How to Manage Manic Episodes of Bipolar Disorder

Symptoms of mania can range from gambling away your life savings to driving at top speeds down a busy highway. Is there a way to calm mania before it becomes destructive?

How to Manage Manic Episodes of Bipolar Disorder

Very good post Heather and we some newbies here and some newly diagnosed, I'm sure it will help someone

I'm not bipolar but any of you that get manic, does it make you feel "good"? Just wondering because depression just wears me out

I listened to part this morning and I just finished. To answer your questions Megan, yes mania "can" make you feel like you're on top of the world. But........it's so tiring, you don't eat, you don't sleep you feel like you can conquer the world. I'd rather be manic then depressed Megan

Couldn't of said that any better myself Lost One!! You defintely feel like you could take on the world!!

Oh yeah right up till you start "coming down" and then you usually are really low on money, energy, and have a few apologies to make! But, the house is clean, your work is caught up, etc.

Very nicely put Terry

This is what I have to look forward to

We'll be here for you Brianna

Brianna, I just think of manic episodes as "oh no, here we go again!" Right now, I am taking my anxiety meds to keep my manic "down" I went 3 nights without sleep before I took them, I am still only sleeping for an hour at a time then I wake up, then another hour, then again, etc, I get no REM sleep, but at least it is some rest. I feel like crap, I am neither manic nor depressed nor normal, nothing tastes good, I don't want to do anything, etc, I see the primary on Monday and am getting a new pdoc referral then. I hate this but it isn't scary at all, just a huge pain the behind. This isn't going to change anything about who you are or have ever been, just puts a label on it. It shouldn't change the way anyone sees your if they are your friends and care about your, if it does, well, that would be extremely shallow don't you think? Don't worry yourself sick or let anyone else do that to you either. The only thing that has changed, is there is a name to the symptoms you have had, that is it! And there is a treatment to stop those symptoms so there should be some degree of relief there. And most of all, you have us

Terry, so very nicely stated

It's just scary for me. I have to meet with clients all the time and what if I'm manic or something. I'd be afraid to talk.

But Brianna, you have met with clients when you were manic you just didn't have a label for it that is the only difference, that is what we have been trying to tell you, knowledge should make you stronger, not frightened, you have met with clients manic, depressed, and in between. You will still be good at your job. Probably better.
I have a friend who recently asked where the Terry was who always made her laugh. The week I was total manic she said ah, there's the Terry that always makes me laugh! Why, because I am what? Uninhibited, crass, and tell stories in a way that yes are funny, but off color and would be hurtful if the people I was speaking of heard them. When I am not manic, I don't do that. I have more control over what is acceptable and what isn't. See the difference.?

I guess Terry. I just have to take it as it comes. I seem to get more depressed than manic. Some days the world seems crashing down around me and I can't stop it

And when you fall, Doc Mike will catch you

Yes Brianna, you helped me so so much when I was crashing

We'll all be here for you no matter which direction you are heading Brianna, just talk to us, always, talk to us, it is so easy to not do that and think that others don't care or don't want to know, etc, but we do and always will......don't forget that, especially when the depression comes on that is when you will think we don't want to know

I'm so glad I have you guys to help pick me up Just coming here brings such a smile to my face

I went to the doc today and she doesn't think I had a stroke or anything close to it. She thinks that because I have seizures, Chiari, the cranial base migraines, and the chronic fatigue and then I had the manic episode and was up for 7 days, that that is what caused what ever happened. She said I need to go to a pdoc that she can't deal with the likes of someone with as complicated of a case as me. and that I am not being controlled with the lithium so I need a pdoc. Fine by me. Just so someone puts it all together and figures out what the hell is up and fixes it and I can finally be "ok" or something in that neighborhood. I am so tired and worn out....if I have too many more manic episodes, I think my heart is going to give out. I am just too tired to do this much longer. I feel like humpty dumpty, no one could put him back together again....all of the doctors, all of the labels, all of the meds, all of the bs and money, and still, here I am, sick, tired, broke, and discouraged. But on I will go, hoping and paying and trying, right up till they no doubt will kill me, but try I will. This is where it stands now. Yes, hope is slipping away after 33 years, can you blame me?

Friend I'm a little annoyed that your primary diagnosed you BP and that you don't have a pdoc. This is not right and you really need a pdoc. Pdoc's diagnosed BP and prescribe the meds. You really need to get your arse to someone who knows about BP and prescribe the correct meds

Mike's right Terry. You really need to see a pdoc. A primary is not qualified to handle what you have going on

Yes definitely Terry see a pdoc. That's who told me I was BP in the first place

i really don't have anything to add other than a .. the input and comments in this thread where wholeheartedly wonderful!

Thank you my friends, but, I have been to many many pdocs....I just quit going 7 years ago and also quit all meds at that time. I was put on the Topamax last November by my neurologist for my seizures and found it it also worked for BP. When all of the bs with the Hep c started, I started going manic regularly, like for a week or more at a time, then only getting maybe a few days off so I requested my primary doc to help me, she said that we would try the lithium and if it didn't work, off to the pdoc I was going....this was all my bad, not hers I just got really tired back 7 years ago of the entire thing because I didn't have insurance and the "system" wouldn't let me see the same doc twice and each doc gave me a different med and different diagnosis and by the time I stopped going, I was worse than when I started. Now, I can at least stay with one pdoc for a while, I hope and hopefully get the meds straightened out and finally for once in my life be stable for longer than a few months