Stratas of Mania?

Posted on December 1, 2005 in Blogging Mania

I got curious. A year ago today I was in the throes of a “black mania” or mixed state. Now I take lithium. Many writers report different effects from the mood stabilizer. A few say their ability to be creative is impaired. Many more insist on the opposite. Can we see any difference in my writing?

Allow me to present several pieces that I have written on this blog since 2002. All were written on the First or Second of December. Think of these as strata in a road cut. See if you can detect any signs of mood swings:

2 December 2002
You see, my father worked in computers when I was growing up — back in the days when the CPU occupied more floor space than my condo. I have more processing power in my PDA than Dad had on the second floor of Aerospace Corporation. Dad died in 1980, so he didn’t get to see the revolution, but he knew it was coming. I thought he was crazy when he told me that some day I’d have a computer in my home. Well, he was wrong about that. We have six (counting the PDA).

1 December 2003
A new tactic of the Right is to blame all kinds of things on the poor and the working class including air pollution, litter, hunger, violence, etc. The rich cannot be held accountable for any part of this, they argue. Their actions, their purchases, and their choices exist entirely independently of any other person. The actions of the poor and the working class burden the rich, goes the subtextual argument, but the rich do only good.

Now this comes when I was in mania, one year ago:

1 December 2004
I would like to say that it is wise that we learn to channel our feelings but not to take such unreasonable account of them so as to blame ourselves for things beyond our control. In this, I part with New Age/Rich Christianity. For one thing, the horrors inflicted on the poor in their day to day life exceed those experienced by those living in self-realized terror within gated communities. For another, as human beings we do have a range of reactions, but for some situations that range is limited. When someone is attacking you, it is difficult to break out singing in a joyful voice. Who is to blame for your feelings when a lead pipe comes crashing down on your head or a bullet is shot into your chest? In the purist “We are responsible for our own feelings and nothing else” view, the rape victim and the poor are turned into victims a few more times — by themselves first and by others who expect them to assume impossible and unreasonable burdens for their condition.

1 December 2005
He was in a bad place. He wanted to “break the usual African American cycle” and allow his fiance to be a homemaker rather than have to be the main support for the family. She showed signs of making the kinds of mistakes that many uninformed family members make about dealing with the mental illness of a loved one. Things probably said in love that his brain took in as abuse because she hadn’t thought things through or been properly coached. He believed that she hated him for being sick, which upon further questioning, didn’t seem to be the case.

Opinions? Be nice.