What do you do? :/

[andithinktoomuch]

Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing well.
I guess this is the situation... I'm feeling a pretty interesting episode of mania coming on, and I was wondering what 'you' do to distract yourself when you feel this happening.  What kinds of things can you do to keep yourself from going off the deep end?  I greatly dislike my manic episodes as I get quite violent and unmanageable, and tend to take it out on my family.
Thank you.

[monkeyc]

I havent had a manic episode since the last one landed me in hospital but for me it used to be that changing things a bit helped, just doing something different in the routine.

That being said if your manic episodes are as bad as indicated I would be looking for a way to shorten or prevent it with medication rather than trying to rely on distraction - real mania doesn't give in to distraction, its a driving force of its own.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

While I don't experience mania, I do experience irritability and I try to take it out in a constructive manner.  Deep breathing exercises can be of some help.  Also removing yourself from what is stressing you out at the time by taking a walk for example can also be of some help.  Playing violent video games can be a good outlet for anger and violence so long as you don't go out and try to do it in real life like some people out there.

[ILADVOCATE]

Well I try to keep myself focused on productive activities and also keep a mood tracker here and try to recognize triggers for moodswings and keep note of them. If it becomes an extreme concern I speak to my psychiatrist.