Rapid cycling feels like your mind is playing tricks on you. You are sad one minute, hyper the next, giddy, and then back to sad, teary, and wanting to hide. It's very confusing and it's scary how fast your mood can change and change and change.
Rapid cycling involves having four or more any kind of episode within a period of 12 months. These mood swings happen randomly and can last for days or weeks. Some may be much shorter or longer than others. These patterns of rapid cycling vary from person to person.
A 2010 study of people with bipolar I disorder found that mood episodes lasted an average of 13 weeks. 3 On average, people with bipolar will have one or two cycles yearly. In addition, there is a seasonal influence—manic episodes occur more often in the spring and fall.
Another possible cause of rapid cycling is known as kindling, or sensitization. This theory says that initial episodes happen when actual or expected life events cause stress. The person becomes increasingly sensitive to things that may trigger the cycles, and they become more likely to follow this pattern over time.
Others may only experience this once every few years. However, a small subset of people will have rapid cycling, in which the mood swings come fast and frequently. Rapid cycling is considered one of the more severe form of bipolar disorder.
Can rapid cycling happen in a day? Some people do experience significant changes in mood, such as from a state of mania to one of depression, in a single day. When mood changes happen this frequently in someone with bipolar disorder, it's called ultra-rapid cycling.
Rapid mood cycling can occur at any point in the course of a person's bipolar disorder diagnosis and can come and go over the course of many years, depending on whether they receive treatment. Rapid cycling is not necessarily permanent, nor does it produce an indefinite pattern of episodes.
Rapid cycling is not its own diagnosis, rather a specifier that defines how the course of a bipolar diagnosis is experienced. It can be difficult to treat rapid cycling, however, people may find benefit in talk therapy and tracking their mood.
Effective treatments for some patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder currently include lithium, divalproex, lamotrigine, carbamazepine, atypical antipsychotics, and psychosocial therapy.
The duration of mood episodes varies from several days to several months, with usually a period of remission in between. The frequency of mood changes (cycling) also varies, with four or more episodes per year classified as rapid cycling.
Stages of Bipolar Disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by mood episodes. These episodes include stages of depression and mania, but there are other stages involved in an episode. It's important to recognize the symptoms of each stage so your Mercy provider can help provide the right treatment.
Types of rapid cycling
Ultra-rapid cycling is the rapid change of moods within weeks or several days, as opposed to months. The patient will probably experience more than one episode in one month. Ultradian rapid cycling is a pattern in which rapid cycling occurs within a day or 24 hours.
A few people with rapid cycling bipolar disorder alternate between periods of hypomania and major depressive disorder. Far more commonly, though, repeated and distinct episodes of depression dominate the picture. Repeated periods of depression are punctuated by infrequent, shorter periods of elevated or normal mood.
In bipolar disorder rapid cycling is identified when four or more distinct episodes of depression, mania, or hypomania occur during a one year period. Rapid cycling bipolar disorder can be difficult to identify, because a single mood episode can sometimes simply wax and wane without resolving.
Signs a Manic Episode Is Ending
Slowing down and feeling less urgent and pressured all the time. Feeling more tired and getting more sleep. Being able to think more clearly, even if your memories of the manic episode are fuzzy. Making fewer impulsive decisions.
Detection of mania, or at least of brief hypomania, is required for diagnosis of bipolar disorder. This diagnosis is often missed or not remembered as an illness. People close to the patient may recall episodes, however, and patients who do not remember episodes of affective disturbance may recall their consequences.
People with bipolar disorder often experience irritability. This emotion is common during manic episodes, but it can occur at other times too. A person who's irritable is easily upset and often bristles at others' attempts to help them. They may be easily annoyed or aggravated with someone's requests to talk.
A stressful circumstance or situation often triggers the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Examples of stressful triggers include: the breakdown of a relationship. physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Lamotrigine. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) may be the most effective mood stabilizer for depression in bipolar disorder, but is not as helpful for mania. The starting dose of lamotrigine should be very low and increased very slowly over four weeks or more.
Racing thoughts involve rapid thoughts that can be fast-moving, repetitive, and overwhelming. They often involve multiple topics, move quickly from one thought to the next, and seem to come out of nowhere.
Obsessive thinking is a fairly common but rarely discussed symptom of bipolar. We look at ways you can take charge when intrusive thoughts take hold. Getting something stuck in your head—the catchy chorus of a song, a gruesome image from the news—can be annoying for anyone.
As I said, intrusive thoughts are not technically a bipolar disorder symptom but they are seen in many with bipolar disorder. One study found that almost 50 percent of people with bipolar disorder had intrusive thoughts of traumatic events.