News, research, resources, and personal stories about mania, manic episodes, and hypomania, Bipolar I Disorder.
Category: Personal experiences
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Please Don’t Reply: Why I Sent Hundreds of Texts During My Manic Episode and Couldn’t Respond
Why I texted hundreds of people during mania but ended each message with “please don’t reply.” The paradox of needing connection while being unable to receive it.
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Why Manic Spirituality Feels More Real Than Reality
How manic thinking created a beautiful but dangerous spiritual worldview, and why the seductive quality of these thoughts makes treatment hard.
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Salt Cravings, Dirty Fingernails, and Cracked Skin: The Physical Signs of My Mania
Beyond the mood symptoms, mania shows up in your body. Salt cravings, cracked fingers, cuts and bruises, dirty fingernails, constant thirst. Why doctors should ask about the physical signs too.
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I Hid Things Everywhere, Even From Myself: The Compulsion Nobody Warned Me About
How a manic episode created a compulsion to hide objects behind “doors,” and why this behavior matters as a warning sign.
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I Couldn’t Go Out at Night: The Strange Rituals Mania Creates
How a manic episode led to a bizarre ritual of worshipping the sun and fearing the night, with a werewolf metaphor and chain smoking.
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Ideas Like Berries on a Vine: What Rapid Ideation Feels Like During Mania
What it really feels like when hundreds of ideas flood your brain at once during a manic episode. A first-person account.
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I Thought Rules Didn’t Apply to Me: Grandiosity and the Manic Mind
How grandiosity during mania made me break rules I ordinarily followed and apologize while believing the rules didn’t apply to me.
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Manic Behavior – I Was Charming to Strangers and Mean to Those I Loved
During my manic episode, I was magnetic with strangers while emotionally cruel to family and friends. The paradox of collecting 100+ contacts while pushing away the people who loved me…
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What My Phone Records Exposed About My Manic Episode: An Early Warning System
Phone records reveal the escalation of manic behavior in objective detail. What the data shows about recognizing mania before it becomes a crisis.
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Athletes and Bipolar Disorder: When the Drive That Fuels Greatness Becomes Mania
From rugby star Angus Crichton to Olympic champions, bipolar disorder hides among elite athletes. The manic energy that fuels greatness can become a crisis.
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Manic Thoughts: Everything Around Me Was Moving in Slow Motion
The disorienting disconnect between how fast you’re moving and how fast the world is moving during mania. A first-person account.
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Why Irritability May Be Your First Signal That Mania Is Coming
Irritability — not euphoria — is often the earliest warning sign of a manic episode. Here’s what the science says and what people with bipolar wish they’d known.
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Resources I Wish I’d Known About Before My First Manic Episode
A comprehensive, bookmarkable guide to the best bipolar and mania resources — crisis lines, support groups, apps, books, and organizations — from someone who learned about them the hard way.
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Radio Host Opens Up About Living with Bipolar Disorder
Kennedy Elsey helps break the stigma around mental health –In a candid interview in November, popular Boston radio personality Kennedy Elsey, shared her ongoing battle with bipolar disorder, emphasizing the…
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Comedian Turned a Manic Episode into 300 Paintings
A comedian who quit—and started seeing in color Sydney-based stand-up Sam Kissajukian walked away from comedy in 2021, rented an abandoned cake factory, and began to paint. Over the next…
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My First Manic Episode, And Finding Support
Finding hope and acceptance through the NAMI support group Claudette Pombo found out she had bipolar I disorder after experiencing her first manic episode. She shared her journey from diagnosis…
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Video: Author Explains The Stages Of Mania
A YouTube video by Garrett Campbell, titled “What Does a Manic Episode Feel Like?” shares a personal, step-by-step account of what it’s like to experience mania from someone who’s lived…
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Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Offers Online Mental Health Support
Finding community and connections after isolation of manic-depression By Liam Ronan Mental health struggles often feel isolating. I don’t really understand how I became hypomanic and manic. I think it…
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Neuroscientist Recounts Harrowing Bipolar Mania Episode Mid-Flight
Diagnosis, relapse, and the long road to stability —A Canadian neuroscientist recently shared her gripping account of surviving her first severe manic episode, aboard an airplane, shedding light on the…
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Writer Credits ‘Brain Energy’ Book in Her Path Beyond Bipolar Mania
There is a growing interest in metabolic psychiatry – Hannah Warren once believed she would forever miss the electrifying highs of bipolar hypomania and mania. In a personal essay for…
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Delusion: I Felt Like Mania Was A Superpower
Note: This submission was sent to us from a person with bipolar I disorder. It’s a page from their diary. At the time they thought they were hypomanic. Now they…
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My Symptoms Of Hypomania That Became Mania
By Liam Ronan I’ve always kept a journal of sorts through my life. My entries are typically sporadic, sometimes with a month or more between notes. However, when hypomania comes,…
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Legends Of Werewolves Share Themes With Bipolar Mania
Mania described as a lurking, uncontrollable beast By Liam Ronan Stories of werewolves go back to the beginning of recorded history. The 4,000-year-old Epic of Gilgamesh tells of a shepherd…
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University Reinstates Professor Who Resigned During Manic Episode
Ohio State initially refuses to reinstate tenured professor Summary report by Liam Ronan – Dr. Angela Bryant regained her position at Ohio State University’s Newark campus after resigning during a…
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Celebrity Chef Opens Up About Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis
New documentary – Heston: My Life With Bipolar Summary report by Liam Ronan — Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, known for his inventive dishes such as bacon‑and‑egg ice cream and snail…
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I Thought I Was Jesus – Student Recounts Manic Episode and Stigma
Dan Miller shares his story to encourage open conversations on mental health Summary report by Liam Ronan —When Dan Miller woke up one January morning in 2016, he felt unstoppable.…
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Memoir of Mania Offers Hope and Insight into Bipolar Recovery
Jason Wegner – From patient to advocate — In a raw and revealing memoir, a university student chronicles his dramatic manic episode and his path to recovery, offering a message…
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How to Deal with the Anxiety That Comes with Bipolar Disorder
– By Liam Ronan – After a lengthy manic episode, I fell into a period of shame, despair, and depression. It was filled with crushing anxiety. All my brain could do…
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Daily affirmations that helped me with mania and depression
– By Liam Ronan – These are some of the daily affirmations I read out loud during the depths of my depression after my manic episode. They helped carry me through…
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Mania Insights reports news, scientific research, helpful resources, and real-life experiences about mania and manic episodes. Mania Insights aims to break the silence and reduce the stigma, empowering individuals and families to better understand the bipolar I condition and thrive.
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