Jeff’s A.D.D. Mind

Manic States

Before I started writing this post I made the mistake¹ of googling “manic state.” The description of the highs and lows sound very much like A.D.D. highs and lows such as increased strength and energy accompanied by decreased sleep whereas the low is a sleep problem (too much or too little) and loss of self esteem. (See: http://www.cmhawrb.on.ca/bipolar.htm)²

Right now I am in the manic “high” state. My brain is going so fast that I may inadvertently do the same thing many times over with each task being a variation of the previous. I’m sometimes amazed at the speed with which I’m completing tasks. But I don’t really know how to stop…other than to go to sleep. I wish I could regulate this manic state - stop when needed, slow it down, turn it up to full speed. But then that’s the problem with A.D.D. - you can’t regulate these states.

The manic high is a great high. Something happened today that helped contribute to it…I paid two bills on time (well…just on the deadline date but that’s close enough). No small accomplishment for many A.D.D.ers who hate the tedium of such chores and are drowning in financial issues. But that feat - which I’ve done for two months now - has become it’s own “high,” its own sort of manic state that I want to repeat again and again.³ And if this occurs for three months, four months, ten months…will it slide into the category of “boring task?”

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1 - A mistake in the sense that I found out more than I really wanted to know. (Sometimes knowledge is dangerous.)
2 - It is easy to confuse ADD and Bipolar Disorder (”Manic Depression”). Note the following:

Differentiating between ADHD and bipolar disorder in childhood can be difficult. In its classic form, bipolar disorder is characterized by mood cycling between periods of intense highs and lows. But in children, bipolar disorder often seems to be a rather chronic mood dysregulation with a mixture of elation, depression, and irritability. Furthermore, there are some symptoms that can be present both in ADHD and bipolar disorder, such as a high level of energy and a reduced need for sleep.

Source: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/adhd.cfm

3 - Is this sliding into O.C.D.? Once again I am coming close to that artificial boundary between A.D.D. and O.C.D. Speaking of O.C.D., I assume other A.D.D.ers out there did not always find Adrian Monk to be all that funny…sometimes you felt his pain and just couldn’t laugh.

admin posted this article under Adult A.D.D. on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 6:04 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site. Here's the Permalink. View Technorati Linkbacks.