I’ve had three acute manic episodes in my life: the first two were in 1996 and 2000. For many years after that I was doing ok. Then I had another episode in 2021.
It’s been nearly four years since the last one. I don’t know whether I’ll have any more acute manic episodes. I certainly hope not, but I don’t want to be overconfident.
There are links below to some posts I wrote closer to the time of my episodes. I’m glad I wrote them because there are details in there I wouldn’t have remembered. I do basically remember all it though, except for the few hours I missed in 1996 because of medication-induced memory loss.
1st Episode: 1996
After some weeks of increasingly errative behaviour, my husband took me to a nearby hospital on the 11th June 1996. I was diagnosed, admitted and put on medication there. After one night in hospital I was sent home to recover with family support. I wrote the following about it while I was recovering and soon enough afterwards to remember it well:
| Title | Approx date written |
| The Reason For The Hope I Have: My Experience With Mental Illness | 15 July, 1996 |
| My Personal Experience With Manic-Depression (Bipolar Disorder) | 25 November, 1997 |
| Letter of Complaint About Treatment In Psychiatric Unit | 1 August, 1996 |
2nd Episode: 2000
In the Autumn of 2000, after I’d been well for while, I started getting manic again. I was somewhat aware, at least at first, and hoping I could stave it off, but I kept getting worse. On the 5th December I was given an ultimatum by my psychiatrist and my husband: either I needed to consent to taking medication or I would be hospitalised again. I wrote about my 2nd episode a couple of years afterwards:
| Title | Approx date written |
| My Personal Experience With Manic-Depression (Bipolar Disorder) – 12/05/02 Update | 5 December, 2002 |
3rd Episode: 2021
By 2021 I’d been well for over two decades. Late that year my husband started getting concerned that I was getting ill but again, I was hoping to stave it off.
I went to see a psychiatrist in November who said I should come back in a few weeks. I appreciated that she didn’t push medication on me that day, but otherwise I was very unhappy with her (there’s a post below about that).
In early December, in spite of my husband’s concerns, I added a mental health update (below) called 21 Years Today And Counting. It was about how pleased I was to have gone that long without another episode. Unfortunately my husband’s concerns were justified and, just eight days later I updated that post to say I was about to go to a psychiatrist with my husband to discuss taking on mental health medication again.
All the posts below were written during my 3rd acute manic episode.
| Title | Approx date written |
| Another Disappointing Psychiatrist | 23 November, 2021 |
| 21 Years Today And Counting | 7/15/17 December, 2021 |
| Mental Health Update: December 15 Psychiatrist Visit | 16 December 2021 |
| More about the Evening of December 15 | 16 December 2021 |
| Welcome to my world | 17 December, 2021 |
| Being Wrong Can Hurt People! [About my Psychiatrist Visits] | 19 December, 2021 |
| Hope on the Horizon | 23 December, 2021 |
| Mental Health Update – Late January 2022 | 27 January, 2022 |
The following list shows every post on my website that I’ve categorised as related to Mental Health.