Читать книгу Welcome to the Jungle, Revised Edition - Hilary T. Smith - Страница 30

A good way to gauge whether or not you're acting abnormally is to pay attention to your friends' and family's reactions. Sometimes, nobody will realize you're manic until it's too late. But people who know you can usually sense when something is a little off. From a friend's perspective, your “perfectly reasonable” obsession with the pattern in the IBM call database is not perfectly reasonable. A friend can have good insight even when you've lost it. Here are some comments friends might make if you're acting unusually.

“You're acting really intense.”

“You've been working on that project nonstop for a week. Don't you ever sleep?”

“Are you high?”

“What are you talking about? You're not the CEO of Microsoft!”

“Slow down, you're not making sense.”

“Are you drunk?”

If friends know you have a bipolar diagnosis, they might give feedback like:

“You're getting a bit speedy.”

“Have you been sleeping?”

“This is really out of character for you.”

It can be really annoying to hear these comments, especially if you feel strongly that you're not manic or hypomanic. But it's worth being patient with them, because a trusted friend's insight can help you rein in your energy before it gets out of hand.