Bipolar is sometimes misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder, because the mania doesn't seem like a problem. Who doesn't want to feel more productive and on top of the world? I know I've failed to recognize a manic episode, and wow did I end up paying the price when the pendulum swung the other way.
To be clear, the feeling of being on top of the world and superhuman is hypomania, and not full blown mania (hypo indicating "less than" mania), which from my experience, is far and away worse than the depressive episodes. Don't get me wrong, depression is bad and you can literally end up dead from it. Not going to minimize that.
But the mania I've experienced? Watch out. Buying things you don't need, quitting jobs you need desperately, ending relationships on a whim, engaging in random sex, random drug use, not sleeping ever.
And if that weren't enough then there's the paranoia and delusions. The government is out to get me kind of stuff. The "I'm the second coming of God" kind of delusions. The CIA installed microchips in my cats and they're using them to spy on me kind of paranoia. That plus the sensitivity to light and sounds. I had to take the batteries out of my smoke detectors because the tiny LED felt like a spot light at night, watching me like the Eye of Sauron.
And if I haven't burned every bridge I've ever made, earned the scorn of everyone whose ever loved me, and spent every cent I've ever earned, I can consider myself lucky for not ending up in jail or an institution. The hospital is a whole different level of fun when you're susceptible to the idea that there's a conspiracy against you.
So yeah, while depression is bad and hypo-mania is fun sometimes, full blown mania isn't something I would wish on my worst enemy. It's the devil incarnate as far as I'm concerned.
From my own experience I failed to recognize a hypomanic episode until it was far too late because I felt great and didn't realize something was wrong.
It ended with one of the most severe manic/mixed episodes I've ever experienced. It was one of those experiences you hear can happen to BP patients, but you don't believe can happen to you until it does.
When I finally snapped out of it, I was pretty damn shaken up about what had happened, and probably for the first time I came to terms with how dangerous this disorder can be.
So I agree, I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone
Which, unrelatedly, always confused me. "Hypo" in medicine usually means "a dangerous lack of something"--hypoxia, hypothyroid--not "too much of something, but not way too much." The first time I heard "hypomania," I assumed it meant depression! It seems like "semi-manic" or something along those lines would have been clearer.