Potentially Bipolar

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I was recently diagnosed with ASD and am seeing a psychiatrist who also specializes in ASD. For right now I am diagnosed with depression, although she said she wouldn't rule out the possibility of bipolar 2/hypomania, but she didnt have enough evidence to diagnosis me with bipolar right now (its been a while so i couldnt remember everything). Ive definitely had brief periods (a couple days?), although very infrequent, where ive been way more upbeat and positive, and more social. Probably more talkative and outgoing too. I probably get more irritated and pick fights with my husband. But other than getting irritated/arguments, i havent really had any downsides to these episodes. I know hypomania is less severe and doesnt cause hospitalization etc. If you are bipolar 2, how do you experience your hypomania? Is it possible to be classified as hypomania if it doesnt cause significant problems?

Personally, I was diagnosed with bipolar. The pills made me into a zombie. One sent me to the hospital with anaphylactic shock. There is no telling whether Bipolar is real. The psychiatric manual they all use has been expanded so much that anything is considered mental. They are saying to me that it is super abnormal (mental) to feel happy and then sad, deeply, or maybe quickly. When I look at it this way, it just seems like they had some pills and had to "discover" a disease to use the pills on. Most of those pills are really sedatives. They are meant to keep you sedated so that you do not feel anything. Considering the horrors of the medication, the unknown long term results of most of them (some are linked to things like early-onset Alzheimer's, demyelination of the nerves in the brain. And the Psychiatric pharmacologist will try dozens of combinations of drugs in many cases leading to inability to work or function normally. But like they say, if you "believe" them, then it must be true. I was on a combination of pills including lithium for a few years and could not function at all. It is strange that I "had" this bipolar thing for years, was not on pills, and did not go whack-o. Oh-- the pills also caused horrible visual and audible hallucinations, and the attitude of the psychiatrist was "go on disability, everyone else does" and also "it's better seeing spiders crawling on the walls than being insane." So really the pills made me incapable of living on my own, which I had done (with bipolar) for many years before (30-45 years). How does hypomania affect me? I get anxious when doing new things but I consider this normal. I get butterflys. Fear is a palpable thing. I get into "cleaning binges," dance a lot and really like myself better. I think it does not cause any problems except when I get mad at something I do grumble for a long time. That does not mean I am "sick." That just means I carry a chip on my shoulder a while. Sorry, this is human nature. I think that Psychiatry envisions people as not having "firey" personalities, as well as being predictable and highly trainable. We live in a time when the process of education is to take people and turn them into "workers" (I have a masters in Education, and this is the honest truth) and so mental illness is about taking people who are different and using drugs to mold them into docile, tractable assembly line workers. (Keeps them from protesting in the streets-- which you noticed happened a lot when pharmaceutical psychiatry was not a thing). My views are unpopular but from a person who was (and according to them still is because this is a lifelong stigma) bipolar, I would say that you should resist any kind of a psychiatric label unless you are in fact causing (real) harm to your self and others (not imaginary harm).

By the way: The tests they give you can be answered in multiple ways, and each answer can be both sane and insane. Do you ever feel really really happy and then really really sad? How many normal people would say yes? According to statistics, Bipolar is the most misdiagnosed psychiatric condition. I do not think it actually exists, and others (who have written books) believe it does but is normal and should not be medicated because the medicine is worse than the disease. Here is a scientific article of the overdiagnosis of Bipolar disorder there are many more. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2861130/

I'd suggest setting aside the possibility of bipolar and working on your ASD first.
If you have ASD you need to reduce the stress in your life that comes for having to live in a
"normal" environment, which I assume you need to do since you have a partner.

This can be as simple as adjusting the lighting in your home and getting rid of things like noisy clocks.
Little things. But they add up. I enjoy movies much more now that I wear high fidelity earplugs.

This forum can be useful for identifying what causes stress. That bothers me too!
But, were are all different. Some Aspies like to wear high heels.