if left untreated leads to psychosis ( loss of touch with reality.) Once at the psychotic point, major tranquilizers have to be administered.

Depression: Sleeping too much, depressed mood, weight gain, loss of interest in normal activities, anhedonia, (loss of positive feelings), agitation, thoughts or attempts of suicide, if left untreated, can also lead to psychosis.

Hypomania: Talking a lot, little sleep, grandiosity, excessive involvement in pleasurable activity, such as sex, irritability, weightless. This is the phase that precedes the full blown manic phase. If treated with mood stabilizers such as lithium, won’t progress to full blown mania. 

Mixed Phase: Unfortunately taking antidepressants for people who have bipolar disorder causes them to have mixed phases. This phase has elements of both depression and mania, and enormous amounts of anxiety. The phases can alternate many times in a day, such as manic, normal, and depressed. This is called rapid cycling. Or the phases can alternate in longer cycles, which may be days or weeks. This can lead to full blown mania or depression if not treated with mood stabilizers such as lithium, Depakote, Seroquel, and others. 

And the most coveted is the Normal phase 🙂

Also anything that helps stabilize mood like meditation, yoga, exercise, good nutrition, all this helps the symptoms of bipolar d/o.