Marquis
Jack Dawkins
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2002
- Posts
- 10,462
Here are ways I use to tell if someone I know is manic. I can usually just feel the energy without having to ask, but this is a good guide.
1. Ask them if they have a history of mental illness in their family. Did they say yes?
2. Ask them what their IQ is. Is the number insanely high?
3. Ask them if they ever feel like they have esp. Did they say yes?
4. Try to tell them a story or talk about a single topic for about five minutes. Are they unable to follow without changing the subject?
5. Are they revealing unusually personal thoughts or details, being unusually familiar or colloquial?
6. Are they continually losing their temper and then apologizing?
7. Have they been sleeping less? Are they awake at unusual times?
8. Does fixing something cheap suddenly seem like a better idea than replacing it?
9. Are they starting a million projects at once? A novel, a model, a home improvement?
10. Are they spending money in unusual ways? Being very generous, making lots of expensive purchases?
As many of you surely know, I am bipolar.
Before I was officially diagnosed as bipolar, I was afraid for a long time that I might have a psychological disorder. Many people in my mother's side of the family do and lots of people noticed some strange behavior in me at times, including myself.
In any case, after lots of reading, therapy, medication and observation, I've become excellent at spotting bipolar people, particularly when they're in the mania stage. The depressive stage of a bipolar person is very similar to what is experience by people with unipolar depression, but mania is a very unique animal.
One common misunderstanding is that depression=sadness and mania=happiness. The opposite poles that bipolar disorder refers to don't exist on an emotional spectrum, it's more of an energy spectrum. When you are depressed, your brain is sapped of motivation and the chemicals that give you drive, when you are manic, your brain is overloaded with them. It is not unusual for manic people to be intensely distressed, or intensely happy, or intense anything. In fact, bipolar people are much more likely to kill themselves when manic or during what is called a "mixed episode" than when they are purely depressed.
This is one of the reasons that Zoloft and other drugs that trigger mania have been responsible for so many suicides. Depressed people fuck up their lives, get manic and suddenly feel the brash power to kill themselves.
I was put on Zoloft a while back and it was a very dangerous experience for me. You can read about some of it as it happened, in this thread:
Graduation
During my Zoloft induced mania, I did the following things:
1. Got into countless bar fights and tried to stab one of my friends with a kitchen knife
2. Threatened to kill my father, and tried to arrange a hitman to do it for me
3. Numerous attempts at unprotected sex with strangers, luckily Zoloft made me impotent
4. Ran into traffic as a test to see if the prospect of dying was scary to me, so I could know if I was suicidal. An SUV swerved to avoid me and came so close that the side of the vehicle brushed by my shirt. The irony does not escape me at this point.
5. After that, I called 911 on myself, figuring it was going to be called on me anyway, and it would be better if I did it first. Also, I had no place to go because my stepfather had thrown me out and my ex-girlfriend wouldnt allow me in her house. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.
6. Got into major arguments with girlfriend and stepfather, to the point that they would not allow me to stay with them even though they knew I had no place else to go.
During this time I ruined my relationships with the guy who used to be my best friend, my ex-fiancee who I now haven't spoken to in years, and my step-father, father and step-mother are still very nervous around me at times. I ruined my reputation during the last leg of school by being constantly confrontational, overly personal and generally weirding people out, making every contact I made in college pretty much useless, including an elite fraternity which I was subsequently kicked out ot.
Mania is like a high without a drug. It is empowering, intoxicating and extremely addictive. Saying no to mania is one of the hardest things any bipolar person has to deal with. I do indulge in it every once in a while myself, but I keep an anti-psychotic available for when I go to far and I have gotten a lot better at judging that.
The price for mania isn't just the crazy things you do and say while manic though, you see depression tends to follow mania in a reflective manner. The more intense and lengthy your mania, the more intense and lengthy your depressions will be. A few hours of mania will leave me depressed for a few days when I come down. A few days of mania can leave me depressed for weeks afterwards. I believe I was manic for about 2 weeks when I finally took anti-psychotics and stopped the spiraling episode I described above (which I truly believe would have lead to my death if I had not) and I then experienced 6 months of depression like I had never experienced before, and luckily haven't since.
Psychiatrist Kay Jameson wrote a great book about being bipolar called "An Unquiet Mind". Another book I even more highly recommend for anyone who thinks they might be bipolar is called "The Bipolar Survival Guide" and is available in the psychology section of any major book store.
Finally, when you are close to someone who is experiencing mania, it's important to remember a few key things.
1. They are not themselves. Things they say or do may frustrate you to an extreme degree, but you should really do your best to understand that they are not in control. If a manic person starts to share something extremely personal, it is a good idea to try to change the subject. You may think you are helping by listening, but you will save them great embarassment later.
2. Manic people need space. It is important to try to help them and manic people are often very social and talkative, but giving them the space to think can often help them realize that everything is not right. It can also help you, because you are only a person and even trained psychiatrists can get VERY frustrated dealing with bipolar patients. Most private practice psychiatrists will only take on one bipolar patient at a time.
3. Information is the most powerful weapon we have against bipolar disorder. Do research, and encourage others to do the same.
For more info click here
1. Ask them if they have a history of mental illness in their family. Did they say yes?
2. Ask them what their IQ is. Is the number insanely high?
3. Ask them if they ever feel like they have esp. Did they say yes?
4. Try to tell them a story or talk about a single topic for about five minutes. Are they unable to follow without changing the subject?
5. Are they revealing unusually personal thoughts or details, being unusually familiar or colloquial?
6. Are they continually losing their temper and then apologizing?
7. Have they been sleeping less? Are they awake at unusual times?
8. Does fixing something cheap suddenly seem like a better idea than replacing it?
9. Are they starting a million projects at once? A novel, a model, a home improvement?
10. Are they spending money in unusual ways? Being very generous, making lots of expensive purchases?
As many of you surely know, I am bipolar.
Before I was officially diagnosed as bipolar, I was afraid for a long time that I might have a psychological disorder. Many people in my mother's side of the family do and lots of people noticed some strange behavior in me at times, including myself.
In any case, after lots of reading, therapy, medication and observation, I've become excellent at spotting bipolar people, particularly when they're in the mania stage. The depressive stage of a bipolar person is very similar to what is experience by people with unipolar depression, but mania is a very unique animal.
One common misunderstanding is that depression=sadness and mania=happiness. The opposite poles that bipolar disorder refers to don't exist on an emotional spectrum, it's more of an energy spectrum. When you are depressed, your brain is sapped of motivation and the chemicals that give you drive, when you are manic, your brain is overloaded with them. It is not unusual for manic people to be intensely distressed, or intensely happy, or intense anything. In fact, bipolar people are much more likely to kill themselves when manic or during what is called a "mixed episode" than when they are purely depressed.
This is one of the reasons that Zoloft and other drugs that trigger mania have been responsible for so many suicides. Depressed people fuck up their lives, get manic and suddenly feel the brash power to kill themselves.
I was put on Zoloft a while back and it was a very dangerous experience for me. You can read about some of it as it happened, in this thread:
Graduation
During my Zoloft induced mania, I did the following things:
1. Got into countless bar fights and tried to stab one of my friends with a kitchen knife
2. Threatened to kill my father, and tried to arrange a hitman to do it for me
3. Numerous attempts at unprotected sex with strangers, luckily Zoloft made me impotent
4. Ran into traffic as a test to see if the prospect of dying was scary to me, so I could know if I was suicidal. An SUV swerved to avoid me and came so close that the side of the vehicle brushed by my shirt. The irony does not escape me at this point.
5. After that, I called 911 on myself, figuring it was going to be called on me anyway, and it would be better if I did it first. Also, I had no place to go because my stepfather had thrown me out and my ex-girlfriend wouldnt allow me in her house. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.
6. Got into major arguments with girlfriend and stepfather, to the point that they would not allow me to stay with them even though they knew I had no place else to go.
During this time I ruined my relationships with the guy who used to be my best friend, my ex-fiancee who I now haven't spoken to in years, and my step-father, father and step-mother are still very nervous around me at times. I ruined my reputation during the last leg of school by being constantly confrontational, overly personal and generally weirding people out, making every contact I made in college pretty much useless, including an elite fraternity which I was subsequently kicked out ot.
Mania is like a high without a drug. It is empowering, intoxicating and extremely addictive. Saying no to mania is one of the hardest things any bipolar person has to deal with. I do indulge in it every once in a while myself, but I keep an anti-psychotic available for when I go to far and I have gotten a lot better at judging that.
The price for mania isn't just the crazy things you do and say while manic though, you see depression tends to follow mania in a reflective manner. The more intense and lengthy your mania, the more intense and lengthy your depressions will be. A few hours of mania will leave me depressed for a few days when I come down. A few days of mania can leave me depressed for weeks afterwards. I believe I was manic for about 2 weeks when I finally took anti-psychotics and stopped the spiraling episode I described above (which I truly believe would have lead to my death if I had not) and I then experienced 6 months of depression like I had never experienced before, and luckily haven't since.
Psychiatrist Kay Jameson wrote a great book about being bipolar called "An Unquiet Mind". Another book I even more highly recommend for anyone who thinks they might be bipolar is called "The Bipolar Survival Guide" and is available in the psychology section of any major book store.
Finally, when you are close to someone who is experiencing mania, it's important to remember a few key things.
1. They are not themselves. Things they say or do may frustrate you to an extreme degree, but you should really do your best to understand that they are not in control. If a manic person starts to share something extremely personal, it is a good idea to try to change the subject. You may think you are helping by listening, but you will save them great embarassment later.
2. Manic people need space. It is important to try to help them and manic people are often very social and talkative, but giving them the space to think can often help them realize that everything is not right. It can also help you, because you are only a person and even trained psychiatrists can get VERY frustrated dealing with bipolar patients. Most private practice psychiatrists will only take on one bipolar patient at a time.
3. Information is the most powerful weapon we have against bipolar disorder. Do research, and encourage others to do the same.
For more info click here
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