Mania / Hypomania

Mania symptoms can range from abnormally high moods to hallucinations and from being energetic on very little sleep to hypersexuality. Other possible symptoms: pressured speech, reckless spending, delusions and racing thoughts.

Mania is a state of mind and mood that is the hallmark symptom of bipolar disorder, specifically bipolar 1 disorder. A person experiencing mania may behave wildly, irrationally, or dangerously, depending upon which symptoms are present. But manic doesn't mean maniac. A person in a manic state may behave in a strange or bizarre fashion.

Let's get it straight: in bipolar disorder, experiencing mania or having a manic episode does not mean a person is a maniac.

Hypomania in bipolar disorder is a state of mind and mood where a person may have excessive energy, little need for sleep, unusual exhilaration, irritability, excitement or aggression, and a variety of other symptoms.

Mania symptoms can include feeling amazingly happy or high, irritability, restlessness, grandiose behavior, psychotic experiences such as hallucinations, delusions or paranoia, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts and other difficult symptoms. As a group these symptoms are more severe than in hypomania. If you have bipolar I disorder, you experience mania. Tell us what your mania symptoms ar…

Pressured speech is a symptom of bipolar disorder that is associated with mania. It is a compulsion to speak that produces rapid fire, nonstop talking. This driven need to communicate thoughts and ideas is also frequently expressed through the writing of those in a manic episode. Do you do this when you’re manic? What is the wildest manic thing you’ve written?

Steps to help you recognize the symptoms and behaviors of mania in persons suffering from manic depression (bipolar affective disorder).

While episodes and symptoms vary from person to person, there are some similarities between individuals. In response to a query in our forums regarding this, Nemileah, who volunteers as a Forum Community Leader, shared her personal experience with first recognizing the onset of mania and progressing through an episode as it intensifies.

Pressured speech is one of the symptoms of bipolar mania, hypomania and mixed episodes. Here is a clear definition of pressured speech.

When a person with bipolar disorder has racing thoughts, it doesn't mean he or she is just thinking quickly. Racing thoughts can be very uncomfortable and disturbing

Bipolar grandiosity can be harmless, or it can lead to all kinds of reckless, thoughtless or even dangerous behavior. Here readers can share their own experiences with grandiosity that is a symptom of their particular flavor of manic depression. Read their stories and share your own if you have one.

Andy Behrman, author of Electroboy, talks about life after stabilization - living with the "loss" of mania.

See how the hypomania of a gardener's mixed episode can create stress and anxiety that last after the hypomania is gone. Part of the "I'm Bipolar" series.

Quick online test from NIMH.