I guess most of these she exhibits although I don't find her easily frustrated nor is her behavior erratic or uninhibited. I have no idea about increased libido. She does have weight loss, talkativeness, not sure about irresponsibility. She says she can go three days with no sleep or food and it's not a problem.
Can these manic episodes last for six months? Because she's been pretty bad for six months although the past week has been off the charts, that I know of. I've been dodging her phone calls and she leaves these long rambling unintelligible messages that I just delete but today she came to my office and although I made her leave, when I went out to lunch she was out in the parking lot waiting for me in her car.
Actually being in her physical presence, added to those crazy phone messages is what finally scared me enough to try to do something.
Thank you.
“Because she’s been pretty bad for six months although the past week has been off the charts, that I know of. I’ve been dodging her phone calls and she leaves these long rambling unintelligible messages that I just delete but today she came to my office and although I made her leave, when I went out to lunch she was out in the parking lot waiting for me in her car.”
“Unintelligible messages” sounds like possible “word salad” which can be a symptom of psychosis (which my wife experienced for two weeks last month during her most recent hospitalization).
Here is Wiki on schizophasi, or “word salad”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophasia
In the mental health field, schizophasia, commonly referred to as word salad, is confused, and often repetitious, language that is symptomatic of various mental illnesses.[1]
It is usually associated with a manic presentation and other symptoms of serious mental illnesses, such as psychosis, including schizophrenia. It is characterized by an apparently confused usage of words with no apparent meaning or relationship attached to them. In this context, it is considered to be a symptom of a formal thought disorder. In some cases schizophasia can be a sign of asymptomatic schizophrenia; e.g. the question “Why do people believe in God?” could elicit a response consisting of a series of words commonly associated with religion or prayer but strung together with no regard to language rules.
Schizophasia should be contrasted with another symptom of cognitive disruption and cognitive slippage involving certain idiosyncratic arrangements of words. With this symptom, the language may or may not be grammatically correct depending on the severity of the disease and the particular mechanisms which have been impacted by the disease.
The American diagnostic codes, from the DSM-IV, do not specifically code for this disorder although they include it as a symptom under the diagnosis of schizophrenia.[2]
I'm not a psychiatric care professional, or anything - I can only relate what happened with someone close to me. I guess a person can be in a manic state for a very long time, if they don't receive treatment. The person I know was not herself (but not drastically so) for months, until she went through a period where she basically didn't sleep for about a week, and then her behavior got much worse.
Ultimately she spent about 2 weeks in a behavioral care facility, where they tried various kinds of medication and then she was released. I assume because the insurance ran out, because she certainly wasn't herself.
She did start seeing a psychiatric doctor pretty regularly and things got better, but she still goes through cycles of ups and downs.
Like I said, I'm not a professional, but be prepared for a long road ahead.