Just had a quick question about the up's and down's of Mania. Is it possible you can get depressed still while in a manic state? I've got some experience in mental health, but I've truly never thought of this before. Story follow's as this: My now ex-girlfriend had a pretty bad manic episode about a month ago, then "maybe" was done with it and got in the depressed stage. Talked tonight could tell she was manic again badly. Is it possible that she was in a manic state the whole time?

There's something called rapid-cycling mania. That might be what's going on for her. Depression is very brief between manic episodes.

Bipolar can be just about any kind of cycle you can imagine, with variety all along the spectrum. So yes, but how does that help? Identifying her 'state' isn't what it's about. How she deals with it all is.

You are asking the wrong people the wrong questions. Impossible to explain the mental state of an unknown person to unknown people because mental issues, and behaviors are way to complex. The question to ask YOURSELF, is how do you deal with the issues of others, be it mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual.

Everyone has issues, even ME (:D)! So the history with your ex doesn't really matter but the thing to understand is you may never know the full extent of her issues so examine your own, and no how best you should deal with it. I can tell you from experience that some things will never be understood about others for a LONG time. I know not the answer you may want to hear, but sometimes there are no real definitive answers to complex questions that require a whole lot more FACTS that are not provided.

For now chalk her up as MOODY rather than depressed, or mentally challenged or MANIC, and maybe someday you can get the TRUTH on her mental/emotional state, which only a trained professional that has examined her can accurately diagnose, or even understand let alone explain. It really doesn't matter how many people you know that are mentally challenged, since your own lack of knowledge (experience yes, maybe, but knowledge NO) is to limited in itself to even know the real meanings behind the terms you have used.

They are nothing but LABELS, and is why in my experience, I avoid them a well as the people whose behavior I cannot deal with, much like your brother towards your father.