Mania creates physical changes in the eyes and body, as seen in my manic photo shoot above. Looking for and writing down what we say is just as important if we want to manage these often out of control mood swings.
What bipolar mania sounds like:
“I’m cured! I finally feel like the real me! I’ve been living in a box all of my life and now the constraints are off and the chains of that depression are gone and I’m back! I’m alive and bursting with the real energy I knew was inside of me all along!
Life is going to be so much better now! I knew that depression was not the real me. This is the real me! I just feel so fantastic! I can’t believe that I’ve lived in the dark for so long. I am now living the light! I feel wonderful!”
This way of talking with be accompanied with some or all of the following symptoms:
1. Sleeping a lot less, but not being tired the next day.
2. More talk of goals and getting things done quickly. Super focused on projects and getting to work on them immediately.
3. Rapid speech, also called pressured speech.
4. Inability to see the consequences of current behavior involving shopping, sex, work due, the feelings of others.
Are you manic? Is someone you love manic?
Julie
PS: The words above are directly from my life when I was given Zoloft for depression in 1995. I then went into a very serious, suicidal depression and was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder a month later. For the two months before this diagnosis, I was traveling in China! I now use my Health Cards to manage my mania. It’s never easy, but it’s possible.
Further resources:
