Three disorders

That's a very interesting post, because for a long time I debated the same thing about myself.

I have very distinct high periods (which I would say match descriptions of hypomania), where I'm very extroverted, unnaturally verbose, I have grand ideas and plans and am incredibly impulsive. I have so much physical energy I just get bouncy. I stim a lot. I deliberately get into arguments and debates for the fun of it. I have unwittingly gotten myself into danger through overconfidence.
I also have low times where I have no energy, am prone to be tearful and very depressed. Times I just want to curl up and stop existing and feel very hopeless. 
Sometimes the excited mood of the high phases gets too high and then I become incredibly anxious and highly strung, very prone to sensory overstimulation but unable to calm down or focus on anything to distract myself because it feels like my brain is running too quickly for my body to keep up. That's the worst kind.

This can all happen over a much shorter timeframe than bipolar would usually occur- it could be hours or days at a time (the low moods tend to last longer than the high, and I will often crash after a high mood- especially a prolonged one- straight into a low), with varying periods of regular mood patterns in between. If it was bipolar, it would be described as ultra ultra rapid cycling, which I think is quite a rarity.

I didn't pursue that diagnosis- I don't react the usual way to medication that affects the brain (my doctor tried it when I was a teenager, pre-autism-diagnosis, when he thought I was just depressed), I have a good support network now that can keep me safe when I'm hyper and get me through my low patches, so it would probably just be harder to manage things medically than to get along as I am. And it doesn't all match up anyway- the feelings seem to, but the timeframes to me seem TOO off from what I've read about bipolar.

I am now of the opinion that it might just be an autistic thing in some way. Something to do with emotional processing? I don't know, I'm only guessing.

Now you've brought it up again I do wonder whether bipolar traits are a common thing in autism- I guess this is the place to find out! I'll be following the thread.

That's a very interesting post, because for a long time I debated the same thing about myself.

I have very distinct high periods (which I would say match descriptions of hypomania), where I'm very extroverted, unnaturally verbose, I have grand ideas and plans and am incredibly impulsive. I have so much physical energy I just get bouncy. I stim a lot. I deliberately get into arguments and debates for the fun of it. I have unwittingly gotten myself into danger through overconfidence.
I also have low times where I have no energy, am prone to be tearful and very depressed. Times I just want to curl up and stop existing and feel very hopeless. 
Sometimes the excited mood of the high phases gets too high and then I become incredibly anxious and highly strung, very prone to sensory overstimulation but unable to calm down or focus on anything to distract myself because it feels like my brain is running too quickly for my body to keep up. That's the worst kind.

This can all happen over a much shorter timeframe than bipolar would usually occur- it could be hours or days at a time (the low moods tend to last longer than the high, and I will often crash after a high mood- especially a prolonged one- straight into a low), with varying periods of regular mood patterns in between. If it was bipolar, it would be described as ultra ultra rapid cycling, which I think is quite a rarity.

I didn't pursue that diagnosis- I don't react the usual way to medication that affects the brain (my doctor tried it when I was a teenager, pre-autism-diagnosis, when he thought I was just depressed), I have a good support network now that can keep me safe when I'm hyper and get me through my low patches, so it would probably just be harder to manage things medically than to get along as I am. And it doesn't all match up anyway- the feelings seem to, but the timeframes to me seem TOO off from what I've read about bipolar.

I am now of the opinion that it might just be an autistic thing in some way. Something to do with emotional processing? I don't know, I'm only guessing.

Now you've brought it up again I do wonder whether bipolar traits are a common thing in autism- I guess this is the place to find out! I'll be following the thread.

Just to complicate matters I understand there is somebody at my local autism group who has been diagnosed as bipolar who is convinced that he is not bipolar but is autistic so who knows?