What do you do when you are manic?

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I've cut my hair off, dyed it green twice, dyed it blue, guessed administrators' passwords on webboatrds and gone and changed stuff on the webboards and read the stuff they said about me in their private forums (and then crashed their convention), tied my hair in knots and put stuff like paper clips and elastic bands in it, almost set fire to adverb's hair, painted the bathroom cabinets, written all over some doors with crayon, painted the doorframes in a bathroom, almost drove us off a cliff when grabbing the steering wheel as a joke when adverb was driving, gone on shopping sprees with $400 of my Dole money, etc. Jack (adverb) thinks it's Celexa that made me do all that. He was worried about me going back on meds but now he's glad I'm on 30mg of Prozac. Because when I'm depresed, that's when I act manic. I'm trying desperately to stimulate myself.


I just got out of a mental hospital where I was diagnosed with Bipolar I and my doctor and several nurses said it doesn't matter that I don't have hallucinations or that I feel depressed and o the stuff to feel better,not because I feel better. Mania isn't always happy.

Yes, that definitely sounds like mania. I've never experienced it, but for years, I had a good friend who had Bipolar I. Mania is not always pleasant and it does not always involve hallucinations. It sounds like it can be extremely unpleasant - lots of anxiety, paranoia, etc.

Why would you be taking Celexa or Prozac if you're bipolar? Anti-depressants make mania worse. They can trigger manic episodes and intensify existing ones. These days, I think the most popular drugs for bipolar disorder are Lamictal, Seroquil, and Depakote. Those are mood stabilizers - they're supposed to help with depression and mania.

I'm on Haldol for the mood swings. Prozac because I have really bad depression. Another doctor had put me on Celexa before for depression not knowing about the mood swings, but I think Celexa was really good for me. It made me feel better, and get anti-depressed enough to be manic instead of just plain depressed, too to do anything.

try some form of meditation. it been shown to release soothing hormones that calm the brain down. it been shown to be just as effective as tranquilizers it has no side effect and no toxic reactions.

I'm on carbamazepine for mood swings.

My bipolar is quite mild and when I'm manic I stay up for days, eat excessively, I once dyed my hair red, talk to myself (or some imaginary person) and have delusions of how brilliant I am. When I have these delusions, I become quite hostile to anyone who tries to contradict me.

if your depressed or bipolar you should definatley be taking omega three capulets. its a natural antidepressant mood stabilizer.

I've been manic once. It got me into some really bad situations.

I became unreasonabely aggressive and tried to harm someone. This almost got me charged with possession of a deadly weapon with intent to injure (i think thats what it's called)...but thankfully the person dropped the charges.

I also went for a walk at 1am in my pyjamas on a different night. I walked for over two hours before being picked up by some police on patrol. I tried to fight the police off when they grabbed me but i couldn't. I was taken to the police station and put in solitary confinement (different from a cell as it had nothing at all in it and was next to an office so police could walk passed and check on me often) until psychs could evaluate me and my mother could come and pick me up.

I've also stayed awake for 3 nights and 3 days in a row as I didn't think that I needed sleep (and didn't feel tired). During that time I unintentionally convinced my mother that I was taking drugs because I was so hyperactive and aggressive. I smashed a few things against the wall and burnt my mother with an iron. I told my mother that I was going to become a doctor (even though i've left high-school) and applied to a medical school and of course I never got an interview.

I also thought that my mother was trying to poison me (i thought i saw her put some powder on my food) and refused to eat anything in the house as it was "contaminated".
I rang up my neighbour at 4am and talked to her about it and asked her if she had been ill lately (she sometimes came over to my house for dinner). She said that she had a stomach virus, but i was now convinced that my mother was trying to poison my neighbour as well and tried to tell her this. Of course, she didn't believe me.

and the grand-finale...I thought that I was psychic and could talk to a dead serial killer. (I was obsessed with serial killers at the time). I was convinced that he was living in someones house (in spirit form) in the same street as mine. I told my mother this, she of course did not believe me.

I thought I was psychic too! I had dreams that came true often, two about big international things that then happened. So when I had a dream about terrorists dropping a biohazardous substance on a city in the US, I made a new email under a false name and address and filled out an FBI tip form with it about it. Of course, instead of telling them I had a dream, I told them I had heard two men in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, talking about it, planning it. I sent it from the local library. The librarian stood up to get a better look at me as I passed by her on my way to the door to get out! I later heard of a librarian in Boston who was arrested for making a false tip to the FBI telling them of a planned attack on Boston, the dropping of sharapnel on the city and explosions in the air over Boston. Coincidence, probably.

i ran 8 miles away from school, have destroy quite a few things attacked people and banged my head against things

I could write book about that actually......

I actually have way more fun when I'm hypomanic compared to manic. I can tell it's coming when that little morning cup of coffee turns my mind into a pinball machine....thoughts bouncing all over the place. Suddenly the world around me is somehow more beautiful. I have a zillion and one great ideas, and I still have the attention span to follow through with them (I have eleven US patents). At work I'm motivated and productive. I'm organized and I can't stop cleaning.....everything has to be and usually is perfect. Then I get a wild idea to go on vacation....so I fill out the paperwork, give it to my boss, and that afternoon I spend $1500 on a last minute plane ticket to Florida to "surprise" my friend....I have no luggage, but that's okay I'll buy everything I need when I get there....and call my fiance from the Orlando airport to tell him I'm okay and needed some sunshine.

While I'm there I spend $4000 on new clothes and shoes, bags, hair products, toiletries, etc. This is the only time I am not overwhelmed by the choices at a clothing store. I have no issue with lighting up a bowl, popping some pills, or even doing a big bump of some white powder....event though I haven't used recreational drugs since I was 15. I want to go out, drink, socialize....

When I come home I suddenly can't sleep anymore......I wasn't sleeping much in Florida either come to think of it. I can't stop talking to myself.....I am to distracted to even prepare food. I can't even sit still to eat. At work now my productivity has gone by the wayside, and I'm so distracted it takes me two hours to make a photocopy of a lab notebook page...the ideas come so fast I can't keep track of them.....forget about actually making batch of anything. I might be found climbing on the tops of the lab benches dusting the shelves rather than working....I come and go as a I please....like leaving for lunch and forgetting to go back to work, because it's a pretty day and I want to go to the beach......or to the park to look at the flowers....

Then I get in trouble at work, for just leaving.....and my boss brings up that my work is suffering, but I still think I'm brilliant, and I have the right to do whatever I want. When she says I'm risking my job and livelihood. I become filled with rage.....slice my arm open with a razor blade, bang my head on my desk....or stick my hand into a boiling steam bath.

I leave work early, go home and try to sleep. I haven't slept in four days now, and I can't remember the last time I ate....I lay in bed in the dark, and am about to drift off into sleep, but then I'm woken up bu the feeling of bugs crawling all over my skin....I turn on the light and realize there are no bugs.....but there someone left on a TV or something...I hear voices and music.....but my TV is off, so is my roommate's, and so is the one in the living room....the noise sounds like it's coming from my bathroom sink.....nope, not there either....must be in my head.....but wait.... the sink is dirty...so it needs to be cleaned. So does the bathroom, and my room and the kitchen and the living room......I wake up my roommate because I'm vacuuming at 3:30am....she's not too happy....

When it gets really bad I get paranoid and frightened. I experience really bad derealization and I can't recognize the world I live in which was so beautiful a few weeks ago. A familiar traffic intersection is now strangely foreign....I can't recall ever being there. I constantly question reality. Everyone is out to get me, my thoughts are being broadcasted on the radio.....time for some Haldol and Ativan.....

So that was the most recent one. Some of the other things I've done while manic include shaving my head, driving my car over 130mph in a 55mph zone (lost my license as a result), dropping out of high school at 15 and deciding to go to college (that one I actually followed through with).....quitting a job and applying to medical school and also a PhD program.

I can say this disorder almost ruined my life, and may still, yet I am not on medication. I never manage to stay on it. Mania can be addictive. It can also be destructive. Yet it is the fuel for my creativity for which my job relies so heavily on......I can't let it go yet....just one more promotion.....and maybe another....

I laugh randomly and wildly when I'm manic, even if there is nothing to laugh at. It scares me when I do it but I still laugh. I also have this sadistic smile on my face which also creeps me out but I can't express my concern. Does that make me crazy?

I get hypomanic rather than manic. I don't think I have ever been truly manic because I didn't have any of the bad things to go with it like most people do. When I get this way, I get extremely delusional. I think I am on top of the world and nothing could go wrong. Since I am an artist, when I am hypomanic I think my art will change the world and I will become the next Wyland. Wyland is a marine life artist who makes millions of dollars and is world famous. I draw for 24 hours a day and have racing thoughts about how great I am. It is almost like grandiose delusions. It usually doesn't affect my sleep only because my pills I am on makes me so tired and have no energy. I have unrealistic thoughts. But the thing is I get more depressed than manic. I say 90% of the year I am in a depressive episode and the last 10% is when I am hypomanic. I am never in the middle. Always one extreme or another. I have been like that for my whole life.