Sensory over-stimulation? WHAT IS THIS?

darkroses wrote:Have you read this article?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelells ... ipolar-ii/

I found it very inspiring. There may not be much info on how to stabilise without meds per-se, but there's lots of info out there on the lifestyle one should lead for good mental health

-good diet with little sugar + saturated fat
-avoiding alcohol + drugs
-meditation
-exercise
-Avoiding stress

All these things change the chemistry in our brains in a positive way, but without the side effects one gets from medication.

darkroses, i think you're kind of intuitive! I read the entire story on that link and it is not unlike mine. I already posted in your other thread, Hypomanic Success Stories ~ that entire 8 years of my network marketing success was in the Health & Wellness Industry, with a company that is 100% Vegan & has extremely high quality vitamins, supplements, even the body care products are so pure & natural you can practically eat them. I am the picture of health. My "granola" friends call me a Health-Guru and come to me for help with their issues. My "Ding Dong" friends call me a Health-Nazi and try to tempt me with junk food that's not remotely tempting to me.
My health-zealot career began at age 22 when I had final stage cervical dysplasia (last stage of cell mutation before cancer) and instead of going the traditional medical route I did this massive self-healing campaign where I followed the cancer-free diet (which is NO: sugar, caffeine, dairy, soy, meat, corn, or wheat) plus daily exercise, meditation, visualization and deep relaxation. Within about 3 months of this uber-healthy lifestyle I can remember all I ever said was "I feel like super-woman, I LITERALLY feel like my feet are not touching the ground with each footstep, but hovering above it!," and like, I have developed superpowers with my vision, and hearing, thought processes, and intuition. Then I started having lucid experiences, and then I started having out of body experiences. Once I remembered something like it had happened yesterday with my best friend and I jokingly laughed about this thing she said/did and she was totally confused and said she never said/did that and I must have dreamed it, and the next day she came over, erratic and pissed, yelling at me, because exactly what I described had just happened to her that day, and I wasn't even there, but I knew all about it before it happened. She was pissed, like I was either playing some elaborate joke or I was "of the devil" playing tricks on her mind. I quit doing all relaxation techniques, quit my job and ran away to northern California with the Renaissance Faire (but when I went back to my doctor, all signs of dysplasia & hpv were 100% cured/gone and he was baffled and condescending towards me).
Looking back now, it's pretty clear to me that going on that health kick pumped me up into a manic phase of epic proportions. To this day I don't know if I was delusional or if that $#%^ was real.
I've been a healthy eater and natural healer ever since, so when I 1st got this diagnosis I went into HARD CORE self-healing-through-health-and-nutrition mode all over again. With such devastating lack of results, that I finally ended up trying marijuana again after 12 years clean & straight and 20 years eating/living healthy. Seriously, i traded in a 12 year chip for an attempt at some kind of relief when health-habits and traditional medicine have all failed me. I feel utterly humbled in the face of bipolar.
I don't get / feel heightened senses when I smoke weed... it actually dulls my senses to a point that they are tolerable and fuzzy rather that jagged and on overdrive. That dulling sense seems to be the only relief I get.
Like, if I had got up and smoked that night I was hearing the machinery it probably would have stopped... but I was also paralyzed by a sense of fear to move. My brain could not even grasp at a "solution" to the problem... the feeling of evil was so pervasive I couldn't "escape" that reality at that time. I couldn't even roll over or wake up my boyfriend; like I wasn't even aware he existed at that time. I was entirely engulfed by the experience.
So does that count as bipolar delusion? Or just strong experience? I can't tell.

twistednerve wrote:It could be a thousand different causes, but yes, mania increases perception.

Mania is your entire brain and endocrine system in a vulcanic eruption. It's an amplifier of EVERYTHING, inside and outside.

And about speed of cycling, this is not something to be bothered with since most bipolars do cycle very randomly or with specific triggers, time usually isn't a factor. "The bipolar organism" should normally be quite frenzied and swingy in very subtle degrees.

Thank you!!! It is so good to have somebody make these statements to me, just matter-of-factly. It kind of takes all that "angst due to the unknown" out of it and makes me feel more like "oh, yeah, that's normal for this diagnosis!" Whew, what a relief... lol.

twistednerve wrote:It was as if the world got slower, I got faster and somehow more "automatic".
Felt very scary, but at the same times intense and stimulating.

I could hear better, see better in the dark, mind going a hundred thousand kilometers per second but at the same time bizarrely focused. Usually, my mind is flooded with garbled intrusive thoughts, but now it was crystal clear and very random thoughts took over, most of them not unpleasant. I experienced something similar: I remember hearing a faint sound in the distance, then I went to my kitchen window and observed a warehouse a few miles away from my place. I could hear so well what was going on there, but usually I never do.

I totally relate to all of this, too! especially random thoughts that take over my head, this is constant, 24/7 for me right now in this mixed phase, constant noise and distraction in my head, jumbled broken thoughts I can't always hold onto or follow... it's exhausting fighting through that to try to think and communicate.

Thank you to everyone who complimented my writing! I find it difficult in many ways to write about my experiences because there often just dosen't seem to be words or phrases in the english language to describe them. I have to make them up or figure them out. But also easier to write than to talk because halfway through the sentence I can look back, see what I wrote, and then finish the sentence. When speaking and the thought is lost in med sentence, I can never retrieve it. I have to stand there and look like an idiot and say "what was I just saying? 10 times in any conversation and it makes me look like a freaking idiot, when I know that I am smart. When I'm writing I can still feel smart. But I can only write like that when I am fueled by enough hypo. I don't think I write when I'm depressed or when I get that "manic-paralysis" which I've been experiencing in this mixed state.
Thank you to everyone for listening and replying, every little bit helps, I am so mixed up and exhausted this year.

You know, the best treatment for bipolar disorder is still a natural substance. Lithium.
Have you tried it?

It's the best psychiatric medication overall, in my opinion. It's good for literally every disorder and I will take it for the rest of my life, even if under-psychiatric doses.

I also experience something like that. Like others pointed out, I think this is highly related to (hypo)mania. It happened to me this past weekend. I can't say I was manic, I don't think I was. But I was having dinner with friends and the noise they were making started getting to me. Everyone was screaming! Well, not really, that's just what it felt like. I had to excuse myself and go to another room for some peace and quiet. This has happened before.

L'ennui mentioned heightened visual perception. I also experience this, but it never causes me any distress, it's very pleasant actually.

And weed can play a role here too. It happens to me when I smoke. Again, it's a pleasant experience, but I guess that can vary individually.

twistednerve wrote:You know, the best treatment for bipolar disorder is still a natural substance. Lithium.
Have you tried it?

It's the best psychiatric medication overall, in my opinion. It's good for literally every disorder and I will take it for the rest of my life, even if under-psychiatric doses.

Yeah, this is so intriguing to me, I just read about native americans using natural lithium springs ~ i looked it up and there are some not far from me, I considered going just for fun.
Other than that I openly admit I am a pill-o-phobic, having had enough adverse reactions that meds are my "last resort" only. Quite frankly I'm scared of the possible side effects! For now I've chosen to try for as long as I can to stabilize without meds, but I have a written back-up plan for when to say "when" I'm ready for that option.

Invicta, so much the same for me, good to know it is not just me. Thank you!

RE: natural lithium springs

There's a town not far from where I live that has natural lithium in the water. They're quite proud of it, calling it their crazy water.

Exiled. wrote:RE: natural lithium springs

There's a town not far from where I live that has natural lithium in the water. They're quite proud of it, calling it their crazy water.

hahahahaha Greeks used the lithium springs, too.

Actually lithium is everywhere, most abundant mineral on Earth. Where it lacks, apparently everyone's mental health declines.

A lot of studies about lithium in our diets being important for our mental health. We eat about 2g usually.

Lithium is almost side effect free, by the way, crackerjack. If you experience any aside from feeling you just ate a lot of salt at once (stomach upset included), it's because it's too high for you and you should lower it.

I take 900mg and all I get is I pee more often, my stomach gets upset like 10 minutes after a pill, I feel more hot, more thirsty, and sometimes my appetite increases.
But if I let lithium build up too much, I start to get foggy minded. Some days I take 900mg, others 600mg, others 300mg. And I always spread the dose so no side effect hits me.

Also, I take magnesium. Also recommend zinc. It's a lot like lithium. But magnesium has a stronger effect on anxiety and zinc can be a very powerful antidepressant/energizer.

A lot of theories regard lithium as the mineral used to regulate our nervous system the most.
Notice mood stabilizers are always calcium channel blockers? Well, that's because minerals are what our body uses to properly conduct nervous system repair and exchange of information. Each has an important function, but one can somewhat replace the other.

I strongly suggest a sh!t load of magnesium, a little zinc and at least 300mg lithium for any bipolar or anxiety/depression sufferer.

Erm... Hate being "that guy" but...

The lithium sold as a supplement isn't very well studied, whereas the prescription is. They know exactly how much to give with the prescription for therapeutic effects and all lithium sources has a risk for toxicity. People on it have to have blood work done regularly to check their lithium levels. Just exercise some caution of taking too much if you go the natural route. Here's a bit on the toxicity:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 002667.htm

Exiled. wrote:Erm... Hate being "that guy" but...

The lithium sold as a supplement isn't very well studied, whereas the prescription is. They know exactly how much to give with the prescription for therapeutic effects and all lithium sources has a risk for toxicity. People on it have to have blood work done regularly to check their lithium levels. Just exercise some caution of taking too much if you go the natural route. Here's a bit on the toxicity:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 002667.htm

Exiled. brought something important to our attention.
I would stay clear off anything but lithium CARBONATE, if you're bipolar.

Lithium carbonate is the comproved one to work as a psychiatric medication and mood stabilizer.

Lithium Orotate it's an over the counter supplement, easiest to find too. *Some* people find it is as effective as carbonate, others disagree.
it has distinct effects, though, such as being an excellent nootropic for some (higher focus amongst non-ADDers it seems).

And also, lithium levels need to be checked, yeah. 0.9mg/l is usually the ideal therapeutic dose for most people. Going below 0.5 is considered not effective FOR MANIA, and above 1.5 it can be highly toxic. But the toxicity bar is best decided by you, if you're showing side effects related to it, lower the dose or stop it completely.

I quit my meds about 1year 1/2 ago and it was all great for about 5 months until I completely lost my mind. I had the worst manic episode of my life, completely delusional. While stable I fealt sharp, was in great shape, and just convinced myself I could live without the meds and be a better person. I did however get stressed alot easier and needed alcohol as a sleep aid. finally I fealt too much preasure and the amount of stress I was under caused me to snap.
Stress is my number one trigger..
It may be possible to live without meds, but, almost everybody that is deffintely bipolar will need them. I have bipolar type 1 and this is why I will most likely always need to take them, unless research finds better options. Over stimulation happens when you are manic. Everything you described has happened to me in a simalar way.
I take my meds and deal with the side effects. the side effects I experience are weight gain, dullness, hair loss, and less sex drive to some extent.

What side effects did you experience that made you give up meds completely?

If you continue to cycle like this everything will just continue to escalade until you have no control over anything. If things do get worse I hope you find the help you need. I dont like meds but I have to admit I am most stable while on them.