When I'm feeling hypomanic I start thinking of everything I can do.

I start a marathon of baking, cleaning, knitting, spending money on eBay, posting nude pics anonymously online (thankfully I never figured out how to start a cam business like I planned once), pulling out my hair like mad, and putting PostIt notes all over the place. And of course classic not sleeping much.

Ooh and making lists and posts online! Like this one because I'm feeling awesome and I just baked like three desserts and I cleaned and nothing can stop me.

[A Red Panda]

I clean/do housetasks.
I have multiplies things on the go in my classroom.
I'll spend more time on hobbies even if it's only for a day or so.
I'll take or make any opportunity I can to go out and drink.

Basically anything that keeps me on the go. I'll skip eating and not be able to sleep.

[Skittles56]

Make myself believe that I am more creative and talented than I am. Start new businesses (3 in the last 3 years) and then let them die. Behave arrogantly toward others who I have convinced myself are inferior to me. Believe that I am the only person in the world who is always right. Act out irresponsible sexuality. Run up my credit cards buying stuff to either indulge in my creative fantasies or just because I want more "stuff." Abandon my family. Road rage. People rage. Violence against inanimate objects. Verbal abuse of friends and family. Violence against other people. That last has only happened once, thank God. And doing all of this on about 4 hours of sleep per night.

Mania scares the $#!^ out of me.

[deelooted]

I start a new identity and blog that ends up being deleted, I join some new group that is spiritual in nature because I now believe I am enlightened and must help everyone else get the same, I spend $300 or more on my wife in jewelry (the only one of may manic moves she likes!), I drive around the freeways like I am in Mad Max, I start smoking copious amounts of marijuana until I begin hallucinating, I walk for hours around the park, I pace back and forth in my living room, I throw away my medications, and start to throw out old clothe, yell at everyone in the grocery store, having visions of wreaking havoc by tossing shopping carts and goods, I scream at my mom, I laugh to myself all the time, I cook up a storm after spending way too much on sirloin cuts of meat I cannot afford, go and buy stuff at the thrift shop I don't really need, fuel my mania with more marijuana, fight the urge to drink alcohol (if I did, my wife would leave me), change my mobile phone number after smashing my current phone to bits, I surf the web for 7 hours straight, I stay up until the wee hours of the morning, sleep for a few hours and then get back online, and write things on the blog I am creating at the time as if it were the most important thing in my life, take thousands of photos for the blog that I think is going to make me rich with an automatic money making system, and my favorite one of all- read the Bible and believe that only I can understand what it says and then go tell other Christians that they are blind to the real teachings of Christ.

Thanks for starting this thread LaLaLa, oh what fun to find the similarities in us all!

It's good that you mentioned religion, Delooted! One time I was reading a book about Islam and I went into an episode and I read everything I could about Islam and read the Koran and reciting religious lines in Arabic and almost flat out converted to Islam. And then my episode was over and I never spoke to anyone about any of this...

[BipolaRNurse]

I have this way of applying for jobs that I'd never have the guts to go for in my stable periods---I get to thinking I'm all that and I can do ANYTHING! I start ten different projects and complete none of them because I can't focus, clean everything that isn't red hot or running for the exits, stay up most of the night sharing my infinite wit and wisdom on the Internet, get into shouting matches with strangers on the road, talk and can't shut up, WRITE and can't shut up, don't eat, don't sleep, don't care.

I pick fights with family members, get paranoid ("they just don't want me to have any fun!!"), can't concentrate any longer than a bird can stay on one telephone pole. I bounce off the walls, can't stay still, wiggle around like I've got the St. Vitus' dance, and enjoy absolutely EVERYTHING too much.

And that's just the beginning......I guess the trouble with me is that I have more manic episodes than depressive ones, while most people have the opposite patterns. I'm friends with a couple of BP women who've only had a handful of hypomanic episodes in their entire lives, but spend something like 8 months out of every year in a depressive state in between stable periods.

Whew, I couldn't even imagine being depressed that much of the time......I'd probably have given up on life years ago.

[lawrenman]

I'm glad people here are sharing some of their thoughts on the crazy crap they did while manic.

Here is the lesson to be learned. You can do some pretty amazing stuff while high on crack but most people won't understand what you are doing. Unfortunately your own mind will also give up understanding what you are doing. I say "crack" because that is probably the most similar drug to mania on the planet. Not that I have experience with it because I don't LOL. Unfortunately the physical effects are lethal at times as well.

Anyway, IMO if you want to be happy while manic you have to learn to control your actions. Your mind already is relying on its decision making process to decide everything once you are full blown manic as it won't leave anything up to your subconscious. Overall, if you can teach yourself to sleep it will allow your subconscious to take over some things again with what it has learned from your conscious state.

Also, CMON folks...be nice. You may be able to think a bit clearer because you are relying on your decision making part of your mind to do everything...but that doesn't make you a better person. It just makes you different.

If you could take the mind of a manic, mix with the mind of saint, and finish off with a superhuman ability to memorize...well you might just be a savior when the time in your life calls for it.

Use your abilities to make the world better...my God does it need it.

[lawrenman]

I guess my best stories of when I was manic...

Making my therapist so confused (or possibly scared) he couldn't schedule an appointment to get me into a mental hospital. I find that if I start trying to decide everything for them they turn into bumbling idiots. Not cool.

My sister got me some yogurt from the cafeteria. My mind started making comparisons with the forbidden apple when I got to the fruit at the bottom. My stomach turned to knots.

I pretty much told the mental hospital what I wanted to eat. Which is for the most part anything that was not altered in any way. Stuff like hard boiled eggs.

I remember reading a newspaper. I actually read a story about how the world was falling apart and technology all over the world was failing. Yet they were still linking the ability to fix people's problems with wireless devices. It made me sick. However, this was not a story I was reading. I had imagined the whole thing.

There was this lady whom was seriously mentally gone. She babbled some coherent thoughts but most of the time it was complete junk. I guess I felt bad for her condition. I started to believe she was Mother Mary and had been living in this condition for thousands of years. I started to believe that if I didn't end her life she would consume so much waste that it would literally blow up the world when she went poo. I kid you not. I kept asking how does this lady go to the bathroom? I just figured she had it all inside her and she was not allowed to eat much.

Mentally insane. That was me

[Travelinglady]

I'm Bipolar II and my mania basically consists of laughing, joking, feeling really good, not being able to stop talking, and doing, doing, doing. I could use a bit of that now, since doing involves cleaning house.

[moremi]

I get the going going going. Sometimes I get angry because I am so bored. Its like everything and everyone are in slow motion and I just cant stand it. I spend money foolishly but after we are out of the whole everyone looks around and loves what I have done to our home. I have wrote long letters to people with full belief that I had just all of a sudden knew the answer to everything. One time I felt like I had the ability to feel the emotions of everyone I came in contact with. Another time I felt like I was not in control of myself that I was just watching everything that was going on. At one point I felt as though I were watching a movie through my eyes. Weird? Well everything makes complete and total sense at the time. I actually am much smarter and more creative while manic. I do wreckless things though without a thought of consequence...

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[avlady]

I used to pace the floors in my manic states, i never knew i was able to sit down, then I did, boy what a rush!!!Now I am a lazy ***, but do go on my manic affairs where I have to do everything at once too.

Damnit I keep thinking of things after. Sometimes I think I'm god and can control the weather and things only happen because I let them happen and the world only exists in my scope.

[lawrenman]

lala...

I'd suggest you try to calm down and get some rest. If you find yourself unable to calm down I'd suggest you call someone for help. Have you slept recently?

Sometimes your mind speeds up so fast that either you feel you cannot control it, or you feel you can control everything. Its crazy to think that it can be doing those two things at once but seriously it can.

I'd suggest you work on making your mind slow down...take a peaceful walk where you try to control your breathing and sweating. Soak up some sun. Eat some food that requires some slow digestion like protein or complex carbs. Relax yourself as best you can.

[BlueInanna]

This thread is more of a reflection on what it's like to be hypo/manic right? I don't think Lalala is currently in a torturous mania - so sorry if you are...

I'm currently hypo and I don't care I love it! Except Monday mornings like now I hate Mondays and when I've had to take so much med to sleep and get to work and sit here at my desk like a grumpy sleep med hangover zombie... waiting for caffeine to kick in...

I'm functioning... getting to work... still mostly in happy hypo active mode with some irritability spells here and there. It could turn nasty mean, but so far I'm maintaining, forcing sleep with meds.

I'd be hoppin happy right now if I didn't have to work! Singin sunning swimming dancing in the midnight playin guitar gardening, social butterfly etc., some cleaning but it's really not my thing - cleaning ughh.. but I did do 5 triple loads at the laundry mat yesterday. Nasty hypo is another story when it becomes more of a mixed episode where I want to pull my eyeballs out. Y'all probably know the drill, I don't even want to think about that right now.

Originally Posted by lawrenman

lala...

I'd suggest you try to calm down and get some rest. If you find yourself unable to calm down I'd suggest you call someone for help. Have you slept recently?.

Thanks for your concern. I did manage to sleep last night. Not a huge amount but some. I'm feeling better than I did yesterday. Not so off the rails.

[unlockingsanity]

I write funny fan-fiction. LOL

Well, I only did that once. I still find it hilarious and wish I could recapture that motivation and silliness.

[middlepath]

I reliably get a good solid hypo at least once a year...it is during that time that all the closets in my house get cleaned out. I mean every one, and every item in every drawer gets "gone through". I paint (canvas) feverishly and without restraint. I usually buy a bunch of whatever strikes me as interesting...one year it was sweaters (in july), another year it was beads (tooooonnnns of beads), this year i was fixated on dresses and hair dye...and I am not that much of a girly-girl. I schedule vacations, call/text old friends, find a new religion or spiritual exploration that intrigues me. I marvel at anything colorful, I chat with people i would normally not chat with (i am shy). I love everything, anything...everyone needs a hug and a smile!!! I have to sensor my mouth and actions because otherwise i would chat waaaaay too much and piss people off. Oh yeah, i have started selling random sh** like avon or arbonne or whatever other pyramid marketing scheme approaches me at that time. Yeah hypo! Mine is over for the year i think. Next up depression in the fall.

apparently when I am feeling a LITTLE hypo... part of my cycling... I have started posting on here lol. It will be gone in a few days, and nothing that is extreme at all. Just a part of life for me. even on meds, I cycle. Just not bad at all....

[awillz12]

I tend to get really anxious and fidgety and it's overall not a good feeling. I hate it actually, but every once and a while I'll feel great when I'm hypomanic. When that happens I tend to do some online shopping as well as reach out to old friends that I haven't talked to in awhile or make plans with lots of people. When I inevitably come down, I have to go through the task to making up excuses to cancel most of the plans I made because I'm not feeling social anymore.

[wing]

i'm hypo right now...how do i know? i just spent 100$ on fabric for a quilt. forcing myself to attack it. funny, all the quilts i've made have been while hypo...

sleeping well so i'm enjoying it all!

[Moderato]

Originally Posted by wing

i'm hypo right now...how do i know? i just spent 100$ on fabric for a quilt. forcing myself to attack it. funny, all the quilts i've made have been while hypo...

sleeping well so i'm enjoying it all!

I have to be really careful about shopping. A little mania goes a long way, and delayed gratification isn't the most popular virtue with folks like us, so yes, a desire to "shop 'till you drop" is definitely one of the warning signs that a manic phase has been entered. But the main warning sign for me that I'm entering Manialand is that I find myself becoming unusually talkative and argumentative. That's when I have to step back, take a few deep breaths, and reassess if I'm taking my meds properly.

[Nightside of Eden]

I usually just get really creative when I'm hypo, lots of writing and planning new projects. Sometimes I get obsessed with studying things like government or psychology, usually trying to create some new theoretical system or discover something. Sometimes I can annoy people with all my sharing of ideas, but in general hypomania is a pretty fun and productive thing for me. I only get to feel that way about 10% of the time off meds, though, and it's definitely not worth the 70% of the time I spend in some level of depression.

[whim]

I am bp type 2 and I seem to stop sleeping well so I watch a lot of TV and read stuff on fb and forums. I get way to interested in certain topics and research them all night. I don't actually accomplish much and still manage to avoid all the chores that pile up during my depressive states...so I think I need to work on the cleaning mania that some of u have posted about.

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[BipolaRNurse]

Originally Posted by Moderato

IBut the main warning sign for me that I'm entering Manialand is that I find myself becoming unusually talkative and argumentative. That's when I have to step back, take a few deep breaths, and reassess if I'm taking my meds properly.

Uh-oh...... I've spent most of today ranting about political posts on Facebook and generally pissing off all my friends. Better do a gut-check. Thanks!

I tend to listen to A LOT of music, loud, and sing and dance. I commit to more work shifts than I really want. I feel fairly indestructible. I have opinions on everything and I vocalize those opinions. The world takes on a magnificence. I do tend to shop more, too. I love hypomania - it's the crash I despise.