The perfect bad ending to the perfect bad day.

[Denninmi]

4. I wonder what the difference is between hypomania and positivity/productivity?

What I mean by this is there are a lot of "normal" people out there who are go-getters, achievers, who push themselves and really succeed in life.

I'll use President Obama as an example. He came from not the best background, and had a few roadbumps as a teenager. And he overcame and has done profound things with his life. Harvard scholarship, editor of the law review, community activist, state senator, wonderful wife ( ok, you know I'm smitten from afar with the First Lady) and kids. And in a few short years he went from a state senator to a U.S. senator to one of our best and most successful Presidents of the modern era during an extremely grave economic crisis and under extraordinarily difficult political circumstances. The man just got re-elected with a significant electoral majority at a time when many said it couldn't be done, and a major factor was his political brilliance.

Surely no one would suggest that the President has a mental illness? He is just a brilliant man with killer instinct.

I'll make this analogy to explain my point - say our moods are a thermostat with a range from 50 to 90 degrees. 70 is the halfway point. Let's say that someone like the POTUS is permanently set at 80, no fluctuations or at most a degree or two up or down. Let's say someone with chronic major depression is permanently set at 52 degrees. Bipolar is someone who constantly fiddles with the thermostat - 88 one day, 54 the next. A rapid cycling bipolar person fiddles with it every half hour, up and down, up and down. Someone in a mixed state turns the thermostat to 87, and then opens all of the windows in January to let the freezing air into the house.

So, let's define hypomania as 75 to 85. It can be set there for a long time, but there is always the possibility they'll become manic and bump it to 89, or depressed and turn it down to 53.

But while they're in the hypomanic zone, which can last a long time, what is the practical difference between them and a "normal" person set in the same temperature range?