Super-Charged

Posted on July 25, 2006 in Mania

“Chatty Cathy” is how one bipolar describes herself when she go manic and talks and talks and talks. She isn’t narcissistic. Her psychological engine pushes her and pushes her.

As a facilitator of a DBSA group, I’ve had to wave people — including this woman –down a few times. More that people realize, it is not so hard to stop one of us in mid-glottal-rampage. All you have to say is “enough!” And we do. I’ve seen men about to charge like rhinoceros come to a complete halt as a diminuitive woman raises her hand and intones “Enough”. It’s not that we’re entirely out of control, it’s that we’ve lost our sense of boundaries. The lines on the road have disappeared. So we look for other signals. A friendly wave from a friend may be just what we need. Just be sure to let us come to a smooth stop.

The loquacious bipolar might be likened as a eighteen wheeler running at 60 mph next to a passenger car. Up ahead, a stoplight turns red. Both must brake. Which of them do you think had the better chance of not going into the intersection?

The Bipolar brain is more active than the unafflicted one. MRIs show that we have more glow over a slightly larger area. When you realize this, you can understand why we are as we are: more the brain processes information and we become overstimulated by the timbre and bass of our own voices not to mention the faces around us or, as I am on occasion, by the shapes of the clouds. There is much to cherish in our heightened senses, but it is important that we do our best to channel them and keep them from reaching impossible levels of sensation and decision.