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ePaper created 2014-12-04, 01:15:59 | version 1.33.01
23 Your Episode Your episode was probably similar to my episode(s). For weeks, the people around you were able to tell that something was wrong with you, but you were completely unable to pick up on it yourself. Your ego probably inflated, you might have been delusional about who you were or what you could do, and you might have experienced some paranoia. This is all completely normal for a serious bipolar condition. People such as myself, who are Bipolar I, experience these symptoms to an extremely serious degree when we have an episode. Sometimes a hospital visit is the only thing that will snap us out of our trip down the rabbit hole. That's okay though, because the fact that there is help in the first place is a beautiful thing. For less fortunate people throughout history, there have not been any options. In this time, in this country, we are truly blessed! Hopefully you were not violent during your episode. Violence changes the whole spectrum of your experience. If you were violent, it is possible that you were arrested. If you were arrested, then after you are released from the hospital you may be going to jail. How do I know this I was violent during one of my episodes and I was subsequently arrested and tried for these acts after I was released from the hospital. I was lucky, though, because I never had to spend any time in jail thanks to a nice letter from my psychiatrist. With my parents support, the judge decided that I had learned my lesson and the charges were dropped. But jail can happen, and so do your best not to be violent. While TV and movies might have you believe that people get off the hook when they have a mental illness, this is not completely true, so watch it. During your episode you were probably impaired due to lack of sleep. When a bipolar patient is revving up to their eventual break, they usually have been influenced by several nights of little to no sleep. The wonderful thing about going to the hospital is that this long string of sleepless nights will fall by the wayside. You'll finally be able to sleep as much as you would like. The staff will provide medication that will calm you down and enable you to relax the way