Medicine working or start of hypomania?
Hi all, I have been in a depressive episode for a while now. I realized today its been 3 months since I've cleaned my kitchen. I had friends over for DnD at the beginning of September and made a stew, and just tonight cleaned one of the bowls that was used. Its embarrassing, and I'm working on balancing self compassion with "this is wildly unhealthy and you need to do something about it". And its weird, because before today its not like I was unaware that the dishes were there. I'd pass them every time I get water, I just didn't care. Though for whatever reason I woke up this morning, and just felt really disgusted by the condition of my apartment. It wasn't just my kitchen, my bedroom was a mess, my office was a mess. The mess got pretty bad unfortunately. Luckily though, for the first time in a long time, I had the energy to get off my ass and clean, and boy did I clean. And, I had a feeling today that I either haven't had before, or have not had in a very long time. I took a break at one point and was playing games with friends, and while playing, I had this really intense feeling of restlessness, like "man I should be doing something productive right now, why'd you stop cleaning?" and then stopped playing games and went and cleaned more. I also found today that I just was in a better mood and was not feeling as anxious. I mentioned all this in call with a friend and they were like "well dude yeah you're supposed to feel some sort of drive to do things" and maybe its just hard for me cause I haven't had any drive in a long time.
This might sound strange, but its almost relieving to have that disgusted feeling again cause it actually motivates me to do something about the uncleanliness.
Now, I started on 20mg of Latuda on November 18. I had previously tried Abilify a couple of years ago but did not like it. I have been trying to be really consistent with this medication and making sure to take it with food. I have missed one or two doses, but generally I just take it the next morning when I remember (which idk if I'm supposed to do tbh). I know that restlessness is a side effect of Latuda, so maybe that is contributing to what I'm experiencing.
So my question is, in your guys' experience, could all this indicate the medicine is working, or am I entering hypomania? I would hope that the medicine would help combat hypomanic episodes. Previous hypomanic episodes have started with cleaning, so its so hard for me to tell. But this time just feels different. I know that I'm the only one who really can tell what's going on in my head, but I just wanted to share the victory of cleaning but also see your guys thoughts.
Posted Dec 7, 2025, 10:49 PM UTC