YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

I had another account but can't remember the log in credentials to save my life.
Anyway, I went to a new therapist yesterday and he says he is fairly certain I have type II bipolar disorder. I can see it, and it makes a lot of sense.
What I'm struggling to understand is where I'm at on the mood spectrum right now, in this moment. I feel depressed but I am having serious trouble sleeping. I went to bed last night at 9:30pm because I just couldn't handle the day any longer and then I woke up at 2:00am for the day. Could not go back to sleep. My therapist explained to me that during hypomania I will sleep less, but I don't feel hypomanic right now.
Any insight would be appreciated.

I can't really provide any expert opinion but I do know tat I have trouble sleeping when I have anxiety (which coincides with my depression frequently). If you have that mix going on, I can easily see why sleeping would be difficult.

Caveat - I am not in the medical field but yes, absolutely.
Depression impacts your sleep significantly and can lead to lower quality sleep or inability to sleep.
just as some depressed people don't want to get out of bed, for some, the tossing and turning of bed is a stressor.

Lack of sleep can cause a depressed mood but depression can impact sleep cycles due to imbalance of hormones in the brain.
Complicating that: many but not all SSRI's can cause insomnia, making the depression worse, which some speculate is one reason some people don't do much better on meds, because sleep deprivation is awful. Fatal even.

saw your name, lattejunkie. those won't help.

Ha, yeah I know. My doctor has been on me about the caffeine, too. Some days I avoid it, others it feels impossible to get through the day without coffee.

I'm actually sleeping better this week, but man am I irritable still. I don't know. I'm going to make a new post explaining the medication issue but this is becoming crazy frustrating.