What are your manic Episodes like?

Hello Everyone.

I have Bipolar type 2. When I go manic...This is what happens in sequence...

1. I experience hypomania for a week or so...During this period, I talk a lot more than usual. I am happy. I have great confidence. I want to do a lot of work which may be study, learning softawares and writing a book etc. A sleep of 2-3 hrs a day is enough for me.

2. After a whole week of hypomania...Now I have reached the peak and suddenly a I have palpitations...followed by severe contraction of all muscles of my body in a pulsatile manner with loud screaming..Suddenly my muscles stop contracting and I stop screaming and Now I am normal untill it happen again in a minute or two..and can repeat for hours and hours continously..During all this I break things apart...I feel really thirsty...I understand what I am doing but just can't stop myself from doing it...I stare at something/someone for about 15-30 seconds and then hit him or grab him. I just have the irresistive impulse to do so.

3. My friends take me to hospital and there the inject me sedatives..After 1 or 2 days of sedation I get normal and take my new meds/dose which is usually increased from what I was taking before the manic attack.

I feel these symptoms are peculiar to me as I have'nt seen any other person in manic episode.

I would like you people to please share what happens to you when you have the full blown mania. Tell me how much it sounds familiar to you..

I will be more than thankful If you share your experience with me.

I can either go 3 ways....

1. I just seem really happy etc bouncy if you like... I have then got the urges like sexual urges, self harming, over spending, sex sex sex is all I can think of

2. Psychosis where I struggle a lot but maintain stability... in this I mean I have never been hospitalised thankfully. Full blown hallucinations, delusions and paranoia

3. Very irritable to the point my own breathing irritates me.... everything and everyone irritates me

I have bipolar type 1, so have reached full blown manic several times, though I certainly can have episodes that only reach hypomanic level. Actually, when I was much younger, many of my episodes were extended hypomanias of several weeks or even months. Sometimes they died down. Sometimes they reached full blown mania. Back then, usually my full blown manic parts were somewhat short-lived (days to a couple weeks max). Later down the line, especially during my worst years, my full blown manias lasted a bit longer, but then I was usually in the hospital and/or Intensive Outpatient Program. In very recent years, well medicated, I've only reached hypomania and they are short-lived due to quick medication intervention. My illness still disables me, none-the-less.

Some of my hypomanias and manias were mostly of the elated type with occasional irritable bouts (i.e. from obnoxious arrogance to raging devil from hell). Many started with elated periods, but turned mixed. When my full blown manias were at their very worst, it was usually a mania with mixed features and psychosis. My psychoses mostly included delusions (some not as scary, some delusions of persecution). I also had hallucinations sometimes. Some were not scary (marvelous to strange/absurd). Some were terrifying (God was trying to kill me, I saw the devil), a woman poisoned me with anthrax). At my worst in the hospital, you might have found me screaming in terror or fury from delusions and/or having extreme screaming tirades where I was punching the wall, slapping myself, or kicking things. I was dragged at least four times by security to isolation rooms, and held down and given injections to calm me down - usually Haldol or Ativan. They'd leave me in the locked room until I settled down. Once I was allowed to return to a regular room, but they gave me my own room that time, likely because I scared other patients. That time a security guard sat outside of my room. When I walked out of the room, he followed me.

There were also times in and out of the hospital that I would walk around talking out loud to myself in front of people. Sometimes it was in response to the inner chatter in my mind. Sometimes it was a response to desperate feelings where I'd repeat things over and over again and maybe even stutter rapidly. I assume people were staring, but in that state I wasn't really concerned about what people thought. Once at work, I had an immediate ascent into mania where I was screaming at the top of my lungs. They dragged me into my boss's office and HR called my husband. The whole floor at work knew I had a severe mental illness and heard my screams. Some knew from before. Once six people as a group went to HR to wage complaints about my behavior (screaming, being a nightmare, punching things). Once on my way to the hospital with my husband, I attempted to jump out of the moving car, but hubby grabbed me. When I got to the hospital ER that time, I had a period of catatonia (mute and not moving). That ended after some minutes, at which time I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Again, injection. Once my old pharmacist threatened to call the police on me. I also had a therapist who called my psychiatrist and told her I "scared her". She refused to see me again until my psychiatrist reported I was "better". She eventually dropped me.

The "elated" times I remember were not so very bad at all. In fact, they were marvelous. I traveled around parts of Asia on my own (sometimes in a blur). Hypersexuality was a key symptom I associate with that mania. It was like I was some queen of the world and everywhere I went, everyone (particularly men) saw me coming and was wowed. I recall dancing for hours on end at clubs. Often until 3 or even 5 am. I did some quite wild things. Once I convinced myself that I was good friends with Bono of the band U2.

I experience most of the usual manic symptoms: talking fast and loud (sometimes to the point of almost gibberish), not letting others get a word in and basically not able to pay attention to them, racing thoughts, disjointed and other language features, disinhibition (saying things and doing things I'd NEVER otherwise do, and sometimes drinking heavily), grandiosity, impulsivity, being physically fast or psychomotor agitation, starting multiple big projects that I create for myself (usually with the intent to achieve greatness), not needing any sleep (full blown) or little sleep (hypomania). The insomnia is rarely an issue then because I am happily up driving places, writing furiously, baking, or things like that.

I, too, often get physical symptoms with hypomania/mania. I think they mostly revolve around anxiety and panic attacks that sometimes come with mood states. Also, one's whole system is in extreme overdrive. A long period of manias gave me tachycardia. A number of times I injured myself, but didn't really feel that much pain. For example, once in a fury, I decided to run down a steep hill. [Yea, that was smart of me!] I fell quite hard and got a black eye, bruised and scraped arms, and legs and knee so injured that they swelled up. And yet I wasn't that bothered by it. I've twisted my ankle a couple times and walked on it without complaining. The trouble is, when manic and in furies, I am careless and violent with myself.

I've come a long way. I'm OK if I keep taking my meds, take "as needed" meds, call my pdoc/tdoc pronto, and generally avoid triggers and use coping skills. The illness does still scare me. I think if I stopped any of these preventions, bipolar disorder would totally overtake me.

I've only been manic once but it was pure hell. I was delusional. I had visual and auditory hallucinations. I was paranoid. I was agitated and physically out of control. I screamed. I whispered. I repeated things. I babbled. I had spiritual experiences. I shattered objects. I dissociated. I experienced time in an altered way. I blacked out a lot of the time. It continued like this for a few hours and then I had to be dragged from my home and drugged. It stopped almost instantly after they gave me what I can only assume was haldol in the hospital. There was no high. Only Hell.

A few things happen to me during my manic episodes:
I have an endless abundance of energy.
I drive aimlessly around the city feeling like Superman.
I start projects around the house I know I cannot tackle alone or in one day.
Decreased need for sleep.
I get hypersexual. Sometimes dangerously so.
I talk rapidly and blink endlessly.
I want to spend money I don't have.
I get rude.
I get nervous and agitated.
I interrupt others when I am in a convo.
I can stay up all night watching movies while being on social media.
I break things and get angry.

And those are just right off the top of my head. being in a full blown manic state sucks and I'm prone to cycling and mixed states which makes thing seven worse if you can imagine that.

BPII here. When I am hypo, I might talk a lot, write a lot. I tend to have a sense of humor. At some point, I get very noise-sensitive and very irritable. I usually have to then withdraw, as I cannot tolerate even the smallest noise... or the slightest conversational infraction. Lol! I go over the edge if someone interrupts me. I think this is because someone in my house, I won't say who, constantly interrupts me. When I am hypo, I am less inhibited and when I am interrupted... well, you know.

Last time I was manic, I stayed up all night watching the same movie over and over- every night for a week!I drove recklessly. I wrote posts in my blog every day for weeks- sometimes 2x per day. I planned to combine all these posts into a non-fiction work focusing on how Zyprexa will kill you. I had a good outline already written with references. I thought God was telling me the meaning of the universe and that everything was connected in one big entity- I compared this to singing gregorian chant. I went to see my case manager and almost immediately after I walked in she said "You're manic!" I stopped for a moment- "No Im not..." My pdoc put me on a very heavy dose of seroquel. It made me sleep deeply. She told me later that had the seroquel not worked, I wouldve been hospitalized. I also was trying things I normally would not have with my sex partner- I was insatiable.

Not diagnosed with bipolar and I am questioning if I may be Bipolar I or Bipolar II. I have a tendency to overexert my body and mind to the point where I can't handle very simple days. I invite long hours and difficult schedules for long periods of time. Maybe I do this because I am bored or that is my way of climbing out of a depression.

I am bipolar 1, but that's only because I stayed awake for about 7 days one time (not a wink of sleep). I did not feel good; in fact I felt terrible and was extremely anxious and angry and contemplating the S word. I finally checked myself into hospital and told the psychiatrist about all of it and she said bipolar 1 . So evidently you do not have to be a "classic" case of euphoric mania or psychotic mania to get the BP1 diagnosis.

However, there's been a few times where I do get a jolt of hypomania that lasts maybe a week. During these periods I feel really good and energetic. But I would not call it full blown mania as I never lose control. I don't go spending or having indiscriminate sex (I wish) or believing I have special powers. It's really bipolar 2 style hypomania.

Thus I've always been confused as to what I really have. My illness progression feels more like bipolar 2, but according to the DSM all you need is one episode in your life of mania to be diagnosed BP1. During my most recent stint in the hospital I had a young hotshot doctor who graduated Ivy League. She told me "I read your chart and I agree with the other docs that you are BP1." She has actually published papers on how to diagnose illnesses properly so this is in her wheelhouse. I guess I have to accept it.

All I know is my episodes typically include lots of anxiety and restlessness. It's extremely hard to get me to sleep even with sleeping pills. The only thing that works is a shot of a powerful AP like Zyprexa. That stuff calms me right down. It's pure bliss, but it's not a drug to be on long term unless you want to be a star on "my 600 pound life."

But to answer your question, my episodes typically start with anxiety attacks that just stay with me over a period of days or weeks. My mind goes into overdrive and I can't shut it down. From there the bad thoughts work their way in. I suppose you'd call it a mixed state. That's how I experience "mania." Lots of anxiety, restlessness and intrusive thoughts. No psychosis at all though.

Bipolar 1 and I am completely out of my mind and psychotic.

Visions of God, the Dead, Aliens and Jesus.

Sometimes I wonder if it is a very potent spiritual awakening experience.

Hospitalized many times because of this.

The worst part about it is that doctors give you medication for this death sentence, and its supposed to work, but sometimes it just doesn't with no warning and it destroys your whole life- like it did to me more than once.

I wish you the best. I have simillar feelings but with the exception that they are less psychotic and not that severe.

I have bipolar II and it varies quite a lot for me. That's probably because my thoughts are almost always racing at a crazy speed and as a result my attitude can turn on a dime. Like during my last hypomanic episode (lasted about four days until I realized what was up and talked myself into taking my meds later, as I had forgotten over a weekend), I went from being angry and yelling and trying to pick fights over Twitter and losing followers to super pumped to write my final paper in my British literature class because I got this amazing idea in the hallway right before class.

When I was unmedicated/before I really became med compliant, things got way more intense. I licked rock salt off the ground once to see how it tasted and stole oxycontin from my sister's five year old prescription, for example.