When I have doctors telling me that my personality is not mine but is hypomania or mania I remember myself as a child well before bipolar set in (not till about 25 by current reckoning) and what I remember is an exuberant, outgoing, highly intelligent and incredibly talkative girl. Every school report from age 4 onwards tells the same story. So they can have thier opinions of what is "me" and what is "illness" and I can hapily dismiss them as bunk - now I have more confidence in my own "diagnosis" as I learn to live as well as I can with bipolar (after much trial and error). There are times when I am ill and I am too "up" but that feels so different from my "norm". It starts to feel forced and frantic, I buy things I don't need and get confused and irritated in supermarkets becasue of the sheer amount of choice. I cannot work out what's for dinner in a hypomanic state (too boring!) but at my normal exuberant and lively personal baseline I can cook, clean, take care of my child, read, focus and cook a dinner party for 12. This is what my latest Dr called hypomanic - rubbish as far as i'm concerned.