How does hypermnesia manifest itself?

People with bipolar disorder typically experience extreme mood swings that range from depression to mania. There are different types of mania that can occur with bipolar disorder, and some people may have a lesser form of mania known as hypomania. Other disorders may also include periods or symptoms of hypomania, such as seasonal affective disorder, postpartum psychosis, and schizoaffective disorder.

General concept

To begin with, it is necessary to clearly understand that this disease is a purely psychological disorder. In scientific terms, hypomania is excessive activity of a person for a long time, which is not typical for him in a normal state. Experts consider this form to be mild mania, which is amenable to qualified treatment.

Main symptoms

People suffering from hypomania are easily distinguishable in a crowd and company - you just need to look a little closer at the person. There are some symptoms of hypomania that most clearly show others a possible psychological problem in a particular individual. These symptoms are considered:

• talkativeness beyond measure;
• too active in society;
• zeal for professional activity beyond the usual;
• inability to express thoughts;
• strong appetite that has not been observed before;
• hypersexuality, not typical in the normal state;
• a tendency to such harmful habits as alcohol and the desire to spend money on purchases.

People suffering from such an illness have too much energy, which bursts them from the inside and requires an urgent release. Such people seem to be shaking from the inside with impatience, and sometimes the trembling becomes even noticeable, and is expressed in the form of twitching of the eyelids and trembling of the hands.

Types of disease

Having understood that hypomania is a mental disease, you also need to know about other features of the disease. Depending on how the pathology develops, treatment is prescribed. Based on the nature of the symptoms and the manifestation of signs, the following types of disease are distinguished:

1. Pure hypomania.
2. Hidden hypomania.

Each of these types has its own characteristics. First, let's look at the pure form of the disease and describe the behavior of some patients:

• a person constantly strives to occupy himself with work, becomes obsessed with some task or process, while he really cannot concentrate and is constantly distracted by extraneous things, because of this he becomes irritable and nervous, sometimes expressing dissatisfaction very loudly;
• excessive desire to communicate even with those who avoid this communication, an obsessive desire to advise, teach, make fun of someone, despite the fact that people irritate such a person, he strives to communicate more with them, which leads to an exacerbation of symptoms even more; Often such communication is characterized by familiarity;
• the patient feels a strong desire to do all the work quickly and completely, and although there is not enough time for this, he tries to do everything, as a result he does nothing until the end, and frequent jumping from one action to another only further increases his dissatisfaction;
• an inadequate reaction to criticism and excessive optimism also characterize such patients, while the person begins to behave frivolously and judge everything absolutely superficially.

After reading these points, many of us will understand that we have more than once met a person with similar indicators, but did not think about the fact that he might be sick. But there is also a hidden form of the disease.

In principle, it is no different from the pure form, but emotions are expressed less clearly and aggressively. The person is not so conflicted, and many do not see any problem in him. He seems to be wearing rose-colored glasses, and all problems seem small to him. The point is that there are healthy people with this type of character, and there are patients with hypomania who need help. Our task is to see the difference and help in time.

Classification

There are different types of disorders of this mental function. First of all, these are two large groups, which are divided into many small ones: memory disorders include dysmnesia (quantitative) and paramnesia (qualitative).

Quantitative memory impairment (dysmnesia)

Hypermnesia

A condition in which memories of many events from the past are pathologically accurately preserved to the smallest detail. And everything would be fine, but they have no meaning for the present. In normal development this is usually forgotten. Why is that bad? Firstly, unnecessary old memories clog up space in the memory storage and thereby prevent new ones from gaining a foothold. Therefore, with hypermnesia, current information is almost not recorded. Secondly, the logical sequence of events is disrupted.

Example. After a holiday at sea, it is not the pleasant moments that are remembered (the beach, bright tropical vegetation, new acquaintances, delicious food, etc.), but such minor nuances as the interior of the hotel room, the clothes of the service staff, the particulars of the flight, etc. When In various pathologies, hypermnesia takes the form of partial, i.e. selective. In particular, oligophrenics are excellent at remembering sequences of numbers, and they do it without any purpose.

Hypomnesia (holey, slotted, perforated memory)

A condition in which a person only partially recalls information from the past

As a rule, he is able to remember only what is constantly repeated in his life and is personally important to him. But historical dates, news, old acquaintances, terms, names - all this is consigned to oblivion

Example. A person accurately reproduces a multi-digit phone unlock code, because

does this every day and it is important to him. But he won’t be able to say in what year serfdom was abolished or what the name of his first teacher was.

Amnesia

A condition characterized by the inability to remember a certain period of time. Depending on how long the period occurs, several more subtypes are distinguished within this disorder:

• retrograde - events prior to some traumatic factor (severe stress, traumatic brain injury, etc.) are forgotten; they can span minutes and years;
• anterograde - there are no memories of what happened immediately after the traumatic factor;
• congrade - loss of what occurs during a protracted illness accompanied by impaired consciousness;
• anterograde (complete, total) - everything that is associated with a protracted, serious illness and traumatic factor is forgotten, as well as events that occurred before this.

Depending on which function is impaired, this disorder is divided into several subtypes:

• fixation - the inability to remember and reproduce information leads to disorientation (a person does not understand where he is, who surrounds him, how he should behave);
• anekphoria - the inability to consciously, voluntarily remember without prompting.

Classification depending on the flow:

• progressive - an increasing disorder explained by Ribot's law (see below);
• stationary - persistent memory loss;
• regressive - gradual restoration of forgotten events;
• retarded (delayed) - events are not restored in chronological order; some period may be omitted for a long time, and then remembered many years later.

Depending on the object, amnesia occurs:

• affectogenic (catathymic) - occurs as a result of a psychotraumatic situation, after a strong shock, all the events that accompany a nervous breakdown are forgotten;
• hysterical - the result of a psychopathic syndrome, some individual moments are forgotten;
• scotomization - conscious forgetting of events that cause pain or traumatize;
• palimpsests (alcoholic) - loss of what happened during intoxication.

Related article: Amnesia

What is the danger of the disease

“Hypomania” is a psychological concept meaning hyperactivity. Some believe that this is a real gift, because a person has a lot of energy to work and carry out many processes. But the problem is that a patient suffering from this disease cannot correctly assess the situation and often overestimates his abilities. As a result, he loses strength, his state becomes apathetic, and all this leads to the following consequences:

• loss of energy due to lack of sleep, which leads to decreased memory, lack of concentration, and the appearance of “fog” in the head;
• excessive food consumption and a general lack of regime lead to an exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract - a person begins to gain weight or lose weight;
• the tendency to consume alcohol and the craving for excessive wastefulness sooner or later entail financial difficulties, and the patient begins to become depressed, which further aggravates the situation, since there is no longer enough strength or desire to correct it;
• after the period of the described emotional upsurge comes a period of falling mood, which can last for a very long time, sometimes for years;
• Inappropriate behavior of the patient leads to problems at work, aggravation of relationships with friends and relatives.

Most often, people in creative professions suffer from such symptoms. After a period of complete inspiration, albeit unnatural, they turn to depression, begin to drink too much, get sick and lose the desire to create. And an attempt to regain their former high often leads them to the use of drugs. In a vain attempt to artificially create a rosy picture of the world around them, they become drug addicts and sink even deeper into the quagmire of psychological problems.

Diagnostics

You will need to consult not only a psychiatrist, but also the following specialists:

• endocrinologist;
• expert in narcology;
• neurologist.

Standard laboratory tests are carried out only when necessary, as they themselves do not provide diagnostic value. The main diagnostic measure in this case is a visual examination of the patient, with the collection of personal and family history. Since the patient cannot always answer the doctor’s questions adequately, in most cases the examination is carried out in the presence of relatives or close people of the patient.

Additionally, the following diagnostic measures can be carried out:

• CT or MRI of the brain;
• blood chemistry;
• hormonal studies.

Based on the results of the study, the doctor can determine an accurate diagnosis and prescribe effective treatment.

Treatment

While a person is in a stage of increased activity, it is rarely possible to begin treatment. After all, it seems to the patient that everything is going great for him. Most often, treatment begins in the depression period. Treatment options include:

• complete rest and prolonged sleep of the patient;
• relaxing baths and soothing teas;
• drugs that normalize the hormonal state of the body;
• sessions with a psychotherapist;
• antidepressants such as Fluvoxamine.

Hypomania is treated in a variety of ways, and the type of therapy depends on the individual's individual condition.

Causes

Normally, periods of productivity and emotional uplift alternate with periods of rest and replenishment of spent energy. Sometimes, for one reason or another, it is not possible to switch from activity to proper rest, and a person is constantly in emotional arousal. Such a mental uplift can occur as a result of abuse of coffee, strong tea, energy drinks or nootropics (brain stimulants).

Signs of hypomania can occur against the background of hormonal disorders, anorexia or therapeutic fasting, or taking antidepressants. The cause may be organic brain damage of an infectious or non-infectious nature, as well as bipolar affective disorder.