Bright: A silent short film on Mania

Mania is part of Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depressive Psychosis in the olden days).  It is an episodic condition characterized by excessive happiness/irritability and increased energy/activities.  In addition, there could also be agitation, distractibility, racing thoughts, excessive speech, reduced sleep, grandiose ideas, and risk-taking behaviour such as rash driving, overspending or sexually promiscuous behaviour.  It can alternate with depressive periods, although this is not always necessary; a single episode of Mania still qualifies as Bipolar Disorder.  

Persons undergoing a manic episode may be able to describe the euphoric feeling of ‘feeling on top of the world’, with no need to rest or sleep.  They feel highly energetic, and often this energy is directed towards purposeless activities that can rile up people they live with.  They can sing, dance, make jokes, and quote poems with rhyming words, or on the other hand, cry for no reason, and become very angry over trivial issues, and even assault others.  In severe cases, psychotic features such as grandiose delusions may set in, which results in the person believing that he/she is rich beyond means, or has some special abilities, or that they are very important individuals, such as presidents or celebrities. 

With all this going on, the feature that makes Mania the most challenging condition to manage is that the person is unaware that he/she is mentally ill and needs treatment.  But when treatment is given, the symptoms become more manageable, and with the recovery of insight, preventive treatment can be continued on a long-term basis.

Credits
Featuring: Aadya Pawar
Writing/Direction/Editing: Deepak Pawar

[Currently only showing in Festival Circuits]

In this short educative video on Mania, I have attempted to show some of the above features as accurately as possible.  I have experimented with images/sounds that best depict the misplaced joyousness and inner turmoil of the person experiencing Mania.  The speed is deliberately enhanced and the music is set at a frenetic pace to convey the feelings of restless energy in the person.  The expressions/emotions displayed by the actress are similar to those that I have observed in patients with Mania over the years. 

If you feel dizzy, irritable, excited or exhausted while watching this video, that’s just down to the condition itself; the ideas is to give you a feel of mental state of the person experiencing a manic episode.  

As with other short films on Depression and Anxiety, I invite your constructive comments/suggestions and ratings/reviews at Bright on IMDb.

Please also see my patient education video on Bipolar Disorder.

For a more professional information on Mania and Bipolar Disorder (under Mood Disorders), please go through the lectures.

Resources:

Background music: Book Me 2 Flirt-Max McFerren; Busy City-TrackTribe; This is Not Drum and Bass-True Cuckoo

Mania quote: https://www.youthdynamics.org/18-quotes-illustrating-life-with-bipolar-disorder/

Bipolar disorder statistics: https://www.business-standard.com/content/press-releases-ani/one-out-of-150-suffer-from-bipolar-disorder-in-india-70-percent-left-untreated-though-it-is-treatable-122090700775_1.html

My spouse’s mood changes all the time... Is she/he BIPOLAR..?!

Bipolar affective disorder (BPAD - previously called Manic Depressive Psychosis) is a complex mood disorder characterized by the lows of depression and the highs of mania, and everything in between.  

More prevalent in the higher socioeconomic population, it is a chronic, potentially lifelong illness that needs constant care and attention.  People with BPAD are prone to mood swings, although not the circumstantial dysphoria and irritability that people usually make the mistake of attributing to the illness (as in labelling someone 'bipolar').  That is to say, the mood changes occur subtly over several days, and not dramatically within minutes. 

BPAD, to me, underscores the fact that everything in the universe is in a state of balance: too much or too little of anything is unsustainable.  

So it is with the human body and mind.  Too much of blood sugar is termed diabetic, and too little, hypoglycemic.  Too much of sadness is depressive, and too much of happiness is manic.  

BPAD often affects creative people, and patients even attribute some of their creative outbursts to the early phases of mania when thoughts are racing through the mind, and there is a restless need to create.  

Everyone experiences highs and lows of mood, but the extremes of BPAD affect quality of life and relationships, and therefore require intervention.  Indeed, if a patient develops mania, it is the family that seeks professional help because the patient lacks insight into the seriousness of his/her mental condition. 

I talk about the signs and symptoms, risks associated, and the treatment of BPAD in this video in three languages:

English: https://youtu.be/l2tpxeEiOHg

Hindi: https://youtu.be/qk4D5unqe28

Kannada: https://youtu.be/icB_KSBpDWk

Also read my review of the book on BPAD, Em and the Big Hoom.

Resources:

Background music: 7th Dimension, 

Pictures: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8451/7996124566_5b4d08ecaf_z.jpg

Books conversations: Em and the Big Hoom & Sepia Leaves (mental health themed books)

I am considering both these books together because they deal with the same genre: mental illness; and also because I read them back to back.

Jerry Pinto, who made his mark with Surviving Women presents this tale of his mother who had mental illness.  From the colourful descriptions of her condition, it appears that she suffered from bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) - a kind of mood disorder characterised by mood swings from depression to mania.  It further appears that she had a particular type called rapidly cycling BPAD - mood swinging between the two extremes at a rapid speed, or perhaps a mixed affective state - both depressive and manic phases co-existing in one episode of the illness.  

In any case, it is mental illness, and as with all mental illnesses, there are a lot of idiosyncrasies and eccentricities to cope with.  The care-givers - her family, struggle through the various phases of her mood, often finding themselves at the receiving end of her abrasive behaviour.

Inevitably, the apathy, the casual attitude, and the sheer lack of appropriate services equipped to deal with mental illness is also presented, which highlight the poor state of mental healthcare in India.  

Even more inevitably, electro-convulsive therapy, that hugely misunderstood and often misrepresented mode of management is also held up to scrutiny, not least because of the way it was administered in her case - without the knowledge of the family.

It is worth mentioning here that when used in a controlled and monitored environment, under general anaesthesia, with muscle relaxation, and in the ECT suite, it remains the treatment of choice for conditions such as severe depression.

Nevertheless, Pinto's writing style is unusual, but engaging.  He presents the main character as she was, without any explanation as to her unusual behaviour, and without trying to glorify or vilify the travails that he and the other members of the family go through.

ꙮꙮ

Sepia Leaves by Amandeep Sandhu, once again considers the author's mother's mental illness - only this time it is schizophrenia.

He presents the signs and symptoms of the condition through the descriptions of his mother's emotional upheavals and behaviour.  Also brought out, simultaneously, is her strained relationship with her husband - the author's father - who, to ensure the upbringing of the author as a child, makes the cardinal error of bringing home a maid servant.  This is when the signs of his mother's illness really burst forth, with her heaping verbal and physical abuses on both her husband as well as the maid.

Suspicions, or paranoid-persecutory delusions, characteristic of schizophrenia, are evident in these descriptions, along with odd mannerisms and catatonic postures.  

A memorable sequence of the father's unexpected death and the lack of any substantial reaction to this by the mother is used as the beginning and as a recurring theme throughout the book.  These and other moments are narrated quite simply, unlike Em and the Big Hoom, but like it, without the need for any emotional over-involvement.

But then it is the content which matters here, and it is that you should look for in this work.

ꙮꙮ

Both these works are worth going for if you are interested in mental illness - as a professional, as a carer, or indeed as a service user.  Reading them, I hope, would also help reduce stigma associated with being mentally ill, and encourage people in distress to reach out. 

I also hope that ultimately, mental health themed literature such as these would help build mental resilience in patients and carers alike.  I have explored the theme of resilience in a similar narrative of multiple mental illnesses in a family in the book, Lake Amidst The Seas.

Please watch/share my patient education videos on these topics:

Depression: https://youtu.be/8cYwQANYAy4

Antidepressants: 
https://youtu.be/tKBWRvifYRk [English]
https://youtu.be/iVUi79gp-gQ [Hindi]
https://youtu.be/RezGamhA_Ak [Kannada]

Schizophrenia:
https://youtu.be/3US7KzMth54 [English]
https://youtu.be/kIVGOX_6zFY [Hindi]
https://youtu.be/ewpwJSq9qr4 [Kannada]





Image sources:
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334380612i/13601144._UY475_SS475_.jpg
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1265348892l/7695190.jpg