Definition: The "up" phase of Bipolar I, aka manic-depressive, disorder.
Pronunciation: (m
n'-ik)
People with bipolar disorder experience ups and downs that are outside the range of what most of us will ever experience. The manic phase of bipolar disorder is leaves people feeling either euphoric or extremely irritable. It's often characterized by poor judgment (e.g. you use every penny on your credit cards to go to Paris on the Concorde to buy shoes, just because it sounds fun) and behaviors the person wouldn't normally display (e.g. sexual aggressiveness with strangers or starting fights), a reduced need for sleep, a seeming inability to stop talking ("pressured speech"), and often increased productivity.
That may sound like fun (except for the credit card debt, of course), but the kinds of choices people make during manic phases can hurt them for years to come (back to that credit card debt...but people also end up with damaged marriages, police records, and other problems as well). Some also experience psychosis during the manic phase, seeing, hearing, or believing things that have no basis in reality.
People who have mania (māy'-nee-ah) are not maniacs (māy'-nee-aks). Colloquially, maniacs are killers (the term isn't used clinically), whereas someone with mania is manic or experiencing a manic phase.
Hypomania is a higher-than normal mood, but without psychosis or extremely distorted judgment. While hypomania has fewer immediate repercussions, the more manic or hypomanic phases one has, the more likely she is to have more depressive states, and to move back and forth between up and down.
Bipolar disorder is a biochemical disorder, which means medications like antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and even antipsychotics (also called neuroleptics) are used to treat it. Finding the right "drug cocktail" for each person's body chemistry can take quite a bit of trial and error, and some people are, unfortunately, unwilling, unable, or not well-informed enough to work with their doctors to figure out what's right for them.
Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, who had bipolar disorder, did most of his writing in manic states. Because his medications stabilized him and made him feel "numbed out," he refused to take them rather than working with his doctors to find something that would let him write and feel all right. As most people know, he committed suicide, leaving behind a wife and child and a legion of grieving fans.