Dealing with Hypomanias

Quoting from the Wikipedia, the symptoms of depression are:

These are mostly the external symptoms. While the exact thoughts differ from person to person, here is how I felt:

In regards to hypomanias, Wikipedia gives the following symptoms:

It's a pretty good description of me when I'm hypomanic.

When people say that someone is "crazy", "insane", "out of his mind" etc. they usually mean that he or she is eccentric or behaving irrationaly, not that they are mentally unsound. I know and have heard about many people who are eccentric or very eccentric and yet are perfectly sane, and lead perfectly happy lives.

There's a difference between conformism or "being normal" and mental health.

Some bad moods are normal and are a healthy part of living and would not lead to depression. For example, if someone you cared about died, it's perfectly OK to feel sad. Rational fear is also normal and healthy. (but one should avoid irrational fear). My point is that one cannot or should not be happy all the time. Sometimes it is also OK to be a little "down".

Depressions have a cause. According to "Feeling Good" it is usually a thought or a group of thoughts that is bothering someone, and caused someone to feel depressed. Psychoactive medication aims to deal with the symptom that is a chemical problem in the functioning of the brain. However, it does not deal with the actual cause that is the mental problem.

In order to deal with the cause instead of the symptom, you still need Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and to read "Feeling Good".

That put aside I should note that I am taking medication, prescribed to me by a Psychiatrist. It does not prevent me from becoming anxious, but it may make the anxieties less severe (I'm not entirely sure about that).

This is probably the single best advice one can give. Read "Feeling Good" and do the exercises given there. They have proved very helpful to me.

Exercising and especially doing aerobic exercise (jogging, biking, dancing, swimming, etc.) is very useful for preventing or lessening anxieties.

My therapist recommended that in order to sleep well during days in which I'm hypomanic, I should exercise during the late afternoon and evening.

I don't consume alcoholic beverages, don't consume caffeine, have never smoked, and have never consumed any of the currently illegal drugs. While it does not prevent hypomanias, I find that it makes me less moody, more energetic throughout the day, and allows me to sleep better at nights. (I had also tried to refrain from eating sugary foods, but I couldn't persist in it very well.)

I also take multi-vitamin pills, and some people take many more individual minerals than I do, and while I'm not sure it helps with anxieties, it's very good for health and longevity.

I also find that relaxing or doing things you love to do is helpful for keeping a good self-esteem. It's especially important during anxieties. Listening to music, sitting, thinking and doing nothing, taking a time for leisure at the computer, are useful for relief from troubling thought.

When I'm hypomanic, I'm getting lots of good ideas: for stories, for essays, random useful thoughts, etc. While a lot of them had seemed silly in the past, some of them proved to be very useful and rational.^{[ManiaStories]}

It would be a good idea to write the ideas down, or even work on realising the essays or articles, because it makes one less excited and calmer. I would be a good idea not to publicise them in public until you're well out of a hypomania, because they may prove to be immature or silly in the short-run.

I personally may have sometimes been rejected from jobs because of the many things I've written and placed online, and which are easily accessible using a Google Search. I don't mind that because I feel that expressing and publicising my creativity is more important than making myself a better job candidate to some "attractive" jobs. And some employers seemed to be very impressed by some of what I wrote online, or at least did not mind that, and these seem like jobs I prefer.

It is naturally a good idea to receive as much commentary as possible about one's articles or writings in private before publicising them for all the Internet to see.

It is a good idea to admit that you're "stressed" - anxious, etc. My therapist said that the word "hypomania" is intimidating because it contains the word "mania", so one should rephrase it in case the other party is not that knowledgable about Psychology. Sometimes you may find some of your friends or family (but not all) good candidates for consulting with your thoughts or feelings. I once spent an hour or so on an IRC (= Internet Relay Chat) conversation listening to a 19-years-old whom I knew, talking about her problems. I also consulted people on IRC or IM about my own issues and often found creative solutions or empathy.

This is doubly correct for talking with my family members.

During a hypomania, it is a good idea to maintain a low online profile. Namely, don't post too much to mailing lists or other forums, don't chat on the IRC too much (and try to focus on technical problems or your psychological situation), and in general try to maintain a low-profile.

However, I feel that real-life meetings with people and talking to them face to face is actually very good for one's well-being during a hypomania.

So if you can get a friend or a few to meet with you in a café , or go to a club meeting, it will be a good idea.

It is my impression that often the philosophies and idea systems that we are generally exposed to (i.e: most western religions), are very harmful for one's self-esteem and prevent one from properly getting out of depressions.

The Judeo-Christian ethics instill a lot of feelings of guilt in people for perfectly innocent actions and thoughts. Also the psychological fuel there is contradictory, aims to control people and subject them to higher causes, and is harmful to one's self-esteem.

Therefore, I suggest you instead study and adopt a more benevolent psychological philosophy, which will help give you enough tools to live your life more happily and to deal with clinical conditions as they arise. My personal favourite is Neo-Tech, which is an extension and re-organisation of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, with many vital corrections. However, I do not rule out that a different personal philosophy will be better for different people.

It's possible that if you're a university student or a grunt employee, then you can get some reliefs for your medical condition. So try to see if it is possible, and if so - do that.