![]() ![]() ![]() In fact, it’s often the opposite- people who are hypomanic are frequently quite successful by Western standards - financially and socially. In hypomania, someone’s mood and energy levels are above normal, but not the point where it causes problems in their life. Going through a manic state can cause financial ruin, loss of work, destruction of important relationships, and the aftermath is often traumatizing. Mania includes everything mentioned above except that the symptoms last at least a week, cause the person to be hospitalized, or also include psychosis (the person is no longer in touch with reality). irritability, can be to the point of physical violence. doing things that are pleasurable but can cause social harm (spending too much money on things that aren’t important or the person can’t afford, having sex without considering the consequences, making impulsive life decisions such as quitting a job) pressured speech (being overly talkative, others can’t get a word in edgewise) In order to be considered a hypomanic state, you have to experience at least 3 of the symptoms for 4 days or less. The DSM-IV (a manual which defines all of the types of mental illness) lists the following as symptoms of mania and hypomania. People can be hypomanic and not have bipolar or schizoaffective disorders, but people who experience mania are by definition have one of those diagnoses. Hypomania means “just under mania”, or “less severe”. Since I’ve already written about flow, let’s look at the definition of mania or hypomania. Being able to identify the difference between flow versus hypomania is a useful tool for clinicians and patients alike. I recently had the unfortunate experience of having to tell someone that although they were convinced they were in flow, on a creative binge, they were in fact manic. As a person becomes manic, they may misinterpret mania and hypomania as being in flow. It’s important to be able to make the distinction, especially for people who suffer from bipolar disorder. Feeling like you don’t need to eat or sleep, totally absorbed in what you’re doing, not wanting to stop…on the surface they can look similar. For people who work in mental health, the “ flow state” sounds an awful lot like hypomania. ![]()
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