Mania

Hi @The-red-centaur,

Welcome to the Forum.

What a very cool name you have chosen and even cooler avatar. Am very impressed.

Sounds like you're a bit spun out by what you are feeling, and I reckon that anyone else would feel that way about it

I've never experienced mania myself but watched my Mum and my Partner go through it - both are bi-polar (I certainly married my mother huh lol). They have both struggled for many years but have found that the best way to deal with both the manic and depressive sides is to just accept it for what it is - a difficult feeling that hangs around for a while, and eventually passes. Both have found that not buying into the feeling too much helps to not make it worse. Over-reacting ultimately doesn't help. You always have a choice with how you react to it. It is something that can be managed and you can get better at it with time. But I am by no means an expert.

It's great you have support from your workers. Other people have posted on it over the years. To find their experiences - or on any topic - simply type it into the search bar. Have cut and paste a search below - just click on the link:

https://saneforums.org/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&filter=location&location=category%3Alived-experience-forum&q=mania

Hang in there mate

All the best

JoeTheLion

Hey there dear @The-red-centaur, my beloved father has manic depression. He has schizo-affective disorder. I feel for you and anyone suffering from this illness. It's so unfair to watch anyone go through it, but there is hope and love and compassion. I know personally dealing with a voice every second, I sempt to go on my highs a lot with it, but it was excrutiatingly painful too. I thought there was channeling coming through and there were coincidences with it. I heard words channel through and sentences that sempt to come from the spiritual realm. These words were pre-empting things that later came true. I thought it was some form of psychic attack and there were maybe familiar spirits around me from my mother's sin of ' reading me like a book' psychicly and then consulting psychics.

Enough of my experiences lol, I think I'll get back to having natural highs listening to my alternative rock music - Adam Lambert " For Your Entertainment". Just sitting pensively playing it and ...........up with the night owls tonight haha.

All the very best dear @The-red-centaur. I hope you feel better soon.

Your caring words @JoeTheLion and wise counsel are awesome.

Hey there again @The-red-centaur, I thought I'd throw into the mix my experiences of mania. I live with schizoaffective disorder which is like a combo of bipolar and schizophrenia in one.

My manic episodes have almost always come in periods of extreme distress. It is like something inside my brain switches on the manic switch and boom! I can't slow down my head at all. I've done some pretty risky things when manic and although the mania for a while is enjoyable (I like the euphoric feeling I get in mania), it quickly turns nasty when I find I can't switch off.

My best tip for dealing with mania is to be in constant contact with your treating team (which you are already doing) and removing from the situation anything risky which can fuel the mania further (for me it is alcohol, credit cards etc). I also if I can stand it for longer than a few minutes, try mindfulness meditation. I know sitting still can be virtually impossible when in the throes of mania, but even have it playing in headphones in the background of a busy head, can help to ground me sometimes, even if it is only for a few minutes each time.

Not sleeping or fear of sleeping, especially while manic will just be adding fuel to the fire I think. Sounds like you've got a lot going on in your head. I'm glad you've got that emergency appointment with your psychiatrist coming up on Thursday. I do hope you'll be ok until then. Remember to call a crisis team or your case manager if things continue to escalate.