Manic humour

[starbunny]

When I am hypo/manic I tend to find everything funny and am unrealistically happy and optimistic about things. This as I have found out is very offensive to people who are wanting a serious sober conversation about life's problems.
People have responded in the past by saying 'that's not funny' and 'are you taking the p***?' and I have lost friends through my strange sense of humour when manic.
Has anyone else found that they have responded inappropriately happy or laughed at a 'serious' moment which has got them into deep water? or said something so unrealistically positive it could be mistaken for sarcasm?
I seem to be more offensive to people whilst 'high' than I ever was whilst being depressed! :-(

[starbunny]

Yes, my closest friends know about the disorder and are usually accommodating, however it is a different story with family who are less understanding.
Yeah I guess being manic tends to make me insensitive to other people's feelings, like the time that I was looking through some baby pictures and thought my teenage daughter looked really cute and lovely in them and showed them to her boyfriend without thinking - BAD MOVE I think it will be ten years before she will forgive me.
ILADVOCATE hit the nail on the head when he talked about not reading people right, it is so easy to do when manic, just because you tend to do things without thinking / before your brain has had a chance to 'read' the situation - then I go 'oops here I go again!! and again and again!!!! and then I have a lot of apologising to do.
Shay69 - good move going off the anti-depressives, been thinking about going on abifily meself, let me know how you get on!

[DeeJaye45]

Have you tried explaining to your friends about your disorder? I have found this to be very helpful to me in both my personal and work relationships. People are usually pretty understanding once theey know what is really going on.

[shay69]

I've seen it mentioned a few times and yes not to long ago in a manic episode I found myself talking about someone who died and laughing about it. I didn't think it was funny but yet couldn't quit laughing. Talk about being called all kinds of names at work for it. good thing it was a famous person rather than someone who we all knew personally.

P.S. been to pdoc for the first time Thursday. :) put on ambilify for two weeks to see affects before starting a mood stabilizer. felt pretty good now I feel manicy again but not to the point of being crazy. been seeing stuff alot but its like in the corners of my eyes. Im not sure why that is but I think its the zoloft made my condition worse. Any how diagnosis schizoaffective bipolar disorder with rapid cycling. booo!  and more manicy than depressive so no anti-depressives for me right now.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes I used to have this problem before my current recovery. But for myself as a person with schizoaffective disorder some of it was part of the negative symptoms of schizoaffective disorder and not "reading" people right. Sometimes I would tell an inappropriate off color joke for no reason and start laughing. The family member who is not under treatment yet for bipolar can do that at times and I didn't know what it was growing up and I only know now. Right now I have dysphoria that may be other than psychiatric in origin and at those times I tend to speak in a manner that is very negativistic and depressive and morbid and try to make people feel down and burn them out so its the opposite aspect of the same thing. Both can occur as part of bipolar and are something to keep track of and understand how to cope with.