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Mania

Sufferers of mania feel excessively cheerful, are bursting with energy, and seem to have no need for sleep. Their minds are full of exciting ideas and plans. Their speech tends to be very rapid. In its severe form, sufferers also hear 'voices' and have other unusual experiences (as with schizophrenia). However, in mania, the psychotic (loss of reality) experiences are in keeping with their elevated mood. In other words, the sufferer may believe he or she is a very special person, being quite excited or elated about this, rather than being depressed or sad. The danger with mania is that sufferers lose their judgment, leading to such complications as spending all of their money, severe social embarrassment, sexual disinhibition, or other inappropriate comments or actions. They may eventually succumb to physical exhaustion, with collapse or death after weeks of a constantly elevated mood.

Advice:

Keep the person safe and calm. Prevent them from trying to solve too many of their 'problems' (if the person is obsessed with this). Seek general medical attention or refer to a psychiatric service urgently (see Table 6). Often, full blown mania can only be treated compulsorily in hospital because it's so hard to convince someone who feels so great that they actually have an illness!