The Beauty of Mind and Mania -- Looking At Things a Different Way (By Mr. Nathan Lasher)
Updated: Nov 7
(Disclaimer: The guest posts do not necessarily align with Philosocom's manager, Mr. Tomasio Rubinshtein's beliefs, thoughts, or feelings. The point of guest posts is to allow a wide range of narratives from a wide range of people. To apply for a guest post of your own, please send your request to mrtomasio@philosocom.com)
Article Synopsis by Mr. J. Igwe and Co.
Mr. Nathan Lasher's article "The Beauty of Mind and Mania — Looking at Things a Different Way" is a unique and introspective narrative that explores mania through a personal lens. This unconventional approach captures attention and helps readers gain insight into mania and cyclothymia in a way that clinical explanations alone often do not.
Strengths of the article include authenticity and personal voice, creative expression and conceptual exploration, encouraging an alternative perspective on mental health, and philosophical connections. The article's candid reflections allow readers to feel connected to his journey, providing a relatable entry point for those experiencing mental health challenges.
The article also encourages an alternative perspective on mental health by considering the potential beauty of heightened energy and creativity that mania can sometimes bring.
This reframing could be empowering for individuals experiencing mania by encouraging self-acceptance and showing that mental health conditions do not necessarily detract from one's humanity or value.
In conclusion, Mr. Lasher's article stands out for its originality, raw introspection, and philosophical musings on a complex mental health condition.
His ability to turn personal experiences into a narrative of self-understanding and acceptance resonates deeply, challenging the stigma often associated with mental health issues and opening up a conversation about individuality, intelligence, and acceptance.
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Part I: The Intuitive Awfulness of Awkward Ignorance
I would begin by stating I do understand the complexities of mania. My experiences might be unique to myself alone. My intent is a wishful thinking approach and hope that something about myself can be translated to another person.
I have often joked about feeling like Pandora’s box, full of wonderful and terrifying things. To ignore one aspect of "the box" within me, would be to ignore one of the very things which fuels my mania.
Mania can be very terrifying if you don’t actually understand what it is. So, my desire is to express what it means to me in hopes that it might be able to be translated to other people.
The Energetic Diversity of (Minor) Disorderly Expressions
First off it should be noted that mania can be expressed in different ways. Typical full bi-polar is the most common expression of it. The basis of such things ultimately boils down to an individual's psychological response to the mania.
The worse the response the more mania that is seen, typically, I’m assuming. I might occasionally do that from time to time.
My reasoning for doing it is simple. I might be very intellectually gifted but that part isn’t as relevant as the fact that I am also only human. My body works very similarly to other peoples with minor alterations.
Part II: Mania Made Me
My personal expression of bi-polar is a mild form of manic bi-polar. So gently expressed it actually took me taking my mania to a whole new level for it to correlate to an equal depressive state. It was experiencing it severely enough that I actually noticed. Originally I believe this was only a drug related expression as I had only ever noticed it from taking a mood stabilizer.
What’s natural about always being in a good mood and all of a sudden taking something which forces that away? So much to my doctor's dismay, I decided to go off the medication.
It was experiencing this more severely which made me realize some of the symptoms are things I had experienced periodically in the past. I’ll take a minute, momentarily, to simply tell you what the correct diagnosis is for myself. I didn't even go to medical school so I can only thank some acquired savant syndrome for introducing me to hypersensitivity.
I have a sensitivity at such a level I instantly understood my bi-polar without knowing the correct words to use. A less fun fact about what you get when you see raw intelligence without the knowledge to support it. For lack of a better term, I was "stupid intelligent".
(Mr. Rubinshtein's note: It is possible to be both intelligent and stupid at the same time as intelligence differs from wisdom. An intelligent person is stupid when he or she is not intellectually equipped for a certain situation.
No Brain, No Gain!
Arguably, it could serve as the reason for many intelligent people, including myself, to fail at being part of general society -- we fail to apply our eccentricity in a way that won't get us rejected by it. On the other hand, the wise fool knows exactly what they are doing -- they misapply themselves in their ideals).
As intelligence does play a real big part in the way I experience mania I can’t exactly talk about mania while ignoring that fact. I just hope that what my intelligence has allowed me to do can be used to help some other people.
I have to think that having cyclothymia might be similar to how other people experience it. Cyclothymia is considered a milder version of bi-polar. However, what a lot of sources don’t specify is that it can be any milder version of bi-polar. This includes the mild manic bi-polar kind. My depression, as I am so positive, never gets beyond minor symptoms from it mixing with mania.
A Successfully "Simple" Turbulent Translation
It mostly just translates to being mildly irritable and not being able to get comfortable in all but a few random in the moment positions. At least I can understand why my thoughts never went straight to depression when I’d experience either symptom.
It really was mixed because I could be excited and gloomy all at the same time. It most definitely caused changes in my entire temperament.
So, I most definitely have a very mild case of manic bi-polar. I however never touch the manic or even naturally hit the hypomanic qualifications part, due to my brain knowing how to process the mania.
Part III: The Wonder and Beauty of (Some) Weird Beans
It has led to an interesting concept, should psychiatrists be trying to stop the mania or simply lowering it to a more manageable level....
Once you understand what mania is and how to get more of it or stop it at any given point it becomes a rather beautiful thing. I have to say even my cyclothymia is mild. The closest to hypomanic I’ll get is occasionally not being able to mask it in my voice, or words if I am typing.
(Mr. Rubinshtein's note: Mr. Lasher is correct, as there is a link, according to research, between the bipolar disorder spectrum and creativity. Also, to quote Aristotle: "There is no great genius without some touch of madness").
To Handle This Responsibly (Unlike Politicians)
With me it has only ever been the result of one emotion in particular. For me the closest to a mood disorder it gets is the impact which excitement has on me. A particular fun emotion when you mix it with intelligence and ADHD.
What actually caused my most severe episode was jumping around from exciting thing to exciting thing. So if one of the most common parts of mania is happiness then why would we want to get rid of that. Shouldn’t we learn to responsibly use it?
I realize the danger of giving in that particular trigger, excitement. Perhaps the only one that I have. Most of the time I don’t feel much emotion beyond a mild feeling of them. I have learned to control how many neurotransmitters are released into my body at any given point as far as the emotional kind.
I also believe it was unknowingly learning to mask bi-polar symptoms which actually taught me to control it. I can make myself feel more emotional and have actual mania heard in my voice and a few meditative moments later and it is gone.
Part IV: Blindlessly Taming the Beast
In my case isn’t masking and controlling the same thing? Masking typically relates, in psychology, to one who is afflicted with some sort of psychotic condition and will cover up the symptoms so that other people aren’t aware of them. If mania is a symptom of bi-polar, who ever thought it wasn’t something we could learn to control?
When I was younger I discovered quickly people don’t take kindly to the mania, so I learned to shut that part of myself off. I’m the result of negative reinforcement, as adults were primarily the ones who had an issue with the mania.
I can’t always control feeling the mania. However, once I do feel it, I have the most stable experience with it in the world, again I am assuming. The part which I have discovered that I hope can lead to some good is where I actually feel mania returning to when I force myself not to feel it as much.
(Yes, I am implying mania might affect the brain but perhaps due to nothing in the brain itself. Neurotransmitters in the blood perhaps).
When I stop feeling that mania I can feel the source where it is coming from. Has anyone ever considered bi-polar was a heart disease? Bold statement, I know. but it’s a result of me trying to understand my own condition better.
(Mr. Rubinshtein's note: It is unclear why there is the connection between BD and heart disease, but that connection exists nonetheless. The philosophical, AKA, universalized explanation for such connections, relates to the philosophy of the mind, where our mental dimension affects our bodies as well. And as you can tell, the relations between mental health and physical health are not entirely clear, although a body of knowledge about it exists and develops over time.
This indicates that absolute knowledge, or omniscience, is not the only degree of necessary knowledge to solve our problems. In this case, we can already learn to promote a positive connection between mind and body regardless).
Sorting The Sonic Springs of The Savant
Again, I only have the savant syndrome, acquired by my accident, to give credit too for me being able to do this. Savantism, as I experience it, really isn’t anything other than hypersensitivity to what is there. It's a product of neurological brain damage.
So the fact I "understand it all" isn’t the result of anything I learned in a class but, rather, me trying to find words to explain myself with, to deliver what I already seem to know.
The only word I can find to describe myself as I learn to embrace every part of me is eccentric. And I don’t mean that in a famous person kind of way. I mean that simply my way of thinking is not normal and I’m ok with that.
Mania with all the rest might be why I’m eccentric but it is my desire now to learn how to best express those eccentricities. Mania is definitely the most driving factor in regards to that.
I can always take my mania higher, but usually it is seen more as a temperament disorder. My entire baseline and temperament will shift with my mood changes. The problem with me has never been moods rising and falling far from it.
Part V: Discarding Shame -- All Sorts of Shameless Solutions!
It also mainly affects my energy levels. I can deal with the mania state. Higher levels are no different than lower levels once you understand them. To me, all mania means is creative thinking and a more positive energetic level which I enjoy existing in.
(Mr. Rubinshtein's note: In the name of understanding reality better, we must question traditional forms of thinking, so we would open ourselves to new perspectives, which might be more true than their previous counterparts.
From what we can learn from Mr. Lasher is that people with mental health problems/deviations shouldn't necessarily be ashamed of these, when in reality it can help them get ahead in life, be more creative, and look at things in new ways.
As the head of Philosocom, I purposefully look for refreshing perspectives such as those acquired by Mr. Lasher's eccentric thinking).
So, to whoever reads this, I only have one desire: I hope that someone can correlate mania to the heart and use it to help other people. I believe my whole purpose in curing anything is to simply share my experiences and intelligence with the world as much as possible and let people who are actually educated on the matter find good use of what I know.
A Final Fortress of Non-Nihilistic Nuggets
I’ll just leave the site's readers with one nugget of wisdom I have. You control mania by controlling your heart rate and breathing.
Assuming what I said was more intelligent than crack pot please at least think about what I am saying. Could mania be nothing more than too many neurotransmitters being sent from the heart at the same time? My idea for a better fix to bi-polar might be to utilize a pacemaker of sorts to help control heart rate.
As mania speeds this up and depression slows this down does it not make sense that they both come from the same place. Would better explain how mixed episodes are possible.
If the heart were to issue mania and depression at the same time into your blood and your blood passes through your brain so is it too far of a leap to consider it is a heart related issue.
As everyone’s heart rates are different does this not explain why bi-polar is seen in so many different ways. Or why any given thing is seen so differently. Different hearts and neurological features. As I stated near the beginning I am not a doctor and my intelligence is all I have to go on. I just hope that intelligence means something.
I especially like using it towards things I am not familiar with, sometimes.
My desire, once again, is to simply get you to think about things in a different way.
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