With me, it starts with a rush of energy. Suddenly I'm ready to take on the world......I run around doing all sorts of tasks that I've neglected, volunteer for projects I'd never do in my right mind, stay up half the night on my tablet posting stuff on the Internet, spend too much money, talk too loud and fast, etc.

I also wear clothes that are more splashy and colorful than my usual attire and experiment more with makeup. Unfortunately, I don't recognize the mania when it begins, so I'm usually well into the episode before I know anything's wrong. One time last summer, I bounced into my pdoc's office wearing blue eyeshadow and a bright gypsy skirt, and the first thing he asked me was "Are we manic today?" Of course, I tried to BS my way through that appointment, but he didn't buy the act, and I wound up on an antipsychotic for a few months.

Also unfortunately, I enjoy my highs a little too much and yearn for them when I'm down, as I was recently. So I asked for an increase in the tiny dose of Celexa I take in the hope of kick-starting myself out of the depression, and his answer was "I know what you want, and NO". The man knows me entirely too well, LOL! I did get an increase in Lamictal which seems to have done the job, but of course it wasn't enough to switch me into a high.....and that, of course, is how it's supposed to work. I know that. But sometimes, the absence of "wow" gets me to wishing for that incredible feeling of limitless possibilities to come back.