During a manic phase the feeling of power can sometimes be deceptive, am I really happy?
You are particularly happy at the moment, everything is smiling at you, you are amazed again and the depression seems far away, as if unreal, from wondering if you really were sick one day. Is it possible that you are finally stabilized? In any case you feel something akin to happiness.
How do you know if it is really that or if you have instead switched to the manic side of bipolarity?
Here are four concrete ways to get to the bottom of it:
If it only extends over a few hours or days to make way for a depressive slide, you will have your answer. Patience. When a balance is established in our life, we recognize it by how long it lasts. Of course, everything is not rosy, but the happy state of mind adapts to the vagaries of daily life, it only fades away in the event of a serious problem, which even he can resist.
A key clue that allows you to choose happiness over mania is the absence of excess in how you feel. You are filled with joy, not euphoria; you have enthusiasm but not exhilaration. It's all about balancing your emotions and feelings. It may seem abstract. So how can we have a reliable method for evaluating this dosage?
On a scale of 1 to 10, estimate your apparent happiness. If you give it a grade 10 because you are swimming in ecstasy, 0 being the extreme pole of unhappiness, refine your evaluation even further: does this 10 border on 10+++, or even an 11 flashing red on your inner gauge? In which case, this excessive component should alert you. Indeed, real happiness remains in the moderate bracket of the ceiling, between 8 and 10. Here are more ideas for improving your lifestyle.
“Am I happy or in a manic phase? One does not prevent the other but it is important to learn to detect these manic phases in order to be able to better manage them.”
Did you sleep more or less than usual? Been carried away in verbal logorrhea or the impression of being the master of the world, or even felt brilliant ideas flow in all directions? Review your notes with your own list of prodromes. If there's no blinking light on your dashboard to indicate a manic surge, it's pure happiness and not a trick your mind is playing on you.
Sleep normally, an average of 8 hours per night. Often a bipolar person tends to sleep less during a manic phase without feeling deep fatigue. It is therefore important to calculate your sleep time, for this there are many free applications. On Android I personally recommend Clock. A few tips to improve your sleep.
Need a boost via external feedback? Join our bipolar advocacy group.
