Romania

How to Deal With Mania and Manic Episodes

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If your doctor has diagnosed you with bipolar disorder, you know what a manic episode feels like. To be diagnosed, you must have had at least one episode of mania or its milder form, hypomania.

During these stretches, you may feel fabulous, with lots of energy and an “up” mood. But in the case of bipolar disorder,” those feelings are a symptom of mental illness. So it’s important to recognize the early signs that mania is developing.

Warning Signs

Just because you’re extra-energetic and in a good mood doesn’t mean you’re starting a manic episode. But be aware of patterns, such as when:

  • You feel you’re on top of your life even if it’s not really going well.
  • You have anxiety that can’t be explained by a stressful event, such as an upcoming exam.
  • Your thoughts race and you’re irritable.
  • You’re sleeping less and not taking good care of yourself.
  • You talk too much or faster than usual.
  • Your sex drive is revved up.
  • You turn more often to alcohol or drugs or do other risky things like drive dangerously.

Management

Once you’re in a full-blown manic state, you may not think you need help or be willing to accept it. That’s why the best way to deal with mania is to address it early on.

If you think you’re heading into a manic stretch, first get in touch with your doctor. They may need to change your medication dose or recommend that you try another one.

Take your medicine exactly as your doctor prescribes, even if you don’t think you need it. Tell your doctor about any supplements or herbs you’re taking. They may cause worrisome side effects.

Other things that may help:

  • Review what’s happening in your life and your stress level. See if you can dial back your commitments a bit. If you slow down now, you may avoid having to take more time off later because your symptoms got worse.
  • See a counselor or therapist. If you aren’t already in therapy, find someone who treats people with bipolar disorder. They can help you learn ways to identify and cope with troubling thoughts, emotions, or behavior.
  • Look for ways to relax. When you talk with others, focus on listening. Carve out time to read, listen to your favorite music, or watch a show.
  • Get enough sleep. This is not a time to skimp on your ZZZs. You need at least 6 hours a night.
  • Watch out for caffeine. Steer clear not only of caffeine in beverages, like sodas and energy drinks, but in over-the-counter medications.
  • Stay away from drugs and alcohol. They can affect your mood and may interact with medications you’re taking.
  • Above all, don’t postpone seeking help so you can continue to ride the manic “high.” The higher your manic episode rises, the further your mood may tumble after it ends.

Reducing Risk

Talk to your doctor or therapist about what you should do when you’re already in a manic state. And plan ahead. You might ask trusted friends or relatives to call your doctor if they notice signs of mania.

Here are some practical ways to protect yourself while you’re in a manic episode:

  • Keep up your normal routine. As much as possible, try to maintain a stable daily schedule. This includes your sleep, eating, and exercise patterns.
  • Guard your finances: Limit how much cash you carry. Consider temporarily giving your credit cards to someone you trust to avoid impulse purchases.
  • Delay big decisions. Don’t make any major changes before you talk to someone, such as a mental health clinician or a relative. At the least, give yourself time to reflect before you take action.
  • Bypass risky situations. This isn’t the right time to begin a new relationship or sort through a conflict with a friend.

Prevention

Once you feel better, keep up your healthy habits. That includes exercise, which can improve both mood and sleep. Build up your toolbox of strategies to reduce the intensity of future episodes:

  • Look at what boosts your stress level. Lots of aspects of your life, whether it’s your job or a person you deal with, may affect your mood.
  • Think about what may have been early signs of previous episodes. Was missing sleep for a few nights an early signal? Tell loved ones about those signs so they can watch out for them, too.
  • Track your mood each day. When you keep a daily mood diary, you and your doctor or therapist can look for patterns. How do medication, sleep patterns, and life events affect how you feel?
  • Once your mood is stable, reflect on how mania affects you in good and bad ways. Write down those thoughts. Then you can remind yourself of the downside when you’re tempted to ignore the early signs of mania.

Artificial blood created.

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A team of researchers of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, a city in NW Romania, has created a recipe for artificial blood whose preliminary tests have proven encouraging.

The team led by professor Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu, who is only 39 years old, has been doing research to create the artificial blood for six years and their discovery could prove crucial given the lack of blood doctors need in cases of severe accidents and major surgeries. The blood is made of water, salt, albumin and a protein – hemerythrin -extracted from marine worms which makes the artificial blood stress resistant.

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The researchers said the results of the first tests performed on mice are encouraging. „The mice treated with this type of blood ‘made in Cluj’ have remained indifferent and this is what we want, not to display signs of inflammation or disease. The ultimate goal is we don’t get rejection reactions of the artificial blood by the human body which we have for some of the current products” professor Silaghi-Dumitrescu said, as quoted by Mediafax.

He said all the previous attempts to create artificial blood have failed because researchers couldn’t find the right protein to keep the substance immune to stress factors. So far the tests on animals didn’t generate the toxicity other types of protein used so far produced.

The lead researcher pointed out the tests on mice will continue until proven there is not toxicity at all, before any attempt to use it on human beings. Silaghi-Dumitrescu said he expected concluding results in at most two years before any further tests. “Tests on humans are a very delicate topic, we need some very serious licenses and they represent an enormous risk” he underlined.

How My Whole Life Changed Because of One Simple Thing.

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“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” ~ T. S. Eliot

After living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2 years, I am home again… the same place where I returned in the fall of 2009 after living in U.S. for 3 years, the place where I was born and raised, Suceava, Romania.

Things have changed so much since 2009, and so did I.

I remember how lost and how confused I used to feel back then, not knowing who I was, what I wanted to do with my life and which direction to take.

It’s incredible how much things can change in just a couple of years and how your whole life can change because of one simple thing.

I remember like it was yesterday how I used to sit down at this cute table we have in the living room, and write in my “dream notebooks” about the many things I wanted to be, do and have if there were no limits to what I could achieve.

“Become a very happy, confident, fierce, strong, kind, generous, gentle, honest person, always feeling and looking amazing.

Have a strong, healthy and beautiful body.

Understand, accept and love myself and others.

Happy and content with the way I look and feel.

I touch lives and help people change the way they think and live their lives…

Meditate at least 2 times per week, exercise.

I have attracted, and still do, wonderful and supportive friends, loving and positive people that encourage and help me grow.

I work with people from around the world who are in need for a change. They need to change their lives in order to be happy and I help them do just that.

I am grateful for my life, for who I am and for how happy my life is.

I only focus on having positive and powerful thoughts, nothing else.

Be present in the NOW!

Because I am living life in an authentic way, people are drawn to me.

Travel around the world.

Embrace my inner child. Be playful.

Live life my own way. Stop chasing approval outside yourself.

I no longer care about other people’s approval. My approval is the only approval I need.

Make my own rules. 

Overcome the fear of dying.

Incorporate photography and personal development in your work.

Work on writing powerful and life changing books.

Change the way you think about age.

I am at peace with myself and the world around me.

I am not afraid to take risks. If I don’t take risks I will live a sedentary, unfulfilled life, feeling depressed and down… feeling unhappy and incomplete… “

and these are some of the things I wrote on my “dream notebooks”. The simple act of writing down my dreams has changed my whole life for the better.

It’s because of this simple thing that I am no longer the lost, scared and insecure girl I used to be but rather a happy, confident, fierce, strong, kind, generous and loving person.

I traveled in the last 2 years like I never traveled in my whole life (see pictures bellow). I made so many new and wonderful friends, people whom I love and adore and who encourage and support me in everything I do.

I used to be afraid of growing older and terrified of dying. Not anymore!

Now I know that age is just a number and because of that it no longer matters how old I am. In fact, I am excited to grow “older” because I know that as years will go by, my life will get better and better and I will grow wiser.

As far as death is concern… because I am living life fully, I am no longer afraid of dying. In fact, I love to talk about death just as much as I love to talk about life.

A lot of things have changed since then and the best part about this whole list is the fact that at that time I had no idea how was I going to incorporate photography and personal development in my work. The funny thing is that I ended up creating the PurposeFairy blog, this beautiful baby that I love so much, which is all about personal development and the photos I use are all photos taken by me.

And it doesn’t end here. While I was in Malaysia, I worked in Mindvalley as a Product Development Creative Lead, working with authors like Burt Goldman, Laura Silva, Mike Dooley, Lee Holden and many others on creating personal development products.

This year I was also a photographer at Awesomeness Fest, Bali, one of the most incredible and impactful personal growth & entrepreneurship events in the world and in November I will go to A-Fest Dominican Republic where I will be a photographer and a speaker.

How funny is that?

I am also working on my first book (it’s taking a bit longer that I expected) which will most likely be published by the biggest book publisher in the world.

So many wonderful things have happened to me in these last 4 years and it was all because in the fall of 2009, I decided to write down the things I wanted from life, and then take the necessary action steps to move myself in that direction.

I am not sharing all of these things to brag, but rather to inspire you to do the same.

I know that there is something very special in each and one of us and I know that stories have the power, and I hope my story will inspire you to to write your own list of dreams and goals, and to dare to make them all come true.

In Berlin, crisis breeds creative business.

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On a typical autumn evening at a low-lit, retrofitted bar in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district, the cozy murmur of conversation and music seems to foreshadow the approaching cold months. But tonight, a mysterious group in black clothing pours through the front door, and one of them begins presenting patrons with small, white menus.

“Hi, my name is Serena,” the tall, dark-haired woman says with a smile. “I’m from Theater am Tisch (Theater at the Table), and this is the evening’s selection of dramatic pieces.”

The menu contains a list of scenes from cinema and stage, including one from the movie American Beauty, with monologues priced at 1.50 Euros and duets at 2 Euros per audience member. Serena nods in acknowledgement of some orders, situates empty chairs alongside the table, and whisks away to her colleagues at the other end of the bar.

Soon a man and woman take their seats at the table, placing a candle at its center. “The flame indicates the start of the scene,” they explain, lighting the candle.

The scene plays out believably: raised voices cause heads to turn, but only momentarily. The space of the tiny table seems to contain the captivating drama. Afterwards, thin but enthusiastic applause at the table is followed by handshakes and exchanges between the actors and their patrons.

It isn’t long before surrounding tables sneak a secondary peak at their menus and motion Serena over to place their orders.

Italian-born Serena Schimd launched Theater am Tisch in Berlin after moving to the city from Milan, where economic hard times put her previous employer out of business and made work generally difficult to find.

“We needed new opportunities,” Schimd says of herself and boyfriend Emiliano Saurin, a mobile web developer and entrepreneur.

“You can’t do the things you can do in Berlin in Milan; it’s too expensive. Here we can try things and see how they work without worrying about how to survive at the same time.”

Schimd and Saurin aren’t alone: Germany saw a drastic influx of immigrants from European Union countries in 2011, according to a report by the German Ministry of Migrants and Refugees. Immigration from places such as Greece increased as much as 90 percent from 2010.

Italian immigrants to Germany in 2011 ranked fifth in number among E.U. nations after those from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

An interior designer by trade, Schimd says Theater Am Tisch started when she and some friends developed the business as part of a cultural association near Milan. With the project enjoying modest success in Milan after only a year, she immediately recognized a potential market in Berlin.

“There’s a lot of culture here,” she says. “You don’t have to ‘rent’ a bar to offer something like this; locale owners are happy to have you come in and try something new. Milan, on the other hand, is kind of a closed city. It’s a fashion hub, so there’s a lot of money there, and you have to pay to visit places, and you never know how much you’re going to earn.”

Schimd says Theater am Tisch – whose Berlin rendition includes nine actors from three countries — has been booked to perform at an upcoming awards show in Berlin, and that she is working to warm restaurants up to the concept.

“In Berlin, we’ve actually found it hard to get people to reserve performances because there’s often too many things to do in the city. That actually worked better in Milan, where this was more about food: people enjoyed the idea of sitting down to a dinner and ordering performances between courses.”

But Schimd says the project’s spontaneity has been surprisingly welcome in Berlin. She has even been able to raise prices in hip, upscale neighborhoods such as Prenzlauer Berg.

“We’re looking forward to the winter, when everyone is together inside bars and cafes in the evening and pleased to come across something new.”

Source: Smart Planet.