I keep to certain websites when hypomanic - I play games. I have binged bought in the past, not often but I have, ugh. I did on the 16th though it wasn't big, I still did. I closed down my ebay and paypal acc'ts. I have a prepaid credit card and have to get off my tushie to put money on it. So it stops me for the most part. During that time, I also joined some dating websites, thankfully no contacts though I was sad at the time there wasn't any. I cancelled my acc'ts when I realized I was desperate for companionship. I've since snapped out of it, and know the right one will come along when it's the right time.
Since my depression has lifted dramatically, I've been more manic. My pdoc said that's not good either.
Georgia Anne are you starting to stabilise or still heading up ? Bit worried about your posts over the last few days and want to be sure that everything is OK with you now.
No its not made for the occassion. There's a lot that could go wrong. Any site where you are posting you could show a lack of judgment and on an unmoderated site (Facebook and Myspace are perfect examples but there are many others) things could go wrong and even on a well moderated site its hard to get posts removed. Also, obviously this isn't an issue for you but for the question overall, there are explicit sites where people could hook up with someone they don't know and have unpleasent consequences. And even a common site that would have no bad consequences in general such as Amazon, you could buy $100's of dollars worth of cd's. Its been known to happen to people I know and in some of these cases perhaps to myself before recovery. The internet is unregulated and unmonitored and there are many people willing to take advantage. As well as even sending e-mails to people you hardly know or sending a "come back" to someone you do know you'll regret. Sure you can look up information. Why not? But there are oppurtunites for trouble.
I did notice your post though I don't know if it was meant in humor that you were "med free". That concerns me. For people with bipolar its more like "med-less". Regardless you know if the reason you discontinued medications is because you couldn't tolerate commonly available ones I'll post the same list of medications used off label as mood stabilizers as always:
http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/meds/moodstabilizers.htm
The internet is an unknown quantity and must be approached safely. I have a personal story about this and I wasn't even showing bad judgment but since it involved a legal complaint (where I was sided with) it would be a poor idea to detail it publicly. Remember if you are on any site you don't know if the person on the other end is for real or who they are and you have very little protection. Don't give out personal information and just be careful and if you are really off a mood stabilizer consider going back on one. Seriously.