[yinyangmama]

I was wondering if you all have a theme song (or multiple theme songs) for each end of the spectrum. Mine: for hypomania, any Led Zeppelin or The Beatles. For depression, Nine Inch Nails or Alice In Chains.
Ugh...I am having such a hard time lately with rapid cycling...day to day it's either one extreme or the other. I have to wake up tomorrow at 5 AM to run a 5K and I'm sitting here at 11:30 PM drinking beer (does anyone else turn to alcohol to try to make the hypomania calm down? it doesn't work...)

[insideout]

no, it doesn't work. in fact, it makes your rapid cycling, more rapid and severe. unfortunately alcohol is physically addictive so withdrawals can be risky.
you might want to get some help getting rid of the alcohol for self medication, and find a mood stabilizer or other med that actually works.

as far as music, i listen to all kinds of things when im manic. sometimes i get a european accent and listen to classical music, under the delusion that i am refined and somehow from a royal family.

Moonlight sonata in d minor usually calms me down.
i like any piano played in d minor.

[Melancolic]

yinyangmama i like your taste in music.
Depressive; NIN, Tool, Alice in chains
Manic; Blind melon, Nirvana

[2bme]

ACDC for Hypo and Metallica for Depression. I think I must change it, cause it doesn't help!

[SmokeyPoole2012]

Yes I used to use drugs and alcohol to help my moods but all it did was destroy my mind even more. Prescribed medication from a trained professional seems to make a lot more sense to me.

I don't have any songs that I relate to. I'm extremely odd because I don't enjoy listening to music unless it's soothing classical. I used to like music, now I don't, could it have been the alcohol that changed my way of thinking?

[Trippin2.0]

Uhm let me see manic music - A7X, Coheed and cambria, Alanis Morisette, The used, FOB, Panic! At the disco.
Depressive - Creed, Breaking benjamin, Incubus, Kelly Clarkson, Alterbridge, Silversun pickups.

[yinyangmama]

I don't drink too often but when I am really hypomanic sometimes I do start drinking to try to calm down. Must stop doing that. I am on Lamictal, Zoloft and Xanax (the Xanax is just when needed) but I think my dose of Lamictal needs increasing, although don't really want to be more medicated!
SmokeyPoole what you said about alcohol and music makes sense to me.
I thought of another song I listen to all the time when depressed - Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians "Circle" - guess it makes me think of isolation.

[cocoabeans]

Music means different things at times, the same music. Maybe because most of my favorite songs are ironic or bipolar themselves.

As for alcohol, definitely done that! I've self medicated a plenty, there were periods where I was drunk, stoned or high or some combination everyday. Oddly never got addicted and have since lost interest for the most part. It is strange how some people become addicts while others don't.

I used to say it was the bipolar, my moods don't have the attention span to develop an addiction but, since learned lots with bipolar struggle with addiction.

[BipolaRNurse]

Oh yeah, we sure do struggle with addiction. With me it's alcohol and food......I quit drinking just over 20 years ago, but I'm still self-medicating with food. Having bipolar on top of that is just pure joy......NOT.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Latin music and the "hair bands" from the '80s, which are the types I usually prefer when I'm feeling great and getting fidgety (I think that may be called 'hypomanic'). In depressive states it's generally classical and/or country "crying in your beer'-type songs. Weird.

[Clinte89]

I know this is an old thread but I find it interesting. For me its almost anything city and colour Day old hate, and hope for now, and young the giant cough syrup of course this will change.

[Secretum]

Manic:

Depressed:

Just a few examples. I'm more likely to listen to music during my highs than during my lows.

[Clinte89]

Very nice thise i posted where my depressed songs ill have to think of my manic songs i know some of them are techno!

I usually listen to the same bands whether depressed or manic, but the song content/tempo affects which I am more likely to listen to... Though glam rock like Brian Eno, David Bowie, & T Rex are specifically manic music because I often imagine I'm a 70s male transvestite & sing at the top of my lungs. It's so awkward for my poor boyfriend. XDDD

Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright, Joanna Newsom, PJ Harvey, Gorillaz, Rush, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson (pre-mOBSCENE), Motley Crue, the Doors, Led zepplin, Christian Death, etc. etc.

[lovepeace12]

Well really sad down to death type of stuff when I'm depressed the really happy stuff for when I'm in hypo mood

[Rennerenner]

I always like to listen to music that reflects how I'm feeling at the time so:

Manic:
Crystal Castles - "Baptism"

Battles - "Atlas"

Death Grips - "Hacker"

Robyn - "Call Your Girlfriend"

Depressed:
Andrew Jackson Jihad - "People II: The Reckoning"

The Antlers - "I Don't Want Love"

Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - "I See A Darkness"

Giles Corey - "Blackest Bile"

The National - "About Today"

[Rennerenner]

That Andrew Jackson Jihad song is actually about having bipolar

[TashaAnne63]

Music!! I was wondering if anyone was going to post a thread for something music-related. Anyways, my theme songs:

Manic:
Sexy - La La Land by Demi Lavato
Overconfident - What The Hell by Avril Lavigne
Just hyperactive - My Brain Says Stop But My Heart Says Go by FM Static

Depressed:
Extremely - Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace or Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park
Moderately to a lot - Numb by Linkin Park
Just a little - Everything You Ever Wanted or Zero by Hawk Nelson and Blood Theme by Dexter

Angry:
Extremely - Monster or Sometimes by Skillet, Riot by Three Days Grace
Moderately - Diary or Jane by Breaking Benjamin
Just a little - Feed the Machine by Red

Neutral/mixed feelings:
If Everyone Cared or Far Away by Nickleback
Forgiven by Skillet
Beautiful Bride by Flyleaf

[BuggsBunny]

Bach's Fugue is D Minor(you get to pretend you are a mad pianist) and the 1812 Overture are great classical hypos, plus Supertramp's "The Logical Song", and a few of John Denver's more loud and fast songs. For depression, I generally don't listen to music, I watch disaster movies on TV - the kind where the world is coming to an end and most of humanity is ended. I always feel better after, cause my life is a breeze in comparison.

...soundgarden for up pink floyd for down...damn its hard posting from a playstation!

theres a whole heap of stuff that I want to listen to but I just cannot ...I cannot control the emotions it brings upon me and I tend to play it all over and over and I get 'the ear worm' for days and thats sends me crazy

Originally Posted by yinyangmama

I was wondering if you all have a theme song (or multiple theme songs) for each end of the spectrum. Mine: for hypomania, any Led Zeppelin or The Beatles. For depression, Nine Inch Nails or Alice In Chains.
Ugh...I am having such a hard time lately with rapid cycling...day to day it's either one extreme or the other. I have to wake up tomorrow at 5 AM to run a 5K and I'm sitting here at 11:30 PM drinking beer (does anyone else turn to alcohol to try to make the hypomania calm down? it doesn't work...)

beers loaded with sugar plus the alcohol intensifies the mania then the arse falls right out the end later. i still try though to make it work...

[Salmacis]

When I'm manic, I enjoy music the most - David Bowie, Roxy Music, Squeeze, 38 Special, The Ramones, Dead Boys, Sex Pistols, Cockney Rejects, Generation X (and pretty much any kind of New Wave and First Wave punk rock).

Depressive music for me is more like: Janis Joplin, Don McLean, Dan Fogelberg, Phil Collins, Cat Stevens...

Sometimes, when I'm depressed, I try to listen to my manic music to see if it will perk me up. Sometimes it does for awhile! Other times, nothing...