I stop eating as well, and can lose as much as 5 pounds each week until the episode cycles. I can become very impatient, aggressive, and generally unpleasant, which is not by choice and a source of embarrassment and shame. I can speak and understand Japanese and Korean (I studied both, a while ago), which is no longer easy when I'm not manic. I make a lot of lists to name and prioritize tasks, strategies, and plans. I once wrote that lists were a harbinger of mania.

Another manic trait I thought I'd mention because I hadn't heard of it in others is compulsive crisis prepping.

I live in a catastrophically overpopulated and unsustainable part of the most remote inhabited archipelago on the planet, and when I go high side I can't stop thinking about the day that the ships stop coming. We depend on nearly everything from across thousands of miles of ocean and we're all a day from empty supermarket shelves, we're surrounded by high-value strategic military assets (targets), our police, hospitals, utilities and emergency medical services could easily become overwhelmed in a crisis, and 99.99% of the population hasn't recognized these circumstances or made preparations. They'll glut Costco to buy cases of bottled water at the approach of a significant hurricane, but that's about it. I such complete and widespread normalcy bias is a strong confirmation that things are indeed a bit stupider around here.