Bipolar Self-Check (Not a Diagnosis)

If you are wondering whether you might have bipolar disorder, this page gives you a private way to think it through. It is a reflection checklist, not a quiz with a verdict. Bipolar disorder is defined by episodes of unusually elevated or irritable mood with more energy, so most of the questions ask about periods that stood out from your usual self, sometimes years ago. Tick what fits, read what the patterns can and cannot mean, and use your answers to start a conversation with a clinician. No checklist, including this one, can diagnose you.

Before you start: what this self-check is

This checklist was written for Willow & Stone in plain language. It is based on the symptom areas that diagnostic criteria use for mania and hypomania, as summarized by the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). It is not the Mood Disorder Questionnaire or any other published test, and it has not been validated in research. That is deliberate: its job is to help you remember and describe, not to measure.

There is no score at the end. A tally would suggest a precision this kind of list does not have. Instead, the section after the checklist explains which patterns are most worth raising with a clinician. For a broader look at the difference between a questionnaire and a clinical assessment, see our guide to mental health screening vs diagnosis.

Part 1: Has there been a stretch like this?

Think about your whole adult life, or your teen years if they apply. Was there ever a period of at least several days when you were noticeably different from your usual self? Tick anything that describes that time, not a single good afternoon.

• My mood was unusually high, upbeat or “on top of the world”, more than ordinary happiness would explain.
• I was unusually irritable or short-tempered, snapping at people in a way that was not like me.
• I had far more energy than usual and kept going from morning to night.
• I slept a lot less than normal, sometimes only a few hours, and did not feel tired the next day.
• My thoughts moved so fast that I jumped from idea to idea and had trouble keeping up with them.
• People told me I was talking too fast, too much, or that they could not get a word in.
• I felt unusually important, gifted or certain I could pull off big plans.
• I was easily pulled off track by small things around me.
• I took on many new projects, plans or social commitments at once.
• I did things that were risky or out of character, such as spending heavily, driving recklessly, sudden sexual decisions or big business moves.

Part 2: How long it lasted and who noticed

Duration and impact are a large part of how clinicians tell a mood episode apart from a lively week. These questions are about the same period you had in mind above.

• Several of the things I ticked happened during the same stretch of time, not scattered across different years.
• The stretch lasted four days or longer.
• It lasted a week or longer, or ended in an emergency room or hospital stay.
• Family, friends or coworkers commented on the change, or seemed worried.
• It caused real problems afterward: debt, a lost job, damaged relationships, legal trouble or regret about decisions.
• A stretch like this has happened more than once.
• At other times I have had periods of depression lasting two weeks or more.

Part 3: Context a clinician will want to know

These items do not point toward or away from bipolar disorder by themselves, but they change how a clinician reads the rest of your answers.

• A parent, brother, sister or child has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or treated for severe depression.
• An antidepressant once made me feel wired, agitated or unable to sleep instead of better.
• The high-energy periods happened while I was using alcohol, cannabis, stimulants or other drugs, or soon after stopping them.
• They happened while I was taking a steroid or another new prescription.
• I have a thyroid condition, or have never had my thyroid checked.
• Most of my difficulties have been constant since childhood rather than coming in distinct stretches.

Reading your answers

Because the list is not validated, the honest way to read it is by pattern, not by count.

• Most worth raising: several Part 1 items clustered in one period that lasted four days or more, especially if sleep dropped without tiredness and other people noticed. That is the shape of a possible hypomanic or manic episode. Our page on the signs of hypomania people miss explains why these stretches are easy to overlook.
• Also worth raising: repeated depression plus even a few Part 1 items, a strong family history, or a past reaction to an antidepressant. Our page on telling depression from bipolar disorder covers why these details matter before any antidepressant is started.
• Points to other explanations: difficulties that have been steady since childhood (attention problems often look like this), mood shifts that last hours rather than days, or high-energy periods that only happened with substances. These still deserve an evaluation, just possibly for something else.

Few or no ticks does not rule bipolar disorder out. People often do not remember their own highs clearly, or remember them as simply good times. Asking someone who knew you then can fill gaps.

About validated screeners: the MDQ and the BSDS

Researchers have built questionnaires that are tested against full diagnostic interviews. The two most cited in the United States are the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) and the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS). Both are copyrighted tools usually given in a clinic, which is one reason this page offers a reflection list instead.

• MDQ. In the original 2000 validation study, 198 patients at mood-disorder outpatient clinics completed it. Endorsing seven or more items picked up 73% of people with bipolar spectrum disorder (sensitivity 0.73) and correctly cleared 90% of those without it (specificity 0.90). A 2019 meta-analysis of studies using it alongside another checklist found summary sensitivity of about 80% and specificity of about 70%.
• BSDS. A 19-item scale written as a story that people mark when it fits them. The English version showed sensitivity of 0.76; a Spanish validation reported 0.70 sensitivity and 0.89 specificity.

Read those numbers carefully. Even the best of them misses roughly one in four people with the condition, and in the 2019 analysis close to a third of people without bipolar disorder still screened positive. That is why guidelines treat screeners as support for a clinician, not a substitute. The 2023 VA/DoD guideline suggests a validated instrument such as the BSDS or MDQ "to support decision making about the diagnosis" in specialty mental health care, and suggests against routine bipolar screening in general medical populations. The UK’s NICE guideline (CG185) goes further and advises against using questionnaires in primary care to identify bipolar disorder at all.

Why a self-check can point the wrong way

Several conditions produce answers that look similar on paper. Racing thoughts and poor sleep are common in anxiety. Restlessness, talkativeness and distractibility are part of ADHD. Intense, fast-changing emotions are central to borderline personality disorder. Substances, thyroid problems and some prescriptions can produce real elevated states that are not bipolar disorder. A checklist cannot sort these out; timing, history and sometimes lab work can.

If one of these sounds closer to your experience, our comparisons of bipolar disorder and ADHD and of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder walk through the differences. Parents of a child or teen should start with the signs of bipolar disorder in teens, because this list was written for adults and children are assessed differently.

What to do with your answers

1. Write down the details. Note roughly when each high or low period happened, how long it lasted, what was going on in your life, and what you were taking at the time.
2. Ask someone who knew you then. A partner, parent or close friend often remembers changes you did not notice.
3. Track the present. A daily record of mood, sleep and energy over a few weeks shows patterns no memory can. Our free bipolar mood chart is a simple way to start.
4. Book an evaluation. Bring this page, your notes and a list of medications. Our guide to how bipolar disorder is diagnosed explains what the visit covers.
5. Do not change medication on your own. If you already take an antidepressant or another psychiatric medication, keep taking it as prescribed and raise your concerns with the prescriber.

At Willow & Stone, the first visit is a 90-minute integrative psychiatric evaluation with Dr. Stacey Forbes, a board-certified psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, in Arlington, Texas or by telehealth. You can read about bipolar disorder treatment at Willow & Stone, or see the whole bipolar disorder guide for background on types, symptoms and care.

Common Questions

Sources & Further Reading

• Hirschfeld RMA et al. Development and validation of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire. Am J Psychiatry 2000
• Wang YY et al. HCL-32 vs MDQ screening for bipolar disorder: meta-analysis. Psychiatry Res 2019
• Vázquez GH et al. Validation of the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (Spanish version), 2010
• VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Bipolar Disorder (2023)
• NICE CG185: Bipolar disorder, assessment and management (last updated 2 Sept 2025)
• NIMH: Bipolar Disorder (NIH Pub. 25-MH-8088, revised 2025)
• American Psychiatric Association: What Are Bipolar Disorders? (reviewed April 2024)

This article is general education, not a diagnosis or advice for your situation. Do not start, stop, or change a medication without talking to the clinician who prescribes it; stopping a mood stabilizer suddenly can trigger relapse.