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GeekInCloset
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20 Feb 2016, 6:12 pm

I get some godawful crazy manic episodes several times a year, they come and go like the sun on a rainy day. I am currently writing this while suffering (yeah I mean suffering because its not nice) from a current 48 hour stretch of a manic episode. My mother just says its an autistic manic episode, is she right or is there something other than that? I am not bi-polar but do suffer from severe depression and like now crazy manic highs.

I want to know your coping strategies, your ways of dealing with the torture of the craziness of the mind, and how to stop feeling like you can run through a 10 mile forest fire unharmed and then keep on going for another 100. Its driving me mad and I HATE it when it happens. I feel like I am spaced out/ yet fully aware, almost like I am a puppet on strings and some nut job is controlling me eventhough I have full control.



Raleigh
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20 Feb 2016, 11:38 pm

OMG, that may be what I'm having right now.
I feel like knocking myself out somehow (maybe with alcohol) because it's horrible.
Shaking, pacing, racing thoughts, mind getting stuck on words, can't sleep, can't sit still, endless thought links.
Want to stim like crazy.


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GodzillaWoman
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21 Feb 2016, 12:56 am

Talk to a psychiatrist about it. It is possible to be autistic AND bipolar. I am. My psychiatrist put me on lithium, and it really helps stabilize the moods. There are other mood stabilizers like Abilify. Check the side effects though, because some have a risk of weight gain and diabetes.

By the way, if you are bipolar and on antidepressants without mood stabilizers, the antidepressants can make manic episodes worse and more likely. There are two types of bipolar disorder. Type I is the kind you're probably familiar with, where manic episodes make a person delusional and grandiose, with reckless behavior like shopping sprees or unsafe sex. Type II has manic episodes that are not as severe (hypomania), in which you have racing thoughts, insomnia, extreme irritability, and are less likely to be delusional. That's the type I have.

For coping strategies: get 8 hours of sleep, or as close to that as you can manage. Exhaustion will make it worse. Avoid alcohol, it just doesn't help, especially if you're on meds. Try to get some exercise or do some yoga to trigger some natural endorphins -- it will make you feel less tense and feel like you've flushed nasty chemicals out of your blood. Eat good foods, avoid the junky stuff. Lack of vitamins can cause problems with your mental state.

I also try to use things that give me emotional or intellectual pleasure, like music, movies, or one of my special interests. I may get out one of my collections and sort through it, or read about a subject that interests me, or if I am too upset to do that, just recite a list of things from my special interests (e.g., species of birds). I talk to my wife or a friend to break the cycle of my thoughts going around and around.


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Diagnosed Bipolar II in 2012, Autism spectrum disorder (moderate) & ADHD in 2015.


zkydz
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21 Feb 2016, 1:18 pm

This is interesting to me for the following reasons:
1) I don't think I go manic, but when in a special interest, I will get completely absorbed and will skip meals, or not sleep until sometime in the morning. I can go for days without sleep or eating, but it's because the situation required it. Not an inability to stop. I will get obsessed though and really push my boundaries (mostly to a detrimental effect though) but I don't think it's manic.

2) When between special interests, I flounder. No direction. And it can look like a depressive episode, but it's not. Been clinically depressed and I do know the difference. I just can't alight on a subject and during that time, I'm not focused. But, I still get things done.

To an outside observer, it could look manic/depressive. But, I don't think so. Been under the care of therapists before and they never picked up on many mania. Just a very strong drive to get things done.


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Diagnosed April 14, 2016
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carbonmonoxide
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21 Feb 2016, 1:42 pm

I thought I was bipolar before I realized I am autistic.

My dad was diagnosed as bipolar some 30 years ago, when in fact I think now he is autistic, kind ok 'sociable type' of an autistic.

So when I self diagnosed I decided to try to be more withdrawn (and my socializing didn't really get me anywhere anyway) and since then maniac episodes stopped.



drlaugh
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21 Feb 2016, 3:59 pm

To some alcohol and other things become problems when they are ones go to solutions.

Everything is not related to autism.
That's something a wise friend told me.

Quote of the day heard earlier.

I isolate to deal with my loneliness.


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