{"id":854,"date":"2009-08-28T17:28:36","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T17:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=854"},"modified":"2018-05-15T10:01:14","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T17:01:14","slug":"reader-comment-bipolar-disorder-and-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/reader-comment-bipolar-disorder-and-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader comment: bipolar disorder and spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just received the following comment from Janette.\u00a0 I often then of the difference between mania and religious\/spiritual feelings.\u00a0 It can be so hard to tell the difference. This is also true with the Tarot, psychic readings and anything else that connects to the spiritual world.<\/p>\n

No matter what you believe or don’t believe, the facts are that people with mania can have what feels like a magnificent religious experience when manic and then be very devastated when they realize it was mania. Prevention is he key here. If you know your mania starts with religious\/spiritual\/psychic fervor, you need to know the signs and get help before they go too far. This is one situation my books talk about very, very clearly. You have to know the signs of mania a lot earlier than the signs of depression and psychosis. Mania has such a small treatment window – and you may be in a hospital thinking you’re Jesus before you know it!\u00a0 Here is Janetta’s letter.<\/p>\n

Dear Julie:
\nI converted to Islam about 23 years ago after running around various religions and even studying them at University.
\nThe dilemma between what is a mystical state and what is mania is truly a fascinating question. I think I\u2019ve had both\u2026and i would now say that a good way to discern the difference is by the effect they have on your own life and that of others.
\nGod is always loving, just, beautiful etc etc whereas mania and craziness isn\u2019t and can be very destructive. Depression feels like hell but if we can reach out to a higher power in that state then we can always have hope and that in itself lets a little chink of light into the darkness\u2026
\nI could go on and on.
\nAnyways, thanks so much. I know that God is with you and the good work you do. Janetta<\/p>\n

\"wheel_of_fortune\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s easy to think you’re psychic when you’re actually just manic- or manic and psychotic!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mania can make you feel you’re having a religious experience all of the time. As Janetta pointed out.\u00a0 The experiences that don’t cause\u00a0extreme \u00a0let down, harm or hospitalization are often the real thing.\u00a0\u00a0 Mania and or psychotic induced experiences are usually episodic- in other words, the religious\/spiritual intensity of feelings may simply go away when the mood swings ends- which is another way to tell the difference between what is real and what’s an illness.\u00a0 Julie<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"sunburst\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just received the following comment from Janette. I often then of the difference between mania and religious\/spiritual feelings. It can be so hard to tell the difference. This is also true with the Tarot, psychic readings and anything else that connects to the spiritual world.<\/p>\n

No matter what you believe or don’t believe, the facts are that people with mania can have what feels like a magnificent religious experience when manic and then be very devastated when they realize it was mania. Prevention is he key here. If you know your mania starts with religious\/spiritual\/psychic fervor, you need to know the signs and get help before they go too far. This is one situation my books talk about very, very clearly. You have to know the signs of mania a lot earlier than the signs of depression and psychosis. Mania has such a small treatment window – and you may be in a hospital [ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11951,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/11951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}