Post Views: 183,402
Views
Subtle changes before a mood episode are often easiest to spot in hindsight. Here’s what to watch for.
Managing a complex, brain-based mood disorder like bipolar requires self-awareness and a measure of caution about changes in emotions and thinking. After all, it’s easy to miss those all-important — but subtle and person-specific — “red flags” of an impending mood episode.
What Are the Subtle Signs of a Bipolar Mood Shift?
At the same time, becoming fixated on monitoring moods and overanalyzing every “normal” change in thoughts or feelings can sap the joy from everyday experiences and pull you out of the present moment.
As with most things: it’s all about balance.
Why Bipolar Mood Changes Can Be Hard to Detect
Given the very real risks associated with mania, bipolar depression, and mixed mood episodes, establishing or maintaining stability takes an everyday effort. That’s especially true if you’ve already worked hard to face the fallout of past mood swings and restore damaged relationships.
So, what exactly should you be self-monitoring? And what changes merit your attention? Here are the top features of life to regularly assess:
Subtle Signs of Hypomania vs Depression
Recognizing these shifts early can help you manage your symptoms before they impact your daily well-being.
1. Racing or Delayed Thoughts
With bipolar disorder, cognitive changes can be subtle or surprisingly sudden.
Hypomania and mania are often characterized by rapid or racing thoughts. If you feel like your internal chatter is circling out of control, your creative juices are flowing, or your mind is buzzing, make note of it and consider reaching out to your treatment providers.
Conversely, depressive episodes often entail a sense of delayed processing speed, as if your thoughts are “buffering.” You may experience increased difficulty putting your thoughts into words or following along with a lively conversation or television show.
Treatment providers regularly recommend mindfulness because being able to recognize changes in thinking habits can put you one step ahead of the next mood swing. One study suggests that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy could be a viable treatment option for those with bipolar.
2. Changes in Motivation and Energy
Maybe you’re feeling slightly more sluggish, and missing your morning workout routine is becoming a little more frequent. Or perhaps you’ve started taking on more projects at work or signed up for another recreational team or obligation.
These dips or upticks in energy and motivation may be understated, but if you can track a subtle trend in changes to the norm, that’s something to pay attention to and share with your support team. After all, a lack of energy can signal a downward shift to bipolar depression, and an abundance of stamina may indicate an upswing into hypomania or mania.
3. Realizing You’re Eating More — or Less
Oftentimes, when your appetite increases, it becomes noticeable after a while because you might say to yourself, “Wow, I’m really hungry,” all the time. But when you gradually lose your appetite, it’s not as overt a warning.
Any change in appetite should be seen as a potential flag. For example, research tells us that atypical depression in bipolar disorder can cause intense hunger, while regular bipolar depression might lead to appetite loss. Similarly, during hypomania or mania episodes, you might not feel like eating or even forget to eat.
4. Having Memory Mishaps More Often
Because they involve your memory, these subtle shifts can be difficult to recognize. Ask yourself this: Are tasks taking a little longer than usual to complete? Are you feeling frustrated more regularly?
- Perhaps it’s having to look at a recipe too many times or having to re-read the same passage in a book or article more often than is typical for you.
- Or maybe it’s not being able to recall the name of something in the middle of a conversation.
When these minor memory-based stumbles occur every once in a while, they usually don’t seem like a big deal. But when they start happening more than you like, it can become frustrating. So, if you start feeling agitated or annoyed with yourself, that might be a warning sign that a mood shift is on the horizon.
Research suggests that shifts in memory and cognitive function can sometimes indicate an approaching mood episode in bipolar disorder.
5. Sleeping Too Much or Too Little
Sleep can be both a trigger and a warning sign, as your circadian rhythm is closely linked to your bipolar disorder. Studies also show how problems with sleep are involved in both depressive and manic episodes.
Yet, bipolar sleep disruptions aren’t always overt, like suddenly sleeping through an alarm or not being able to sleep at all. There are often very subtle shifts in your internal biological clock that aren’t always noticeable at first — until they become a problem.
For instance, it’s easy to overlook a trend of delaying bedtime by half an hour a few times a week or gradually waking up slightly later than scheduled.
How to Track Early Warning Signs
Early warning signs rarely show up all at once. Instead, they tend to build slowly through small changes in your thoughts, energy, appetite, memory, or sleep. This is why keeping track of them can really help.
Using a mood chart, an app, or even a simple notebook can help you spot patterns you might not notice otherwise. You can track whether your thoughts feel quicker or slower, whether your energy is going up or down, whether your appetite changes, whether you have more trouble focusing, and how well you are sleeping.
A sleep journal can be especially helpful because changes in sleep are often some of the first signs that your mood is changing. Write down when you go to bed, when you wake up, if you wake during the night, and how rested you feel the next day. This can make it easier to notice small changes.
Looking over your notes each week can help you spot changes early and give you something clear to share with your doctor or treatment team. Rather than just feeling “off,” you might notice that your mood is starting to shift.
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
UPDATED: Revised November 5, 2021
