What is Mania and Why Should You Care? | Criteria and Personal Experience 

My best friend in college lost her best highschool friend our freshman year because of a crash after a manic episode. He crashed and then killed himself. And she felt bad because he had driven her away during the episode and she had stopped communicating with him. Then when he died she felt responsible. I ended up spending months helping her deal with her feelings of responsibility. Mania seems to be very difficult on not only the person having it but everyone around them.

"Education is the cornerstone of eliminating stigma" >> I WANT THIS ON A T-SHIRT But seriously, thank you so much for making this video - and not only educating us about mania and hypomania, but also explaining why we should care. I feel like this is going to help me understand my friends better when they're manic or hypomanic, so I really appreciate that. I like how you explained the differences between mania and hypomania, both based on the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 and also on your own experiences. Those kinds of real-world examples are really effective. It was especially interesting, as a cosplayer, to hear how hypomania and mania affect your cosplay work in different ways. I can see why the productivity that comes with hypomania can feel like a good thing - and how even the more intense state of full mania would feel fun in the moment too. It must be rough feeling so invincible, and then at some point going from mania to depression and having that sense of invincibility come to an end. The irritability/anger part of it sounds extremely hard too (both in the moment and in the aftermath). Thank you for being vulnerable enough about your own experiences with mania to share them publicly. I hope this video reaches a ton of people and helps educate them as much as it educated me! :)

You do such a good job at explaining things your such a cool person even tho you struggle your still a very positive person

I went through something like hypomania a month ago, the thing is that I didn't meet the full criteria, I think. I had an abnormally elevated mood plus self esteem, and I was highly obsessed with crocheting and would do it for hours daily and cared for nothing else (I'm not usually all that passionate about crochet, it's just something I would normally do maybe three times a year). I stopped reading because reading was too slow, I wanted everything fast. If something wasn't quick enough I got very agitated. But I was sleeping every night, so I'm not sure it met the full criteria. I thought at the time that my life just improved, that my self esteem improved, that I had become persistent and determined like my old self, and that I was going to be that creative forever from then on. But then it faded away after about a month and a half, and I was left feeling dull and flat. The world didn't seem very saturated anymore. Ever since then I don't have a high self esteem, I don't think my life is all that great, and I'm having to force myself to crochet, and then quickly feeling like I'm done already after just a few rows. I talked to my psychiatrist about it and unfortunately she was baffled. When I look back, it really seems like I was hypomanic but for the fact that I was sleeping 8 hours. I do have schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, but my memory is so fuzzy that I can't compare it to other times when I know for sure I was hypomanic. It sucks to not really have answers from my doctor.

Hey Kit, nice video, nice to see you and the rest of your friends in the background :) I'd write something about my experience with manias but you pretty much said it all, I had virtually all symptoms of mania that exist and some dissociative personality disorder and some ADHD without hyperactivity and some autism spectrum too and some... just pick one page of that book at random and I probably had that illness too. But the keyword here is 'had', since one little zyprexa pill eliminated it all, although with some physical damage to my body (metabolic syndrome and huge weight gain). Mental disorder is a b****, I'll say nothing else about that. Again, great video Kit, wishing you best of health and luck :)

yeah depression is a bitch but mania is something that will destroy every part of your life... thanks for video Kit! ❤

I check box a couple of these. Especially with jumping to projects. Congrats on 800!

amazing video i was just diagnosed schizoaffective bipolar disorder thank u for the great video

I'm not manic but I'm always trying to stay positive. It's so hard to do that these days but inevitably it's absolutely necessary to do so, even if it doesn't fix everything. I have never had everything fixed up just right in my entire life so why would I ever expect this to happen anyway. There's just not enough time to get everything fixed. So I strive to have more positive things in my life, just like everyone else and fix what I can.

You explain things in your videos so well. Thank you 🙏

You're incredible at describing all of this! I'm in the process of being diagnosed now as I had four weeks of total mania maybe even merged with hypomania Idk. I'm headed to the psych emergency room to be evaluated today. I spoke with a psychiatrist over the phone this morning telling me it was crucial to stop with Sertraline in my state of mind. She called it psychomania tho, but can't find any videos on that, only the movie... Maybe that's an idea for another vid? Psychomania

good video kitz!

Great video, Friend.

Diagnosed today, makes total sense

Hello, what a great job! Keep doing what you love, good luck! And I don't forget to 🛎😊🤝✌️

I have schizoaffective disorder bipolar type but I’ve only experienced hypomania. I can’t even think about how mania could be. Hypomania is already terrible so mania really must be hell

I think I may have mania, I will literally stop sleeping altogether for a few days, and I'm not tired, I flip from one project to another quickly and never complete any, and my flat becomes really messy, so do I as I don't wash or eat. Then I crash and become deeply depressed. I have been in mental hospitals but only when I crash. Unless a psychiatrist sees you in mania you do not get a diagnosis, but I would never think of seeing a professional when I am manic, because in my mind everything is fantastic and amazing. How did you get diagnosed?

Hey, I got a manic high from too much lexapro. I was awake for around fifty hours and very intellectually occupied without grandiosity. I was put on Latuda which made my life unbearably dull. Now I don't take a mood stabilizer and have only small highs without the insanity. My anti psychotic is a small dosage of zyprexa.

Went to severe mania, it's so intense that i became delusional. The paranoia was telling me I was being spied on because I was so cool, lol. Invincible mood was great to me. We experienced similar stuff.

I think im god when i have episodes

I like your videos. Sadly I can't watch them because of the piano arpeggios in the background. I have the constant head music schizo issue, and I really can't enjoy 'catching' your arpeggios as my background music. They're too short if nothing else, and that sort of thing looping in my head makes me extremely uncomfortable.