Mania and Sunshine Test<\/p>\n
I live in Portland, Oregon and we are having a spectacular winter. It\u2019s the best I\u2019ve experienced in my seven years here. We are used to very, very dark winters. It\u2019s usually dusk at four and dark at five. It\u2019s depression and very bad for bipolar disorder. I was dreading it once again. And yet this year has been at least double the sun as normal. This got me to thinking about mania and sunlight. If you are newly diagnosed with bipolar or care about someone newly diagnosed- \u00a0here is a\u00a0test to see how the sunlight has affected your mania in the past:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Give yourself one point for each yes.<\/p>\n
1. Do you have more depression in the winter and more mania \u00a0(or hypomania- the milder mania) in the summer?<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0Have you ever had a summer that was happy and enjoyable after a winter depression- but just thought it was the real you- even though you slept less, ate less and had more fun outside?<\/p>\n
3. Do you start to feel a lot less depressed in the spring?<\/p>\n
4. If you have been hospitalized for mania- was it in the spring or summer?<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0 Do you crave sunlight and feel your brain clear when you get out in the sun?<\/p>\n
6. \u00a0Are you a lot more social in the summer- to the point that people comment on it? Is it a lot easier to get out of bed?<\/p>\n
7. Do you tend to go off meds when it\u2019s sunny?<\/p>\n
8. \u00a0Do your mood swings have a distinct pattern from winter to summer?<\/p>\n
If you answered yes to two or more of the above, your bipolar is probably affected by sunlight. I know that mine it. My hypomanic episodes are almost always in the summer.<\/p>\n
I can say that living in constant sun doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re constantly manic. I lived in Hawaii for years and was rarely manic.\u00a0 I feel the body adjusts. If you’re from Australia, have probably experienced something similar. It’s about the CHANGE in seasons, not only the sunlight.<\/p>\n
My first hypomanic episode was at 17 when I went on a school trip to Europe. It was in July- very sunny \u2013 with a time change and a lot of excitement. A mania cocktail!<\/p>\n
What is your plan to prevent mania for this spring?<\/p>\n
Julie<\/p>\n
Here is a link to this bipolar mania test if you want to send it to your friends:\u00a0<\/p>\n