Mania Insights
News, research, resources, and personal stories about mania, hypomania, manic episodes, and bipolar I disorder
Category: Personal experiences
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Unusual Kit of Objects I Carried During My Manic Episode
Cigarettes, lighters, pens, a flashlight, breath mints. During my manic episode I was obsessed with carrying certain objects at all times. Here is why.
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I Dressed in Disguises During My Manic Episode
During my manic episode I pretended to be homeless, blind, wealthy, and charming. I packed a bag of costumes and believed I was ministering to the world.
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I Took a Cosmic Journey During Mania and Part of Me Never Came Back
During my manic episode I merged with the universe and felt total unity with all things. Was it psychosis or revelation? I am still not sure.
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I Caught My Hypomania at 50 Percent and It Still Was Not Enough
I knew my hypomania was escalating. I estimated it at 50 percent. I thought awareness meant control. I was wrong.
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Manic Mind: I Think I’m a Chameleon
Living with bipolar I taught me to blend in everywhere. The problem is I stopped knowing which version of me was real.
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When Manic Me Made Promises Normal Me Couldn’t Keep
During my manic episode I promised trips, businesses, and a life I could never deliver. The hardest part was watching people believe me.
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I Thought My iPhone Was Broken Because Mania Made Everything So Slow
During mania my phone felt impossibly slow. I rebooted it over and over. The problem was never the phone. It was my brain running at a speed the world could…
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I Lied to the Police About Having Bipolar Disorder– Here’s Why
Why I denied having bipolar disorder to police and everyone else during my manic episode, and what that denial cost me.
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Friends Tried to Have an Intervention for My Manic Episode – I Ran Away
When two friends tried to stage an intervention during my manic episode, paranoia took over. I rented a second hotel room and walked a mile away.
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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…
About
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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