Inside The Mind of a Patient with Mania

You might think that from a manic patient’s viewpoint, mania is an exhilarating experience-a feeling of being invincible, all powerful, and all-wise. In milder forms of the disorder, that is precisely how the manic patient feels. 

The problem, however, is that mania often escalates to such feverish heights that the patient is totally and frighteningly out of control.

Here is how one woman described the terrible transition from relatively mild mania (called hypomania) to much severe symptoms:

[Hypomania] At first when I’m high it’s tremendous…ideas are fast…like shooting stars you follow’ till brighter ones appear…all shyness disappears, the right words and gestures are suddenly all there…uninteresting people, things become intensely interesting. Sensuality is pervasive; the desire to seduce and be seduced is irresistible. Your marrow is infused with unbelievable feelings of ease, power, well-being, omnipotence, euphoria…

[Mania] The fast ideas become too fast and there are far too many…overwhelming confusion replaces clarity…you stop keeping up with it-memory goes. Infectious humor ceases to amuse-your friends become frightened…everything is now against the grain…you are irritable, angry, frightened, and uncontrollable. You feel trapped in the blackest caves of the mind-caves you never knew were there. It will never end.

(Goldstein, Baker, & Jamison, 1980)