[simoneadams91]

I was just siting here wondering... when did you know it was mania and not depression or some other illness?
I mean what if the way we see the world is "normal" and everyone else is "crazy"?
I think I'm just having one of my episodes where i over think everything.

[manicminer]

I knew i was mania when i got so out of control my fraternity brother's had to tie me down and i encouraged them to add more restraints for "good practice". slipped handcuffs off my hands and tore through several layers of heavy duty trash bags to get out and go terrorize the neighborhood. the one guy's mom came the next day and could tell i wasnt right and got me to the ER.

[simoneadams91]

Originally Posted by manicminer

I knew i was mania when i got so out of control my fraternity brother's had to tie me down and i encouraged them to add more restraints for "good practice". slipped handcuffs off my hands and tore through several layers of heavy duty trash bags to get out and go terrorize the neighborhood. the one guy's mom came the next day and could tell i wasnt right and got me to the ER.

well, now i don't feel so bad anymore
i guess i just don't want to accept the fact that I'm not "normal".

[manicminer]

What is "normal" anyway. I had the same struggles in the beginning. then i started to just not care what people thought of me and ignore the stereotypes and bad reactions. just love you for who you are and that's all that matters

[simoneadams91]

thanks...
I'm actually fine now.
as you can see... my mood changes frequently.

[manicminer]

good to hear

[jk2833]

Originally Posted by simoneadams91

I was just siting here wondering... when did you know it was mania and not depression or some other illness?
I mean what if the way we see the world is "normal" and everyone else is "crazy"?
I think I'm just having one of my episodes where i over think everything.

For me it was feeling like I had taken ecstatsy,and noticing that no one but me was reacting the in the same way lol
Been years since I've taken recreational drugs wish I'd never now knowing the damage it does
Take care
JK

When I realized that psychosis wasn't something everyone had and just didn't talk about.

[espritlibre]

When I realised that I wasn't in control of my thoughts and actions - when I realised that I didn't actually want to do the things I felt compelled to. It was a frightening revelation.

[astone131]

I realized it was mania when for 2 years I was on a spending spree and doing it with other peoples money and credit cards. Also was doing coke every night. This ended me up in prison but I was diagnosed before I went to prison

[bizi]

well there is a quick jump between hypomania and mania. I think technically it is a greater than 1 week worth of hypomania gets the label as an manic episode. Hypo mania symptoms can be different for every one...you have to learn what your triggers are.
I can obsess over things and get myself all worked up, like right now, I have a terrible case of a staph infection on my face, I am obsessed with it. Driving me crazy...I have to step back and realize that this is temporary and it will get better. It hurts, itches, stings, I am a mess. this is only day 3 of 10 days of antibiotics 4 times a day, I wear a bandage on my face to hide/protect it but it only covers half of the wounds which are on my nose and left cheek. How am I going to work tomorrow????
bizi
The first time I was taken away in hand cuffs to the psych ward for being delusional, I was having an intense religious experience...took me along time to realize that I was just psychotic....

[Starchild3]

I didn't actually realize it was mania until I evaluated my actions over the past few years but I become obsessed over an idea or thought. I take that idea to the highest degree. I decide I want to leave my husband, rent a house buy all new furniture, party all the time then crash and come running back to my husband and live in unimaginable debt. My most recent (but more healthy) mania episode was deciding my house was too plain. I bought new decorative furniture, wall hangings, and scentsy stuff to make me feel better. I don't know how else to describe it except my thoughts become my obsessions

[ohlala]

Mania for me = a slow escalation over several months. Not sleeping, 40lb. weight loss, involvement in countless activites (painting classes, art exhibits, acting classes, political campaigns, meetings, travel, shopping, spending, starting an interior design business, took up cigarettes and chain smoked, got traffic tickets for speeding, hypersexuality, shoplifting, writing the great American novel, not being able to read because the words on a page were blurred nonsense, believing I had psychic powers, (at the end right before I went inpatient), listening to music and hearing messages that a spaceship was going to land in my backyard and "take me up"!

[Anneinside]

I knew I was depressed and getting treatment for it with a psychologist. Then, following a suicide attempt I saw a psychiatrist who asked the right questions and said that I had hypomanic episodes and have bipolar. Looking back I can see the episodes. At the time I just didn't know. I had seen several psychiatrists before and they never asked the questions needed to elicit the needed information and I didn't know the behaviors I sometimes had were important to tell.

[simoneadams91]

thank you all for sharing you stories with me

[greylove]

I had no idea I was manic. Not even when three police cars and an ambulance showed up to take me to a psych ward. Hubby and pdoc had me involuntarily committed. I was charming the entire week I was there, even when they put me in solitary confinement, under a suicide watch. Furthest thing from my mind. I still hadn't received a diagnosis when I was discharged, but sank immediately into depression, followed by another hospitalization. Sank further and attempted suicide. Back into a psych hospital with life altering injuries and finally a correct diagnosis. I hadn't know I was manic until well after the fact. Then I could look back and see all the signs. Chilling, to say the least......