Sometimes, when I’m hypomanic, I flap my hands. I can usually make it stop if I try, but it feels better to do it. Sometimes I pace, fast. I try not to let anyone see me do these things. I’ve heard people refer to these actions as stims, a term borrowed from the autism lexicon meaning calming repetitive motions. These are not stims. This is psychomotor agitation. This is Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys . It’s restless energy that needs to escape. There’s no treatment for it in particular (besides treatment for bipolar as a whole). It’s just another symptom, a sign for me to pay attention. A disappointment when you thought things were going well. Psychomotor agitation is embarrassing to me. There are a lot of symptoms of bipolar that no one can see from the outside, so I can pretend I have things under control, at least in front of some people. But hand flapping gives it away.