March Madness: Mania
Our month-long look at madness continues with a symptom of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, drug abuse and pyschosis, mania. The presense of mania does not necessarily mean that your loved one is insane. They just are not able to properly perceive reality. Also, takng a new perscription medication like an antidepressant may cause mania in some people (which means the cure is pretty simple). Mania is manageable. Anyone who has mania is not a lost cause.
Mania happens in different degrees in everyone who gets it. Some people just talk really fast, don’t seem too aware of what’s going on and have insomnia, yet they feel great. Other people see Satan popping out from behind the refrigerator and instructs them on who they should kill. However, many people who have hallucinations still have the sense of mind to realize that something is not right.
The following YouTube clips are descriptions of what people do when they are in the grips of mania.
Here a doctor describes a classic sign of mania: overspending:
Another symptom is hearing voices. This is, admittedly, a little over the top, but it does show you how annoying hearing voices can be:
Perhaps the best description of mania comes from a two-part BBC documentary about bipolar disorder done by Stephen Fry. It’s called “The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive” (because bipolar disorder is better known as manic depression in the UK). I’m just going to put the first part up here, where Stephen shows the difference between depression and mania and has a revealing interview with actress Carrie Fisher:
March 16th, 2009 at 10:08 am
[...] Madness: Hypomania by Rena Sherwood Earlier this month, YouTube Digger looked at mania. Now, we’re going to take a look at it’s more common and less severe younger sibling, [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
All I can say really is that I will keep these people in my prayers.