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Mania
It
has been a difficult winter, but now the sun is out and
flowers are in bloom and you feel good. You put on your
best outfit, buy a newspaper, and sit down to scan the job
listings. You don't have a résumé with you,
but you're a good talker and you look fine. When you leave
the café, you leave a tip that is nearly as large
as the bill.
The
first office you approach turns you away because you don't
have an appointment. Their loss. You leave your phone number
with the secretary, but she won't give you hers, even though
you ask her several times. You don't really want to work
in an office anyway. Passing a computer store, you realize
that you have missed your calling: you should be a writer,
and if you had a computer you could complete your great
novel in no time. You buy two laptops and put them on your
credit card. You can pay it off after you sign your first
book deal.
It
is past midnight, but you're not ready to sleep. You've
already written at least thirty pages of your novel. You
can't sit still. It's time for a break, so you dress up
and head to a disco. You have a couple of drinks, and you
buy several for the friends you make at the bar. Your conversation
is sparkling. The club keeps playing your favorite songs.
You get up on the stage with the other dancers and start
to sing along. Security asks you to leave. They say you're
embarrassing yourself. But how many people in their forties
can break-dance? They must be jealous.
You
return home, but you're still not ready to sleep. You pull
out your address book and start to call your college friends
to tell them about your new book. The first two hang up
after reminding you that it's the middle of the night. So
you start calling friends in Europe. They should be awake
by now.
Another
day has passed, and you still have not slept. Who can sleep
when so many great ideas are flowing? You've completed one
hundred pages. It's going to be an American classic. The
best publishing houses are on the other side of the country,
so you order a ticket to fly out in the morning. Because
you're buying your ticket on such short notice it costs
a thousand dollars, but it's worth it. You'll find a hotel
when you get there. You call a taxi to take you to the airport.
Along the way you notice that people in the streets are
waving to you and pointing at you. They can tell you're
going to be big. You wave out the window and scream out
to them, "I'll be back soon."
This
chapter covers the following topics:
- Mania
- Mania
Is the Hallmark of Bipolar Disorder
- What
Causes Bipolar Disorder?
- How
to Cope with Bipolar Disorder
-
Mood-Stabilizing Medications
- Other
Treatments for Mania Exist
This
excerpt may not be reproduced without written permission
from the publishers.
Fifty Signs of Mental Illness: A Guide to Understanding
Mental Health
Yale University Press / New Haven and London
Copyright © 2005 by James Whitney Hicks
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