Speed Vs Mood

[starbunny]

I know it's a bit of an odd question, but recently having paid attention to the mood tracker which goes from good to excellent to manic I've realised that I associate being hypomanic/ manic with speed rather than mood. When I feel 'manic' my mind is racing and I have uncontrolled excess energy and an abundance of ideas and goals. I'm not always really really happy with this, In fact most of the time I'm likely to feel explosively angry or  irritated whilst this is going on, especially towards others who can't keep up. Am I judging mania wrongly here or is a high mood the predominant symptom? I don't want to create a misleading mood tracker for myself.

[starbunny]

I agree, I have a terrible habit of playing down symptoms after the event and forgetting how bad I felt (perhaps because I subconsciously want to put the pain behind me). If it's in black and white on the tracker, I have to face up to it, and this prompts me to take account of both good and bad times when talking this through with the pdoc.

[Xila31]

I made a suggestion about this today on the suggestion forum. I think this is really important, actually. I think that the better able we are to express how we are feeling the better our doctors will be able to help us. I know I can't remember how I was feeling a week ago, so without my mood tracker how could I express it? It is hard enough as it is.

[starbunny]

Thank you for all your advice, to know that my own experiences are also shared by others has helped me to understand and accept my reality of bipolar and the way that I cope. To zzmykids, yes I agree it is a good idea to journal, since September I have been writing to get things out of my system and it helps both in a therapeutic sense but also in an informative way later on when it comes to making sense of the mood tracker. Take Care, and I am here for you too :)

[zzzmykids]

Starbunny, ever since I started  lithium, I no longer have, well once in a while, but majority of time I have angry manics.  I remember before being diagnosed I had the angries, oh and the language that would come out of me and the wanting to just get out of the car and run was overwhelming.
When I begin thinking fast and critical of others...I try to walk it off, separate myself or drink a coke for some reason that helps.
The last time I broke off into mania it was at my oldest daughters mother in law and I yelled at her for answering a question I asked my daughter.
It took a week but I did apologize. Most of the time we are friends but sometime she treats me with condescending attitude and I hate that!
Starbunny, journal. I journal off screen with a pen. And you know I read the Psalms to see humanity in all forms and emotions.

I am here. Anytime.
zzzmykids

[wj74]

It's definitely a speed thing for me.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I've heard numerous people compare mania to being sped up and depression to being slowed down and to think of bipolar disorder as sped up/slowed down rather than maniac/depression because symptoms are appropriately like that for each mood field.

[starbunny]

Wow! That's one hell of a a quick response, fair play. I'm glad we brought it up now! Yeah it shows that people here do take on board new ideas/suggestions.
Thanks medhelp :)

[Xila31]

I had this message this morning in my in-box.

"Mood Tracker Supports Multiple Moods Per Day
Sent by Med Help Jan 27, 2010 06:36PM
Thanks for your suggestion to update our Mood Tracker to allow users to enter in multiple moods per day. We just wanted to let you know that the Mood Tracker has now been updated to do this. Just select a mood and then click Specify Time. To add more moods, click "Add another".

To see public Mood Trackers, including those that have multiple moods per day, check out the Mood Tracker Gallery: http://www.medhelp.org/user_trackers/gallery/mood

Thanks,
MedHelp "

See, I told you they listen. :D

[starbunny]

Yeah, I've noticed they have added some new things lately like you can now put the time of day you do the tracking etc so I guess they are open to new suggestions.

[Xila31]

I suggest we suggest this to the mood tracker builders. They seem to listen when people have ideas how to make things better. It might work out.

[starbunny]

ILADVOCATE I'm sure you are right about the mixed state, If this is the case however I still have the problem of how to record mixed states on the mood tracker as the way it measures mood is more of a straight up/down. Also like Xila31 mentioned cycles may vary during the day as well. Has anyone got a suggestion?

[ILADVOCATE]

Actually what you describe as angry or irritable may be a mixed state such as an agitated mixed state where a person has the down quality of depression but the speeded up quality of mania and can feel angry at the world. A person with bipolar can experience standard manic episodes with elation and racing thoughts. I have experienced both of course. You could ask your psychiatrist more about the specifics about what you are going through.

[Xila31]

No, I agree with you. I don't like how it says good, excellent, manic. Because I, too, don't have the happy party hypomania. I have racing thoughts, I feel like I'm moving so fast everything around me is too slow so I can't focus or concentrate. I'm irritated and frustrated and unhappy when it comes. I also don't think manic is a mood necessarily. I wish they would have today I'm feeling: "horrible, bad, nuetral, good, excellent." Because I also don't like "okay" because on here the okay is a "happy" but to me okay is just sort of meh, not good or bad, nothing outstanding to report. Then they should have a "cycle" which should be like today my cycle is more: "depressed, mildly depressed, nuetral mood, hypomanic, manic." It should be the same type of line graph thing. Because you can be happy and manic. You can also be depressed and have an okay day or even a good day considering everything.

I think that would be a much better mood tracker, then with all the symptoms. I often feel the graph doesn't really get across what I'm actually feeling. You know?