Posted by BarbaraCat on September 4, 2003, at 17:08:14
In reply to talking lettuce » BarbaraCat, posted by katia on September 4, 2003, at 0:42:11
Katia,
Do your tornados correspond with alcohol imbibing? I do not ever get into rages, throwing things, etc., UNLESS I've been seriously drinking. It seems like my rage, which is usually justified but has not been healthfully released, feeds on itself and takes on it's own energy. Alcohol acts like gasoline on a simmering fire, usually towards my husband and prior to that to any man in my life who I felt triggered some deep hurt in me. I would get in touch with a hatred that I either didn't know was there to that intensity, or be able to contain it and work through it - but never completely if the insult was deep enough.I've said some horrible things to my husband. He can certainly get on my nerves in the best of times, but I do love him and normally would never willingly be so cruel. However, there have been times when he's been afraid for his safety. I am an avowed pacifist, a spiritual peaceworker. And I have gotten out of my mind with the urge to wreak havoc upon all living things. I've punched a hole through the wall, etc. But only when I've fanned the flames hot enough with alcohol. It's as though I no longer have conscious control, and sometimes no memory, of this inner insanely rageful furious harpy who I'm sure can take down a city block if she really got going. It really makes me wonder if that rageful demon always waits inside me ready to spring out when the walls are down, if I get invaded and overshadowed by the energy of hate when my protection is weak, who can say. I really don't know if it's my rage or someone or something else's.
My father, however, who never drank, would always turn into a demonic sadistic brutal maniac when his malady struck. His BP manifested in hypomanic swings of multiple projects started and not completed, but more so of a simmering irritability which turned to rage and violence during the extreme mixed states stage, following by intense remorse and black depression. Fun times growing up. His sister was the same way. Mine take on much more of a hallucinogenic (lettuce talk) anguish but that may have something to do with what my neurons learned from my many acid trips.
So, with that, what I've heard is that Depakote is probably the best mood stabilizer for this rageful type of mixed states, not that you're anything like my father was, but once again it's interesting how a subset of an illness has subsets of it's own, and on and on. If you're still enjoying your one glass of dopamine, it would be interesting to chart how you feel before and after and see if it incites any anger for you.
- Barbara
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:9730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030902/msgs/257017.html