I was wondering the same thing, about normal periods. As I sat down to write my next journal entry, I noticed this thread about 'normal periods' and 'hypomania after depression'. As my wife comes out of her current depression (severe episode 2), she seems to be tending towards the creative, but irritable hypomanic mood that I noticed few a few weeks before this crash. This time, she has restarted on lamictal, together with venlafaxine. Praying things will stabilize.

The best way I can describe it, is as a rollercoaster. Is a rollercoaster ever truly travelling on an even level, not going up or down? Maybe at beginning of the ride and at the end of the ride. Similarly, I think, it could be the same with life: babies and extreme elderly at end of life don't seem to have huge mood fluctuations, but every stage in between seems to involve fluctuating moods. In bipolar disorder, it's usually the intensity (and occasionally the frequency), of these mood swings that cause such difficulty.

The 'mixed' adjective used to describe your pattern, might explain why you haven't seemed to experience 'normal periods'. My suggestion is that you might find it helpful to reframe what you mean by 'normal'. I am no expert, but with a mindfulness-based therapy approach, you might be able accept that this 'mixed' state is your normal, and figure a way to optimise your functioning in this state. It's also possible that some fine-tuning of meds may help, but internal reframing might be your best option. But this work takes time, so be patient and gentle with yourself.