After a stressful day, I’m hypomanic and it brings to mind my self-help tips for how to calm down a bipolar hypomania. These tricks might not be available or work for everyone, but here’s what I do to calm down my hypomania.
Why Is Hypomania a Problem? Why Calm Hypomania Down?
Some people would tell you that bipolar hypomania is not a problem and they have no desire to calm it down. Well, that certainly is your prerogative, but, in my rather learned opinion, the higher you fly, the farther you fall and the bigger a crater you make when you get there so it behooves me (and you) to calm down bipolar hypomania whenever you can.
Self-Help for Hypomania – How to Calm Down Your Hypomania
Here are some things to consider if you’re hypomanic and you want to calm down:
- Try meditating. Now, meditating isn’t for everyone and if you try to start meditating when you’re hypomanic, you’re likely to fail, but if you have a regular mindfulness meditation practice, now would be the time to put it into action.
- Exercise. Personally, I’ve never found this useful (actually, it tends to make me more hypomanic) but some people do find that they can “burn off” their hypomanic energy through exercise. You could try something cardio-intensive to burn off energy or try something like calming like yoga to try to bring yourself down directly.
Try progressive muscle relaxation. Progressive muscle relaxation is sort of like meditating but it’s easier because it’s physical and It’s really simple. Lie on the floor and simply work from the top of your body to the bottom or the bottom to the top and clench each muscle as hard as you can for five seconds and then release. Then move on to the next muscle. This will progressively relax your whole body. Really. Do it more than once if you need to.- Take your PRN medication. PRN medication is taken “as needed.” So some people, myself included, have medications that we can take when things get bumpy. Typically this medication is a benzodiazepine (like Ativan) or an antipsychotic (like Seroquel). These medications can be used to calm a hypomania or even to induce sleep.
- Use blue light-blocking glasses. Blue light is the type of light that tells your brain it’s time to wake up and be energetic and this is exactly the wrong message to give if you’re hypomanic. And the trouble is, if you’re reading this right now, you’re making it worse because electronics all emit a fair amount of blue light (as do the lighting fixtures in your home). The solution is simple though: just pop on a pair of blue light-blocking glasses. They’re cheap on Amazon and you can get a pair that can fit over your existing glasses if you need them. (These are also great every night when you’re calming down to go to bed. Wear them an hour before bedtime in help induce sleep.)
- Remove distractions. Hypomania may make you want to seek distractions and stimuli. Don’t listen to this urge. Instead, turn off lights, turn the volume down on the television, turn music off and do something simple, if you can, like read a book, write in your journal or pet your kitty or doggy.
- Practice deep breathing. When I’m hypomanic I’m fast, fast, fast. I know it. I know that I’m fast-forwarding. I also know that if I force my body to slow down with deep breathing that can affect how fast my brain is moving.
- Sleep. If I allow my hypomania to block my sleep I know I’m going to get out of control very quickly so I know that sleep is essential for me. When I’m hypomanic, I have to take extra medication to sleep, but it’s worth it when I wake up the next day in a semi-normal state.
And while these are eight ways to calm a hypomania, really they are meant to all be used in conjunction or one after another. That said, don’t feel overwhelmed to do it all if that’s too much for you. If it makes sense, try one, see how it works, and then move on to another one if you can.
When You’re Calming a Hypomania, Remember . . .
Remember, you should also be reaching out for help if hypomania is a problem for you and this includes always informing your doctor of its presence. Because, after all, none of the above eight might work and you might find yourself in full-blown mania and then you may do something you later really regret (like putting yourself or someone else in danger). So while I’m all for self-help methods for dealing with hypomania, you also need to remember that you can’t fight its existence alone. Your healthcare team needs to help, too. It’s what they’re there for.
Inline image from Wikipedia.
Banner image by Brenda Clarke.
I found a trick that helped me. When hypo’ my driving used to verge on the darn-right dangerous. I would drive too fast. I tried deliberately slow. e.g In a 60MPH limit I would drive at a speed on exceeding 40mph. It felt enormously frustrating! However, after a while that enforced pace eventually calmed me down.
Hi Harry,
Great tip. Thank you.
– Natasha Tracy
Many thanks, Natasha, for your many years of effort. I cannot remember such a noticeable feeling of hypomania for quite some time. Usually there’s irritability that an increase in lithium kicks, but I “cleverly” discontinued lithium five months ago (with Pdoc OK after the fact). I’ll resume if need be, and freely acknowledge that need may be eventually, but I am switching docs and don’t see the new guy for nearly two weeks. Meanwhile I find myself outrageously revved by the invasion of Ukraine (geopolitics was the graduate school specialty that proved a little too stressful for my illness). Your suggestions are helpful and I am hoping to use my energy to my advantage tomorrow and clean the house from stem to stern: a little lemonade from the bipolar lemons. I really appreciate just having this space to work out my thinking.
When I’m hypomaniac I’ m not able to convince myself to calm down. I wany to go up and up… This is my first battle. If I could górce myself to even tryb to calm down, I souls say it wasn’t even hypomaniac. I guess I see it still do black and white.
If I could calm down, od even try to calm down hypomaniac I souls feel already cured…
But I won’t stop untill I get a facepalm.
How do you convince yourself?
Years of experience are a good convincer. And long ago I was lucky to have a terrific therapist who taught me that in the case of my illness, intellect knows better than instinct. In other words, if it feels too good — convince yourself to think twice! (Maybe even 18 times.) A therapist you trust can help you establish what they call “social rhythms” that will balance out your soul by helping you follow regular patterns of eating, sleeping, socializing. In the short term (until you can get in to see a doc) forget convincing: Just try to avoid causing yourself grief. Don’t sleep with anybody, don’t take any drugs that aren’t prescribed for you, don’t spend more than $100 dollars if it isn’t for groceries. Hang in there and get yourself better. Bipolar is not the best illness out there but it’s far from the worst, and you can help yourself stay well.
Thanks for this Natasha.
This is GREAT!!!!
Thank you for this website. It has been the most helpful for me over the last few years.
As a long time runner I have found that an intensive aerobic effort is the best way to calm down hypomania. An interval workout with close to an all out effort works well. Now for an hour or two right afterwards you might feel more hypomanic than you did before. But when the rush of endorphins wears off you will feel very relaxed and calmer. Its also going to help you sleep much better.
I m going through hypo mania right now. I didn’t know until I realized I was hyper sexual. I was too embarrassed to say something to my Doc, but decided to talk to him on the phone. He still wants me to come in and discuss cutting back on one of my antidepressants. I still feel uncomfortable talking about this with him, but he said he deals with this with his other patients.
My doctor recommended stopping my new med for a period of time and taking a lower dose because of some possible hypomania indicators (jittery, couldn’t sit still, “energizer bunny” effect as I call it). One day I did all my errands and then 6 loads of laundry, then the next I went to the gym for 3 hours and then took apart my bed, sold it on Craig’s list and brought in a new one within several hours. I am tempted to go against doctor’s orders though. The energy of hypomania is so seductive after a lengthy period of depression.
I got to see my pdoc today. I told him my concerns, well sort of. Mainly my concern regarding the extreme irritability, bordering on rage I’ve been feeling a lot lately (I can’t afford to lose my job with this sort of behaviour) my excessive cell phone use (I can’t afford to pay all of my bills because of it, I had to redeem a savings bond this month to help out. The bank has called me 6 times asking for a visa payment, Christmas is coming and I can’t afford to get into anymore debt!!!) but especially my concerns with sleep, not being able to sleep for more than 3 hours a night for a little over a month now yet still feeling energized, feeling sort of like a big ball of nervous energy. I told him the Valium wasn’t working at all and I don’t want to up it and develop an an addiction to it) I didn’t tell him about the hyper sexuality though because I was too embarrassed nor did I tell him about the suicidal ideation because pdocs tend to get a little freaked out about that sort of thing, besides I don’t feel suicidal nor do I have a plan, just a morbid it curiosity about it at this point. He wanted to give me a prescription for seroquel but I said no because it makes me gain too much weight so instead he allowed me to up the abilify (even though its more effective for the depressive side of things as far as antipsychotics go, and he told me to give melotonin a try. To call him again in two weeks if things don’t improve… I sure hope this helps. The worse things get the worse the ensuing depression will be. It took me a very long time to dig myself out of the last depressive episode and I DEFINATELY don’t want to go down that rabbit hole again!!!!!!!!!
Just a thought-Another thing that can help is to cut out caffeine completely. The more hypomanic I get, the more caffeine I want to drink, which has the effect of not only making hypomania worse, but also starts me rapid-cycling. When I realize I’m hypomanic, I cut all caffeine out and drink only water. (Which I should do all the time but I’m not perfect.)
I do most the above and still end up in the doctor’s office begging to have a med increase. But the self-help tips are useful to me in surviving until I can make an appointment! The doc gave me permission long ago to increase my dosage of Seroquel until I can see her, when I feel hypomania coming on. Even with being very self-aware and catching this stuff early, (I stopped driving, I stopped going to the store, I let my husband take over chores, I stop doing anything I don’t have to do) I still collapsed from exhaustion recently, partly due to rapid-cycling from hypomania to mild depression and back for weeks. I counted 4 mood changes in one hour…at 44, I’m tired of this B.S.-they really need to find a cure for this beast.
Over the last 3 years I’ve been learning more and more about bipolar and all that it entails. Coming to accept that I will be stuck with it indefinitely and will need to find better ways of coping with it than how I have in the past, that is if I want a better quality of life, has been a bitter pill to swallow.
Recognizing when something is becoming amiss and especially learning how to put the brakes on before hypomania has a chance to reach the point of full blown mania/psychosis has also become a little easier now to recognize that I have a better understanding of my particular warning signs, such as extreme irritability, bordering on rage, obsessiveness (focusing on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, every waking moment of the day for weeks at a time), ruminating over and over again about the past/present/future, what ifing things to death, surviving on only a couple of hours of sleep per night yet feeling refreshed and still raring to go, go, go, etc.
Lately I’ve rung up an $1,100 + cell phone bill, I try to make myself go to bed by 9 PM but invariably I wake up refreshed by mid night and can’t get back to sleep again, playing with makeup for 4 hours (I don’t usually wear any because I am allergic to most of it) playing loud music and dancing around my living room til 5:30 AM. I’ve also been irritated/agitated to the point of nearly being disciplined for this sort of behaviour at work (I ended up drinking 2 bottles of wine by myself when I got home that day to calm myself down and I am NOT a drinker and know better than to mix alcohol with meds) , I also have had a morbid obsession with the topic of suicide, there are two graphic suicide videos on the Internet that I’m constantly drawn to although I have no intention of actually killing myself. A family stresser was my trigger this time but none of my usual methods for coping are very effective at the moment. Luckily I get to see my pdoc this Friday… I know need help, (something I wasn’t able to recognize in the past). Hopefully all I need is a med adjustment. I really don’t want to end up in hospital again…
Thanks, Natasha.
Good suggestions. Most of them would work for me. I don’t do meditation — I really hate it, but doing art or hand work like knitting or embroidery really do help. They are my meditation. I’m going to print out what you say here, Natasha. I was extremely active and enthusiastic these past 3-4 weeks or longer. I wondered if it was hypomania. For the first time in my life I had an extended period where I was only sleeping 5-6 hours a night. I functioned fine, not tired at all. I did manage to sleep over 24 hours, at least once a week, and thought that with my new medication and elder years that was just my new sleep pattern. My pdoc agreed with me, reluctantly, though. Now, I’m crashing. All I want to do is sleep. I’m canceling a lot of my activities, the usual pattern of my whole life.It’s real hard to calm down hypomania. Tonight I’m going to a very fun political meeting I’ve organized. I know that will cheer me up. Only hope the good mood will last till tomorrow! And that I don’t get so overstimulated that I go back into hypomania. It is very difficult to perform/do the things you recommend, when in hypomania. I think the key, for me, is to do these things so that h.m. never comes up. Who knows for sure, though.
I have tried most of your suggestions, Natasha, with success occasionally. My biggest trouble is that for the past few years my hypomania comes with a great deal of anger. This means that I don’t have any patience for any of this stuff. I was going to ask you for suggestions for that, but I think the only likely solution is to wait until my rages subside; then I can countenance the methods you’ve listed. It is a real pain in the derrière.
Paul, I, too, sometimes have anger or rage with my hypomanias/manias and it is a horrible pain, for sure. If anyone has any advice on how to calm down, I’d love it. The old “breathe and count” thing does not work when I’m enraged and I can go from 0 to 100 in a fraction of a second. It was probably the most prominent feature of my illness when I was younger. It’s not as bad now, but occasionally the old rages come back.
Excellent suggestions. I find that paying attention to my breathing and relaxing muscles to help the most.
Someone told me about this program a few years back to take care of blue light issues. I promptly forgot it but I’m going to download it now. Seems to be safe and has good ratings so I’ll give it a go. https://justgetflux.com/
Hi Phil,
That will help somewhat (I’ve used it before. You can get it for your phone, too.) but there are so many sources of blue light that the glasses are much better :)
– Natasha Tracy
I have had it installed quite a long time and use it. I honestly cant say whether it works or not. I have no baseline.